Help me with the smell in my kitchen please!

[LinkListen]

It smells like a bin lorry, literally like rotting rubbish. I think it is the washing machine, the kitchen sink or both.
Hot wash on machine made it worse, I've wiped the bits I can get to but the underside of the drum is covered in sludge. I know. Bleurgh. I swear the plug hole in the sink smells too.
Tips? Going out to buy some bits today, any recommendations?

Does your machine have a self clean option?
Use a drain gel for the sink and never put any food down the plug hole.

What do you mean by hot wash? If you generally do 30 or 40 degrees and use liquid you're going to get a lot of slime building up. The plumber who came out to me said these cool washes do the machines no favours.

Every month I do a 90 degree with white vinegar and zoflora in the drawers.

You need some Mr Muscle down the sink, and then keep it fresh with bleach or again, zoflora or something. My Mum had a rank kitchen sink plughole and the plumber said it wasn't because there was anything down there, but because the tube was too short and so there had been a build up of water in it.

Soda crystals...only a quid a bag... And white vinegar. Pour crystals down drain then vinegar and leave for upto half an hour then pour boiling water down. same in washing machine. Doesn't damage anything or clothing like beach would.

Check the base of your bin for bin sludge (aka farage) as well, as that smell will linger. I agree that when you find it you need to use bleach.

Sorry I put the machine on auto clean, that's what I'm describing as a hot wash. That seems to have made things worse. My bin is fairly clean as food waste goes into recycling caddy, but I'll give that a wipe too. Just in case there is any previous build up. Fairly sure its a combo of sink/washing machine.
Thanks for the recommendations. Off to the shops now, will let you know how I get on.

Seconding soda crystals. Clean drawer. Boil wash too. When my kids were little, I had twenty white shirts to wash every week, so did a boil wash regularly without thinking. Now I do them less often, but I do use soda crystals in every wash because we have hard water.

Could something have fallen behind somewhere and be rotting? We had an issue with a mouse once - cat had chased and trapped it behind freezer.

With soda crystals do you put them in the drawer of the machine and the detergent in the drum as normal? If so how much soda crystals do you use?

I have a similar problem and I suspect it's the outside drain - I think we should have a u-bend in the outside bit of the waste pipe so smells from the outside drain can't come back into the house through the pipe, but we don't. Haven't proved/solved this yet but maybe this could be your issue?

You haven't got a rotten potato hiding somewhere have you? They absolutely stink. We had one that rolled under a cupboard.

If you find it is not the washing machine or drains, it could be the water trap behind your fridge. If something from the fridge goes down the drain hole and collects in the little sump at the back, it can go mouldy and smell terrible. We had this once with cranberry juice. Also as per previous PP, it could also be a decomposing mouse, we had one burrow into our oven and die. It smelt terrible for about four months.

I use a scoop of soda crystals in each wash - it's an old scoop from a tub of Vanish.

To clean the machine, I would add more - perhaps a mug or cupful. I wouldn't bother with detergent, but if you were using it, I'd use bio powder rather than non-bio or liquid.

I put them in the drawer as I think it cleans that too, but you could put them in the drum if you prefer.

I had this. It was my washing machine. Stop using liquid tabs. I now use the powder ones - and cheap aldi ones at that ( apparently the same as Aerial). Smell all gone. Apparently the liquid tabs don't kill bacteria, and they don't have abrasive cleaning action like powder.

I ended up using soda crystals and white vinegar, it's shifted the majority of the grime I couldn't reach also put drain unblocker down the sink overnight just in case. It smells considerably better.
I think one more round of soda crystals might do the job.

Pour a bottle of zoflora down the sink hole and also in your washing machine drawer and drum. Put on 60c, and use boiling water to rinse down the zoflora in the sink. It will make the kitchen smell lush