Help! The grey seal in the washing machine doors is making downstairs smell bad.

[MinimalistMommi]

I've put soda crystals on a 95 degree maintenance wash but it still doesn't smell great. We have a very small downstairs area and the smell permanates through to the front door. its taken me a few days to figure out what the smell was.
What can I do?

Tell it to move back to the beach? (Sorry, couldn't resist).

Wipe it all over with fabric conditioner and then do another maintenance wash, if the first one doesn't do the trick.

Don't go reporting me to RSPCA

Ohhh don't worry, I won't. I am very jealous of you with your pet seal, though. What's his name?

you have to sponge the seal, especially its grooves, with cleaner to remove the sludge.

have you emptied the filter, and did you remove the drawer and cleans its aperture?

if the washer has a bad load of resident soap sludge, the first wash will start loosening it, but you have to carry on until it's all gone.

Give it another hot hot hot wash with soda crystals and some old cotton towels (NO POWDER). If the water foams up and goes grey, that's the old soap sludge dissolving. Do it again until it stays clear.

If you don't add any towels or other load, it will (probably) try to do a small-load wash and the water level will be too low to wash the whole tub.

Old cotton towels are good because they will not be harmed by the hot wash, and are quite heavy.

Leave the door and drawer open after each use so it can dry out and discourage mould.

I now have a lovely mental image of MinimalistMommi giving a seal a sponge bath, paying special attention to all his grooves and crevices.

Another sad poster thinking of some liquid-eyed sea mammal with a pongy under flipper.:o

I had this problem. Solved by wiping inside of seal with neat bleach, then running a hot (90 deg) wash with BIOLOGICAL washing powder, and just a tea towel in the drum rather than a full load.

It worked a treat, so I now do this once a month for maintenance.

Oh, and I put about 3 tablespoons of soda crystals in with every wash (plus usual non-bio detergent).

Sounds a bit cruel to the seal, mini.

My washing machine smells fishy when in last bit of cycle. Is your seal depositing his din dins in my machine OP? Any advice everyone else?!

when did you last clean the filter and the drawer aperture?

A good wipe round with cloth and hot water then 6-8 drops of neat tea tree oil, works a charm

Ummmmm never cleaned filter?! How do you do that? Cleaned drawer about a month ago but noticed it is still full of water at end of wash.

Mine's like that at the moment. DH kindly scraped out a load of sludge from the 'pleat' in the seal, and we've done a very hot wash with soda crystals. Left it open to dry but it's still smelly.

Soda again or a bleach wash?

I have tea tree oil so can use that afterwards.

BTW, no idea where the filter is to remove and clean but the smell does seem to be the seal.

filter will be described in the instructions that you threw unopened into a drawer the day you bought it. usually behind a kickplate or hatch near floor level. Bosch bottom right front. Put a tray under it to catch the water that runs out. If there is a tiny rubber hose next to the filter it is for draining out the water prior to opening the filter cap.

The aperture that the drawer slides into needs cleaning with a nylon toothbrush and kitchen-spray-with-bleach until all the black mould and cingealed fabsoft is gone. Pay especial attention to the "ceiling" of the aperture and poke clean the holes through which water squirts.

If it's still smelly after your first service wash, do it again (see Wed 05-Jun-13 12:53:17)

the bacteria and mould are living on the slimy residues of soap and fabsoft, with added grease (from skin cream). To wash away soap sludge you don't add more soap. Hot water and soda do it. It may get more smelly after the first clean because you have softened and stirred up the sludge but not yet washed it all away.

Wow you are brill piglet! I'd like to hire you for a white goods spring clean! When are you free?! :)

Thanks for the tips! I'll be doing this later today when DD has her nap. Trying to do anything that involves more than 2 mins away from her at the moment is rarely possible :)

The sneak is definitely in our seal.

Damn autocorrect! Sneak? Should have read smell!

lemming I'm going to try tea tree oil. All sludge gone now, smell slightly better but still there.

I'm going to do another soda wash like piglet suggests too. piglet.

Do you put the tea tree oil on a cloth and wipe around the seal??

Did a bleach wash - no smell!! :) :) :)