Spent my Saturday pulling grey gunk out of the washer filter, and I think I finally got it

I had a similar nightmare with my LG front loader last year. The grey sludge was definatly bothering me too, and I spent alot of time just scrubbing it out. It seemed worse when we switched to a cheaper brand of laundry powder, but I later realized it was probly a mix of that and some hard water mineral deposit. My area has surprisingly high calcium levels.

I ended up trying a vinegar soak method first. I ran two empty cycles with about a cup of distilled white vinegar added right before the wash. It was surprisingly effective at dissolving the crust, and after that, the debris coming out of the filter was just a fine, brown silt rather than the slimy grey clumps. It felt like the vinegar broke down the mineral scale that was trapping all the lint and residue.

It definitely gives you pause when you see those nasty flakes coming out. Instead of just replacing the whole unit, treating the buildup is usally the smart move unless the whole machine starts vibrating weirdly.

I had something similar happen with my Kenmore last season, and it wasn't acutally the detergent or hard water that was the primary culprit. It was a complete buildup of lint and fabric softener residue trapped right inside the door gasket. Every time a load finished, I felt this awful damp pocket forming behind the rubber seal, and those grey flakes I was pulling were actually the mold and lint feeding on that residue. I decided to stop running cleaning cycles and start wiping the entire perimeter of the drum every week. I used a stiff, old toothbrush and some diluted hydrogen peroxide to scrub the interior of the rubber seal, paying close attention to the clips and folds. That stopped the sludge from forming completley.

For my unit, the debris was definitely entering the drain because the seal was compromised and allowed all sorts of fuzz to accumulate deep in the outer drum. Focusing on keeping that door seal spotless and dry is the real maintanence win. It took a couple of weeks of rigorous cleaning before the filter started clearing up completely. It was much more of a preventative habit change than a one-time deep clean.

First time posting here so hope this makes sense. We've got an old top loader and I was seeing the same grey flakes for months, blamed the towel shedding but it kept happening with everything. I never thougth about running cleaner cycles empty, I'd only been cleaning around the drum. Tried it last night after reading this, first run brought out a lot of stuff. Do you have to use hot water for it to work, or would cold do the job? Our water heater is on the fritz so everything is getting washed cold right now.

Something similar happened with our older front loader, except the cleaner cycles only fixed part of it. It turned out a fair amount of the sludge had compacted in the short hose between the tub and the pump housing, so every wash loosened a little more and it kept reappearing in the filter no matter how many empty hot runs I did. I ended up pulling the machine forward, draining the residual water into a shallow pan and disconnecting that hose to flush the lump out by hand before the filter finally stayed clean. If your cycles taper off but never fully stop, that trapped material between the drum and the pump is the first place I would look.