Had some issues so I call Stu the Bosch recommended tradie from Leongatha.
Apart from other stuff he made these points.
1. I live in an area with very soft water
2. Soft water generates excessive suds
3. Suds are largely air so they don’t get pumped out very well
His recommendation – dont use more than a teaspoon of soap powder or an equally reduced amount of liquid detergent. Completely ignore packet recommended quantities and don’t assume more powder equals cleaner.
Stu claims the suds never get removed properly. This includes inside the drum especially between the 2 skins of a front loader where sludge builds. Your clothes too come out harder when dried due to residual soap.
Stu says normal lightly soiled clothes can be cleaned well without soap at all – maybe 30 celsius to deal with oils that come off our skin.
He also says mix up your detergents as the slightly different compositions can assist in removing sludge build up from the previous powder.
The harder your water the more soap you can use without these adverse consequences.
Here endeth the lesson.
Washing machines have three seperate little compartments inside the soap drawer. One for washing powder or liquid, one for conditioner or softner or whatever it’s called, and one presumably for something else. I’ve never felt curious enough to find out what’s what.
Possibly pre-wash powder, wash powder and conditioner. We’ll that’s what I do.
Oh yeah he said fabric softener will kill your machine. I didn’t ask why as I don’t use it but I assume further gunking up.
If you live in a hard water area, like me, a Twitter acquaintance reports that her plumber says Calgon isn’t much cop, and to use Wpro instead.
Having had a washing machine replaced by Bosch under the free John Lewis 24-month g’tee, upon the advice of The Man From Bosch, I’ve used a Calgon tablet with every wash since, and no longer had a machine fail due to limescale. Now, the bearings go now, and eventually blow the fuse in the motor.
An engineer I used years ago said just to use a kettle descaler a few times a year.
Another question.
When you use a 2 in 1 shampoo/ conditioner how does the shampoo know to go on first?
I’ve never thought about that. Now I will.
Thanks Hubes.
My mother also has a problem with too many suds. It’s like a reenactment of the It’s Only Rock’n’roll video round her house. She will go and open the machine door. Foolish. Now she’s learned that if you avoid both water and detergent the problem goes away.
Might as well drop in a YouTube video at this juncture. Many a clip has been added with less need so why the hell not?
Great clip. But the sailor suits. What was Mick thinking?
Probably told the director he wanted the room to be filled with semen, and was misheard.
From the still above, probably “where’s that pile of coke gone?”
We get a smelly washing machine quite frequently. The solution seems to be draining out the excess stinky water from that funny drainage port at the bottom front of the machine and then a 90 degree wash with a bit of bleach.
That will be £80 please
Stu would say it is probably smelly coz of too much detergent. So scale that back (SWIDT) and you shouldn’t need the bleach treatment. .
We have been told similar by the Miele engineer when he came out to fix ours (a sensor that failed and was a quick replacement under warranty).
The other thing is that the drum of washing machines pick up lots and lots of gunk over time, which can cause a “smell” on washed clothes. The missus bought some washing machine cleaning stuff (from China) and it was amazing how much gunk came out of the drainage port. A couple of 90deg washes later and it appears now to be clear. We were also told that using softener contributes greatly to this issue – so have stopped using.
The advice you got was exactly what my mum got when she bought her first twin-tub back in the 50s. We lived in Plymouth, Devon, where all of the water from the taps comes from Burrator Reservoir on Dartmoor – filtered by granite and sphagnum moss it’s the softest water in the British Isles. Foams if you just show it a box of detergent from several yards away. One box of Fairy lasted about 6 months, and the machine lasted until I was well into long trousers.
But different quantities are recommended for different types of water on the packets already (at least here in Sweden) and they send out information about what kind of water there is in your area (well they do here in Sweden…) so you won’t use too much products and harm the environment. Or isn’t that a common thing in Oz?
I clean my washing machine every other month with a cleaning tablet especially for washing machines, and I also run an empty 90 degree wash every now and then to get rid of bacteria and bad smell, since I so very rarely need to actually wash anything in 90 degrees these days.
To avoid any bad smell I also let the lid stay open as much as possible in between washes, and when it needs to be closed I put a clean dish rag in the drum, sprayed with a little perfume.
I stopped using fabric softener a long time ago – not because it destroyed my machine (every washing machine I’ve owned have lasted 15-20 years, and that was when I did use softener) but because it is bad for the clothes!
Why am I not surprised that the Swedes have such nuanced instructions. Do they include a litmus test in the packet?
No, its basically chuck er in and off she goes. And that includes ALDI stuff which I assume has the same instructions. globally.
No Aldi here!
I was told by a washing machine engineer to use the recommended amount of detergent and not to bother with Calgon. The occasional 90° was with a washing machine cleaner aside and no problems. The last washing machine lasted 14 years in a very hard water area (I descale the kettle every 2 weeks).
I’ve always lived in a soft water area though that will possibly change soon, so I’ve never had to descale a kettle. Many years ago I was staying at a house in Cambridgeshire, picking the kettle up I thought “oh it’s full” I turned it on, it boiled astonishingly quickly.
I looked inside, the inside was more scale than kettle. I think there was enough room inside to boil about two mugsworths of water.
“I descale the kettle every 2 weeks”.
Bravo, and at our age, too!
I am also, somewhat fastidious about the coffee machine bean to cup thing. Cleanliness is next to great tasting coffee in my dictionary.
I too am fastidious though some argue that as per a wok, it can be too clean. Some patina argued to add to flavour.
I disassemble and clean my grinder every three months…
My rather expensive and highly-efficient coffee grinder is impossible to completely disassemble for cleaning. Or at least doing so is beyond my skills and available toolkit. Even after purchase of some extra long-reach specialist screwdrivers.
My stovetop pot (cut-price Bialetti-stylee) gets a thorough clean, top to bottom, whenever the top chamber gets particularly claggy.
Mrs thep has discovered these cunning little sheets, about 3” square, which go in the machine (front loader) along with the washing. (Name on request, can’t remember.) They do their thing and somehow disappear during the process, and the laundry comes out clean and blessedly unscented. I approve of this, although we still have the lifetime’s supply of right-on laundry powder she bought during her last laundry detergent discovery phase.
Lucent. https://lucentglobe.com/products/eco-laundry-sheets
Why a sheet? Presumably it is a different format for detergent. But detergent all the same.
Of course. But no mess. No build-up of gunk. No plastic container.
Since we’re sort of on the subject, what’s the best way to clean an oven?
Funny you should say that. We have a new oven , 1 year old, and it has a self clean function. I have never used it but I am eyeing it off.
One option: