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The softener is not being released into my Zanussi washing machine for some reason. It's not blocked in the drawer so not sure why it is not working.

Can anyone help?

I suppose it depends on the make of washing machine and how they work but when this happened on my old Beko machine it turned out that the water dispensing 'arm' was stuck above the powder drawer and wouldn't flick across to the softener drawer. It was too expensive to get it fixed, something like £59 when the machine only cost £189, so I ended up buying those fabric softener capsules that go straight in the drum and used them 'till the machine totally packed in and I could buy a new one.

the ones I have seen, have got tiny pinholes in the "ceiling" of the slot that the soap drawer slides into. They are often choked by old soap and fabsoft.

Tale out the drawer and scrub it clean in hot water, or in the dishwasher. Squirt Kitchen Spray with Bleach into the slot, especially upwards (the bleach will kill black mould). Scrub it with a nylon brush or toothbrush, and rinse off.

Sometimes you have to poke the holes with a bit of fine wire, if you can't do it with nylon bistles on a brush.

Thanks for the replies. I finally got round to checking it out today and the pin holes were clogged up. I cleaned them out with a skewer and it's now working