00:00That musty smell in your laundry isn't your clothes, and it isn't your detergent.
00:04It's a strip of black film growing in a fold of rubber you have never once pulled back.
00:08Same shade of grime, whether you buy the fancy machine cleaner or the cheap one,
00:12because neither of them reaches the spot it lives in.
00:15A repair guy will charge you a hundred bucks to tell you the door boot is contaminated,
00:19or a salesman will nudge you toward a whole new machine for a thousand.
00:23The actual fix costs about three dollars and takes 15 minutes.
00:27Today, I'm going to show you where the mold hides, the mix that kills it,
00:30the little trap door at the bottom that's probably full of coins and sludge,
00:34and the two-second habit that stops it from ever coming back.
00:37Go to your washer and pull the rubber gasket toward you,
00:41the big flexible ring around the door opening.
00:43Fold the lip back and look underneath it in the bottom curve.
00:46That dark, slimy band you're looking at is it.
00:50That's the smell.
00:51It was never in the drum, it was hiding in a pocket you can't see with the door shut.
00:55But here's why it grows there and nowhere else.
00:58The fold is a permanently wet, dark, sealed cave.
01:01After every wash, a little water pools in the bottom of the boot, and just sits.
01:06Your high-efficiency machine uses barely any water and runs cool to save energy,
01:10so it never gets hot enough to sterilize anything.
01:13And it leaves a thin film of detergent and fabric softener behind on the rubber.
01:19That film is food.
01:21Warm, damp, dark, and fed daily.
01:24That's not a washing machine anymore, that's a Petri dish with a spin cycle.
01:28The stuff growing there is biofilm,
01:30a colony of mold and bacteria that builds its own slimy shield,
01:35which is exactly why a quick wipe with water does nothing.
01:38You have to break the shield chemically.
01:40So here's the $3 fix.
01:42Skip the specialty gels for now.
01:44Mix one cup of plain white vinegar,
01:46one cup of water,
01:47and a teaspoon of dish soap in a spray bottle.
01:50A gallon of white vinegar runs about $3 or $4,
01:52and you'll use a splash of it.
01:54Spray the whole gasket down.
01:56Get right into the fold and let it sit for 10 minutes
01:59so the acid can eat through that slimy shield.
02:02Then take an old toothbrush and scrub the fold.
02:04Working around the whole ring,
02:06the dish soap cuts the greasy softener residue
02:08while the vinegar kills the growth.
02:10Wipe it out with a rag,
02:12and for stubborn black staining that won't budge,
02:14this is the one time a thick bleach gel earns its keep.
02:18Smear it on the stain,
02:19walk away for a few hours,
02:21come back and rinse.
02:22That's it.
02:25Two things to sort out before you scrub,
02:27because they change what you're doing.
02:29First, if you press on that rubber and it feels stiff,
02:32cracked,
02:33or you can see a split or a tear in the boot,
02:36no amount of cleaning fixes that.
02:38A torn of bellows has to be replaced,
02:41and the part runs 40 to 80 dollars if you do it yourself.
02:45Second,
02:46if the black staining is deep in the rubber
02:48and won't lift after bleach,
02:49that's cosmetic, not dangerous.
02:51It's dyed the rubber, not living on it anymore.
02:54Sort those two out first,
02:56so you're not scrubbing a seal that needs swapping.
02:58Let me kill the myths,
03:00because they're the reason this keeps coming back.
03:02Myth one,
03:03running an empty hot cycle cleans it.
03:05It doesn't touch the fold.
03:07The water level never reaches up into that pocket,
03:10so the exact spot the mold lives in
03:12stays bone dry during the cycle and untouched.
03:15Myth two,
03:16pour bleach in every load,
03:17and you'll stay clean.
03:19That's how you wreck the seal.
03:21Constant bleach dries out and cracks the rubber,
03:24and now you've turned a cleaning problem
03:25into a replacement problem.
03:26Myth three,
03:28the self-clean or tub clean setting handles everything.
03:31It scours the drum,
03:33sure,
03:33but it was never designed to reach the gasket fold
03:36or the drain filter,
03:37which are the two spots that actually stink.
03:40Myth four,
03:40and this one's backwards from what you'd guess.
03:43More detergent means cleaner.
03:44More detergent means more leftover residue coating the machine,
03:48and more residue means more food for the biofilm.
03:50People smell mildew,
03:52assume they're not cleaning enough,
03:53add more soap,
03:54and feed the exact thing they're trying to kill.
03:56If fixes like this,
03:58or not the cheap thing that quietly solves the expensive problem,
04:02are your kind of thing,
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04:06in the full parts and price lists I only post over there.
04:09Now the part,
04:10almost nobody knows,
04:12exists.
04:13Down at the bottom front of your machine,
04:14there's a little panel or trap door,
04:16usually a small rectangle.
04:19You can pop off with your fingers or a flat screwdriver.
04:22Behind it is the drain pump filter,
04:24sometimes called the coin trap.
04:26Put a shallow dish and a towel down first,
04:29because water is going to come out.
04:31There's usually a small drain hose you unclip and empty.
04:35Then,
04:36a round filter cap you twist counterclockwise to pull out.
04:40Brace yourself for what comes with it.
