Nasty smell in washing machine.

I have the same problem, intermittently, with my dishwasher. It's not the filter, I don't use liquid, I use the hot wash, we've checked the outside drain into which it empties ... any ideas?

We have top loading tub washers in the U.S. and it only seems since the popularity of front loading ones have I heard of a problem with smelly washers.

We had a really foul smell coming from our dishwasher, then it stopped working and water started to seep onto the floor. When the engineer came to fix it he found a hole chewed in the water pipe and the incinerated remains of another mouse which had been chewing the wiring. They had come into the kitchen through a tiny hole in the skirting board. Think our two old cats must have lost their sense of smell as neither of them had shown any interest in the mousey pong.

When we bought our house, the washing machine smelled horrible. I then realised that was the smell I could smell on their clothes when we were viewing. I found out it was the fact that if you keep washing clothes on low temp, bacteria forms and nothing removes it. I poured two bottles of bleach in it, ran it on 90 degrees, but eventually gave up as I did not want my clothes to smell. Bought a new machine!

I understand that the low temperatures used today do not destroy the bacteria - as detergents work as low as 30 degrees can be the reason for the smells.
I have used bleach with great success. Only twice in 4 years!

There is a product called Service Engineer which is brilliant. I use it monthly ( sometimes longer gaps)in washing machine & dishwasher. Really keeps everything clean. I get it from Lakeland but shops stock it too.

I agree with swapping to powder from liquid detergent. Much less messy and the detergent drawer doesn't gunk up like my old one did when using liquids.

I tend to use Lidl own brand powder detergents. They're brilliant.

Envious Top loaders waste a lot of water in comparison to front loaders. Not much good if you're on a water meter, which we're not now, thankfully.

I think some people don't realise the need to keep the door open for about an hour after a wash to let the seal dry out properly. My SIL was unaware until I cleaned the machine out for her and hers hasn't been smelly since.

Vinegar in soap dispenser..wash at 90 degrees

White vinegar in the drawer helps also zoflora disinfectant in the drum on a boil wash worked for me.

I found a pack of salmon in the boot of my car - the sell by date was two years old. thought I'd better throw it away... No smell as it was blister packed, fortunately.

we had this problem and i was advised to use soda crystals when ever i did a wash. It worked no more nasty niffs!!!!

Just put some crystals in with your detergent, apparently they deodorize as well as acting like a water softening preventing limescale build up in your machine and pipes.

Bad smells can come from the drainage hose being too low where it fits onto the u-bend under the sink. If the hose dips down (forming a 'u' shape), then gunk can settle in there. When the machine is switched on, the pump kicks in and a bad 'eggy' pong comes out. I corrected mine by fitting a little metal hook under the sink (just screwed it into the back of the unit), then tied a bit of string around the flexible hose and pulled the hose up so that it's higher than the u-bend. I hope all that makes sense and hope it helps! The drainage hose is usually grey and simply pushes onto a fitting on the u-bend, btw.

I have a Zanussi washing m/c. No smell so far, but thanks to helpful posts on here, I shall check out the filter (cheers Pompa) which till now I didn't know existed, and also change to powder. Btw, when I say 'I' will check out the filter, I mean the OH of course

My machine became smelly when I was using an 'eco' product. Even after hot 60 degree washes. Reverted to biological products. Problem solved.

As I said on another chat about the same problem, my washing machine engineer told me to buy the cheapest biological powder I could find and do a hot 90 degree wash with it every couple of months or so, much better and cheaper than the special machine cleaning products.

Before I go on holiday I add a little Zoflora to the dish washer and washing machine. I put a bleach tablet broken up on each of the hand basin drains so that any water in the bends is kept clean.

I no longer have a tumble drier, but found a box with some in, so put them in a net bag, tied it up, and just put it in the machine when machine not in use, - did leave the machine smelling really good, so i have continued to do that. { doHave to remenber that its in there before i start chucking stuff in the machine though}

Left it a bit out, should have been , found a box with some tumble drier sheets in,

I had the same problem and realised it happened only when I used Bold liquid. Changed to other brands and have no problem now

i use tesco gel washing stuff - lavender - and it's fine. i also use their lavender fabric conditioner.
before i used the gel i used powder and had to keep taking the drawer out to wash it - used to clog up. don't get this problem with gel.
sometimes the door is closed after use, sometimes it isn't but, so far, i've not had any nasty smells.
oh, and i wash at 40 degrees [or 60 degrees for towels and sheets] - don't think a 30 degree wash gets things clean!!

Because we routinely use 30 and 40 degree washes these days, these are not enough to stop the growth of mould. A 60 wash with bleach stops the mould growth, for a while.

Try that, every so often, and [speaking as a microbiologist in my past career] I keep the door slightly ajar to avoid non-aerobic organisms growing in the drum...

The only time that my washing machine door is closed is when the machine is running.It is only run on 40 degrees and I have never had any problems.

I stopped using fabric conditioner years ago and although it took months to get it out of all of my clothes. One less item for me to buy.

Mine had a terrible pong a while ago even though it's a new machine. I ran a 60' wash with bleach and no more nasty aromas since, probably about a year! I only wash at 30' and 40' using washing liquid and fabric conditioner.

For a bad smell try leaving tripe to thaw on top of kitchen cupboard for 3 days (it was for the dogs)

I used bleach in the dishwasher at work and that worked. Has anyone tried using Listerine? There are quite a lot of tips for it online saying that half a cup in a hot wash works.

I was told that ecological liquid washing products were to blame as they cause sludge to build up.