Washing machine problem?

Happens to me sometimes. This is not a scientific approach but I think sometimes smaller items get scrunched up and tangled so don't get properly rinsed.

Do you use a fabric conditioner - that is deliberately designed to leave something behind (not sure what)?

Can happen if you overfill. eg washed a blanket and the middle came out of the machine bone dry - the water had never got to it.

Theo

Try putting items into the washing machine one at a time rather than just cram a bundle of stuff and hope for the best. Make sure the items aren’t folded up, for larger items try holding vertically by one corner and use the other hand to compress the item then put it in the machine. Don’t overload, the machine instructions might say a 10kg load but I wouldn’t recommend even half that. Use ‘extra rinse’ if you can, and a fast spin. Oh! And don’t put in too much detergent, experiment until you can get the amount of foam to a minimum.

Good point, thanks. It's a recurring problem though.

I'm embarrased to admit that fabric conditioner doesn't feature largely.

Bang for buck is always a consideration. But the problem seems to occur regardless of load.

Thanks for the comprehensive liist. I'll apply it with gusto. Here's hoping,

If you are in a hard water area you could be suffering from a build-up of limescale. Although many washing powders suggest that they prevent limescale, it isn't necessarily true.

My machine started to make a noise as it pumped the water out, and I couldn't get the cover unscrewed. So a man with the correct tool took it out and there was a lot of limescale inside. He cleaned out the visible bits and recommended I give it a service wash with the machine empty apart from a dose of descaler. I did and that quietened everything down.

Try giving your machine the wash programme the book suggests as the first action for a new machine, with a descaler rather than washing powder to go into the empty drum.

Oust Descaler got good reviews in a Which? test.

I don't think it's anything to be embarrassed about - we stopped using it some time ago and simply cannot see any difference in the outcome of the washing/drying process.

Maybe it's a bit of the gusto that's getting left behind?

I used to use it hand washing woollies

This is a hard water area so that may well have something to do with the problem I'm not sure where the lime scale would accumulate, other than in the filter.

On and around the heater element. The loose stuff can be mixed into the water and get rinsed into the washing.

Don't be embarrassed. The following is C&P'd from a recent Which? article:

Here's our laundry expert Rebecca Jakeman:

Ditch fabric softener. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. While it smells nice, fabric softener leaves a residue that builds up over time, making it harder for detergent to penetrate the fibres and get them clean. It can also reduce the absorbency of towels and irritate sensitive skin. We don’t think it’s worth your money.

I started following this advice a couple of years ago and can vouch for it. And my clothes are perfectly soft without it.

Another issue is too much washing fluid.

We had a machine ‘clogg up’ ( in a hard water area).

I was able to clear the pipes and convince Senior Management to significantly reduce the amount of fluid per wash ( at the time those ball things were all the rage) and all was well.

I have absolutely never ever regretted fitting a whole-house water softener...

The only thing our water softener does not cover is the drinking water tap in the kitchen and - of course - the outside tap. When redoing our kitchen I removed a 2 m length of original straight pipe. You couldn't see through it - it wa staotally furred up after 60 years.

Mike, you’ve had quite a number of useful suggestions to deal with your laundry issues, and I’m sure you’ll find the solutions. However, a word of warning, from my experience with what was my favourite laundry detergent.

For some years I’d been using this particular make with good results. Then came the day when they changed the packaging. It became clear as soon as I used the first dosing, that they had also changed the formulation…whereas before I had a minimum of suds in the machine, it was now full almost to overflowing, so much so that I had to use a second rinse cycle to get rid of it. I persevered with it, reducing the amount of detergent for each wash, until I was using very little, but over-foaming remained an issue.

Finally, I changed the brand of the detergent, but it took five or ten subsequent washes before things resumed normality, presumably due to the rinse cycles not completely getting it out if the clothes, with towels being the longest to clear out the previous stuff.

The moral of this story is to run what changes you make for long enough to see whether they have had an effect or not, and the whole exercise could take quite a number of washes for the results to normalise at their new level.

Do keep us posted on your progress!