The fabric softener part of my washing machine drawer keeps filling with water

[HappyAsEyeAm]

Exactly this.

I use fabric conditioner with every wash. Just the recomemnded amount. After each wash, the fabric conditioner part of the drawer is full of water, so I have empty it before I can refill it with softener for the next wash.

Why does it do this, and what can I do about it? The washing machine is perfect in every other way, and its 2 years old. Its a Miele.

The drawer probably needs to be cleaned. Mine used to do that when I left it too long.

Check the manual, or just give it a tug and it will come out. You can give it a good scrub and get rid of the gunked up bits.

There is no gunk in there Oreo. I know because I have to completely remove the drawer to empty all the water out of the drawer after every wash.

It's meant to have water go through it. It must be blocked up.

By the way, I used to work as a lab tech for Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati and one of my jobs was to make white tee shirts dingy in order to test whitening agents. In addition to clay, cooking oil, bbq sauce, and some other things, one of the main ingredients I'd add to the wash cycle was fabric softener. It helps make clothes dingy. Since learning that, I've almost never used the stuff.

I have a Bosch that does this from time to time, it also doesn't drain the softener from the drawer.

I have cleaned out the drawer, scrubbed the innards, performed several 'service clean' washes, to no avail.

Stopped using the dispenser compartment for fab softener and instead did I separate 'freshen up' cycle at the end of each wash, putting fs directly on the washing (bit tedious).

After a couple of months, the drawer stopped filling up, I began by using small amounts of fs and it's all working again, very strange.

As its only 2 years old, I would check your warranty, see if this could be sorted under that. Good luck.

OK, thanks - I will do a 95 degrees cycle, and see if that clears it up and also try cleaning behind the drawer in case there is a blockage.

I have always used fabric softeneer, as we live in a very hard water area, and it makes the clothes smell so nice! But maybe I will leave it out for a while and see if it makes a difefrence.

Otherwise, I will be pulling out the guarantee.

A previous thread advised to cleaned the water outlet above the drawer (took drawer out first) and this resolved it for me. Linky to thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/good_housekeeping/1330603-Fabric-conditioner-drawer-blocked

everyday's right. Mine (Bosch) did that and when I had a new built in fridge installed I happened to mention the problem to the installer.
"I can fix that" he said, took the drawer out unclipped the water outlet behind and cleaned it out. Problem sorted. It gets bunged up with gunk - fabric condition is very gunky Unless you get down and look carefully behind the drawer the outlet is not easy to notice.

Buy a bag of soda crystals (very cheap, under £1 wilko's etc) scoop a large cup full into drum of machine, hot wash, should sort it.
Soda crystals are great for loads of things.

the softener compartment has a syphon tube in it. If not obvious, the instructions will show you how to unclip it. Putting it back, the little tube must go inside the big tube.

Soaking in hot water will eventually soften it.

With the modern, concentrated softeners, you can add some water to the compartment to dilute it so it is more runny.

Also take out the drawer and scrub the "ceiling" of the aperture with a toothbrush and Kitchen Cleaner with Bleach to remove the congealed soap and softener that is probably blocking the tiny water holes. It is possible, but very tedious, to poke a bristle into each hole to unblock it.

Had this problem with my old Bosch machine. Cleaning the syphon was to no avail. When the machine died I vowed never to use fabric conditioner again. My new machine is totally gunk free and the smell from Persil Bio is enough for it to smell clean.