Smelly washing machine

traps stop air/gases, they do not stop backups of water.

yea, it occured to me to pop mine off about 2 months ago. its been soaking in the sink till I can figure how to clean it.

Aiui, the trap only keeps gases from escaping. I seem to remember that under some situations, a septic tank can back up.

A trap connected to the city sewer certainly won't keep that from backing up.

Not that that is the problem here. Who knows.

Or soap and water.

Meirman

-- If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter. Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

Our washing machine has begun to smell like stank pond/septic tank when it runs. I couldn't figure out why. I thought it could be septic backing up, but there's a trap.

I popped off the cup on top of the agitator, the cup that you put fabric softener in. Underneath was the most God awful, putrid, disgusting black goop that I'd ever seen/smelled.

It was equivalent to cleaning out a shower drain.

I put it back on without cleaning it, figured I'll deal with it tomorrow (sorry, Ben Franklin).

Can I soak the plastic cup and parts in an Oxy Clean solution? Is that okay for plastic?

Sure, but you can get as good a resolution with a bleach solution and it is cheaper.