New House Problem #2: Indesit WIB111 Wash Machine - gunge in wash

[Java Jive]

Thanks for the shower advice, will take a look shortly.

As described, the Indesit WIB111 washing machine that was left here in the house is leaving brown gunge on my curtains. Sometimes the gunge is in the form of little balls, sometimes flakes. They are generally a mm or two in size, and may sometimes be scraped off with a finger nail, but sometimes leaves a smear on the cloth.

It's a cold-fill only machine. The inlet hose comes straight off the main, and by pointing it into and filling a sink, I've checked that there isn't any gunge in the supply (thank heavens!).

Next I checked the pump outlet, but that all seems clear.

Next I checked the soap dispenser, and while that has obviously been cleaned recently, and although there are one or two patches of algae, they don't dislodge easily, and would not seem to account for the amount of gunge, so I don't think they are the problem.

Any ideas?

Off to look at the shower now ...

[Mr Pounder]

Take a look at the door seal. Sort of pull the seal open and have a look at the inner seal. Chances are you will find horrible smelly gunge in there.

>

[harry]

Yes, that's the likely one. You need torun your machine on high temp wash now and then to stop this.

[Andy Burns]

Have a look at the reverse side of the rubber gasket round the door, various stuff tends to build up there, run a load through on a the heaviest duty "boil" wash" it has ...

[Jules Richardson]

aka Marmite.

[Mr Pounder]

Yes, that's the likely one. You need torun your machine on high temp wash now and then to stop this.

This did not work for us. Kitchen cleaner and plenty of tea towels did the job. There is plenty on this topic on the interweb.

[Bill Wright]

Well, take the curtains down before operating the machine. And paints the walls brown.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

No, it's stuff that comes out of old men's underpants.

Bill

PS Oh, is that where marmite comes from?

[Mr Pounder]

I like Marmite. The crap in my door seals was black. After every wash I just run a bit of kitchen towel in the seal. No more Marmite.

[Eric]

Very hot wash with soda crystals.

[Gazz]

Sister in law recently bought a second hand washing machine, and everything came out gungy and smelly, soap drawer was spotless, door seal was too, drain to pump was fine, they couldn't figure out where the gunge was coming from.

I had a look, took out the soap drawer and found the pipe leading down from the soap drawer was thick with brown stinky crap, and the only way to clean it out was to use a bottle brush fixed to a flexible rod... so we could get right down to where the pipe exits into the drum,

one hot wash with a white towel later and it was much better, next wash was perfect,

i can only assume it's because it was left standing for a while in the shop, and the soap scum lining the pipe erupted into life growing the stinky slimy shit,

[ss]

I have eventually after years of persuasion got my wife to put the soap directly into the drum.

[Brian Gaff]

Only curtains? Are these blackout curtains? Many of these do not wash well and seem to have some kind of rubbery stuff in them that looks and feels as you describe. Getting said blobs out of the machine usually seems to take a couple of empty washes. Of course if its not actually coming from curtains and its appearing on other fabrics then it could be some pollution inside the main drum small enough to sneak through the holes but when cooled down forms blobs and stays in the rotating bit.

Brian

[SteveW]

We have discovered that using liquid soaps in the drum gives us far less gunge and odour than using powders or tablets (drum or drawer).

SteveW

[meow2222]

NT

[PeterC]

Same here - haven't used the drawer for about 10 years (I just clean the drawer every couple of years as tap water seems to be quite fertile). Used to use Ecover and that would smell a bit. Changed to Bio-D and no smell and better results. I buy it in 5 li containers from a local whole-food co-op.

[Java Jive]

Thanks for all the replies ...

As advised, I cleaned the seal. It started to come off so I actually took it off to clean it more thoroughly with a scrubbing brush. I then had a furious half-hour trying to grow an extra hand so that I could get it back on. Eventually, I gave up waiting for evolution to take over, and used a foot instead. It's just doing a hot empty wash now. No leaks yet ... here's hoping it stays that way.

Why aren't tra>

[Dave Liquorice]

There are, they are called washing machine repair men. My late father was one, in the 1930's...

[Java Jive]

I was meaning jobs that require more than the average number of hands.

How very disrespectful to your father - perhaps it's a good thing he's too late to hear you talk so of him !-)

[Dave Liquorice]

But in the 1930's washing machines wern't front loaders with 'orrible for fit seals around the door opening...