04:42This is where every coin,
04:44hair tie,
04:45sock button,
04:46and gray slurry of lint and gunk
04:48from years of washing has been collecting.
04:51That sludge is a second mold factory,
04:54feeding the smell,
04:55sitting in standing water full time.
04:58Rinse the filter under the tap,
05:00scrub it with the same vinegar mix,
05:02twist it firmly back in,
05:04and make sure the little drain plug is seated tight,
05:07so you don't get a leak.
05:09Most people go the entire life of their machine
05:12and never open this.
05:13It should be cleaned a couple times a year.
05:17While you've got that gasket folded back,
05:20look at the very bottom of the rubber
05:21for a couple of small holes,
05:24sometimes one,
05:25sometimes two,
05:26or three.
05:27Those are drain holes,
05:29and they're the reason your boot pools water in the first place.
05:32They're supposed to let the leftover water
05:34trickle back into the tub after a wash
05:37so the fold dries out on its own.
05:39The problem is,
05:41they're the size of a pencil tip,
05:43and after a year of lint and softener scum,
05:46they plug solid.
05:48Once they're blocked,
05:49every drop of water from every wash
05:51just sits in the bottom of that fold
05:53with nowhere to go,
05:54and you've got a permanent puddle feeding the mold.
05:58Poke them clear with a zip tie,
06:00a pipe cleaner,
06:01or a bent paper clip.
06:02Wiggle it around until they run free,
06:05and flush a little of your vinegar spray through.
06:08Clear those holes,
06:10and the boot starts draining itself again.
06:13You've fixed the cause,
06:15not just the symptom.
06:17For the drum itself,
06:18run one clean cycle after all that.
06:22Two cups of white vinegar
06:23poured into the detergent tray.
06:26Hottest and largest setting,
06:28and let it run empty.
06:29The vinegar flushes the film
06:31off the inside of the tub
06:32and the hoses you can't reach.
06:34Do that once a month,
06:36and the biofilm never gets a foothold again.
06:39Pull the detergent drawer
06:40all the way out while you're at it.
06:42Most of them release with little push tap.
06:45And scrub it,
06:46because the drawer and its chute
06:48are slick with the same softener gunk
06:50feeding everything.
06:52Then the habit that makes all of it stick,
06:55and it takes two seconds.
06:58After every single load,
07:00wipe the gasket,
07:01fold dry with a towel,
07:03and leave the door cracked open.
07:05That's the whole trick.
07:07Mold needs standing moisture,
07:09and a front loader with the door shut
07:11is a sealed, wet,
07:14airless box between washes.
07:16The perfect incubator.
07:19Leave it open,
07:20and the water evaporates.
07:21Air moves through,
07:22and there's nothing left
07:24for anything to grow in.
07:25If you've got kids or pets,
07:28and can't leave the door swinging,
07:30a small magnet or a door prop
07:33holds it open a couple inches.
07:35Dry fold.
07:36Cracked door.
07:37Done.
07:39Now the money,
07:40because this is where
07:41it stops being about a smell.
07:43A service call to diagnose
07:45a smelly washer
07:47runs $100 to $200.
07:51And the tech does exactly
07:52what you just did.
07:54The specialty tablets people buy
07:56run around a dollar a piece,
07:58and you're told to use
07:59one every wash.
08:00That's real money over a year
08:02for something a $2 splash of vinegar
08:05does better.
08:05And the big one,
08:07people replace perfectly good front loaders
08:10over a smell they think
08:12means the machine is broken.
08:13Dropping $700 to $1,500
08:16on a new one
08:17that will grow the exact same film
08:20in the exact same fold
08:21within a year.
08:23Because nobody told them
08:24about the door habit.
08:26$3 of vinegar
08:28and a cracked door
08:29protects a $1,000 appliance.
08:32Three tricks to make it easier.
08:34First,
08:35keep a dedicated microfiber rag
08:37folded on top of the machine
08:39so the wipe-down is a reflex,
08:41not a chore you skip.
08:43Second,
08:44if you use a liquid fabric softener,
08:47that's the single biggest source
08:49of the gummy residue feeding this,
08:52cut it or switch to a splash of vinegar
08:55in the softener slot,
08:56which softens clothes
08:58and cleans the machine
08:59on its way through.
09:01Third,
09:02once a season,
09:03run the hot vinegar cycle
09:05and then immediately run
09:06a second short rinse.
09:08Because a little vinegar
09:09can linger in the folds
09:11and the rinse clears it
09:12so your next load doesn't come out
09:14smelling faintly of salad.
09:16Put it together.
09:18Pull the fold back
09:19and check for a tear first.
09:21Spray the vinegar mix
09:21and scrub the gasket,
09:23empty the coin trap at the bottom,
09:25poke the drain holes clear,
09:27run a hot vinegar cycle,
09:29then wipe dry,
09:30and leave the door open
09:32after every load.
09:33Do the deep clean this weekend
09:35and the smell is gone
09:36by the next wash
09:36and it stays gone
09:38for about $3.
09:39If this finally explains
09:41the smell you've been blaming
09:42on your towels,
09:43share it with the one person
09:44in your life
09:45who keeps buying stronger detergent
09:47to fix it.
09:48See you in the next one.
