black mould washing machine door seal

[john d hamilton]

we have got a ten year old AEG washing machine, and black mould seems to have penetrated into the light grey rubbery-plastic door seal. Is there any good way of removing this black stain please? Thanks.

[1]

soap and water.

mild chlorine solution.

leave door open when not inuse.

[clams_casino]

Chlorine is the only practical way to kill the mold. Unfortunately, it can adversely affect the rubber seal. Do start with a weak solution

- perhaps 5% solution of 5% chlorine.

Increase the strength, only if needed so as to minimize damage to the seal.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Don't use chlorine (bleach) if the washing machine has a GRP (glass reinforced resin/plastic) outer drum, as it will make it brittle and liable to crack. (Or at least, keep it well clear of the plastic.)

Don't know what AEG parts cost, but spare parts like the door seal are very cheap for Hotpoint machines, and I would consider replacing it.

[meow2222]

I used HCl based patio cleaner for this, it was very effective. However it needs to be brushed repeatedly to work, and of course you cant do a wash cycle with HCl.

A boiling hot wash should kill any mould. LEave the door ajar and hot wash monthly to prevent recurrence. You might also need to demould the soap dispensing area.

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

Actually, removing what it's living on (which is a residue deposited on the surfaces) is the only way to get rid of it long-term. Chlorine will temporarily kill it, but there's a food source still there and very like a high concentration of spores from other areas in the machine, and it will inevitably reinfect unless residue food source is removed. Chlorine is useless at cleaning things, but it's good at making dirt invisible;-)

[Don Phillipson]

After 10 years, you will soon need to replace the door gasket (if available.) After removing the old one you can clean thoroughly (with chlorine) the groove that secures the gasket.

[ransley]

Now dont you just think a clothes washer where you use bleach to wash, as a normal everyday additive, would have been thought about by the manufacturer.

Use bleach, keep door open when not in use.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, which is why manufacturers have warned against using bleach in washing machines for decades. It's brilliant for giving you fractured plastic parts.

Bleach used in washing detergents (in Europe) isn't chlorine based.

(Note, I'm answering for UK/Europe as two of the newsgroups the OP included are uk-based. Soap powders used in the US are completely different from the washing detergents used in Europe, and machines have completely different washing cycles for the two products.)

[ransley]

And here no laundrymat says dont use the bleach we sell here. Gee my machine tells me how much bleach to use, and just when to add it, ON THE DOOR of the washer. And there aint no warning, and there have been no problems. These things are designed to be used, not worried about. It would be like saying if you have dirty stained clothes dont buy this machine, buy that one.

[Norminn]

The light grey seal may be permanently STAINED, so even killing the mold with bleach may not remove the stain. Use the bleach to kill mold and then keep the door ajar slightly so that it dries between uses.

[meow2222]

what country are you in?

NT

[Harry Stottle]

The seal will be permanently stained. Every time I have come across this problem, the cause of the mould has usually been washing regularly at cool temperatures.

[Gary Heston]

In the US of A, most washing machines have built-in dispensers for chlorine bleach. Only the absolute cheapest models give directions for when and how much to manually add.

The OP could have been a bit clearer about his location. In any case, I concur with the recommendation to replace the seal; if it's growing mold, it's probably decomposing and will fail soon in any case. Much better to replace it when it's convenient, rather than after the floor gets flooded.

Gary

[zaax]

Put a table spoon of vinegar in the wash every now & a again

[The Natural Philosopher]

Bleach.

[Steve Barker DLT]

bleach and leave the door open when not in use.

s

[Mike]

Its a unique feature of the USA that many inhabitants combine everything - whites, colours, dirty nappies, delicates into their huge top loading washing machine, add heaps of bleach and washing powder then heat it to boiling for a couple of hours before spinning it to within an inch of its life. Then they tumble dry the washing into submission when they have a house on a 2 acre plot and outside its 80 deg C, with a gentle breeze and blue sky as far as you can see.

This explains why their clothes 'fade' and 'wear out' at fifty times the rate in Europe and why they are constantly buying new clothes from sweat ships in the far east and thereby sustaining their massive trade deficit. European front loaders with their low temperature cycles and powder formulations lead to very low levels of fade and fabric damage using significantly less energy and water.

Not my words but essentially those of a Professor in fabric technology at a UK university.

Having said that I think the widespread use of disposable nappies might have improved the quality of their washing slightly. :)

[clams_casino]

Are you living in a cartoon? 176F outside temperature and boiling water in a washing machine with a two hour wash cycle?

He made those time / temperature claims? What a wacko.

[Andrew Gabriel]

US and Europe have completely different washing machine technologies (I use washing machines on both sides of the atlantic). It's not just the machines, but the wash programs, the plumbing, the mains supply, and the soap/detergents are all part of the system, and completely different.

Europe used to use US style washers, but moved away from vertical axis drums about 50 years as newer better products appeared on the market. 30 years ago, the economy of the wash started to get important, and since then, the European horizontal axis drums (which were already much more efficient than the earlier vertical axis drums they replaced) have become very much more efficient. US has more started becoming concerned about wash economy too, but you can't simply put a European washing machine in the US, as you can't buy detergent for it (and US soap power won't work in it), and you can't get enough power out of the mains outlet to power it. You have been able buy to horizontal axis drum machines in the US for a while now, but they can't operate like European machines, for the same reasons.

For any US readers wondering what's so different about European washers, they mostly now only use cold water supplies, and they use very much less water. The washing detergents are all designed for relatively cold washes. Even if you want to do a hot wash, you must start with a cool wash as a number of the detergent clensing ingredients are destroyed above certain temperatures, and won't get a chance to operate on their target dirt if you expose them to hot water from the start. Max initial temperature is 30C (86F), and a normal wash is achievable at 35C (95F) max. If you want to do a higher temperature wash, then the washer must do what's called a profiled temperature wash from 30C (86F) to 50C (122F) whereby it increases the temperature slowly over this range to allow the components of detergent to operature at their working temperatures. Once you get to 50C (122F), if you still want to go higher, that can then be done quickly. With a good detergent (and not one of the eco-crap ones), it's very rarely necessary to wash everyday items above 35C (95F) anyway.

So European washing machines don't need a hot water supply, but they are all about 2.5kW, which is well over what can be drawn from a US outlet. They actually don't use much energy (the heater is operated only very briefly because the water content is so little), and they could easily be made to operate at a lower power, but that's not necessary anywhere in Europe. They won't work with US soap powder, and it's not necessary to use bleach in the wash with European washine detergents (so the washers can use plastic parts which are damaged by bleach, as mentioned earlier up the thread, and hence most explicitly forbid the use of bleach). IME, European machines have very much more effective spin drying cycles -- it was something that became a competitve marketing feature about 20 years ago.

Contrary to the comments made by Mike above, the low temperature profiled wash takes a bit longer than a US wash, but does produce less wear in fabrics. Some machines can be set to do a fast (less economic) wash if you need to (mine has a 30 minute program for this purpose).