Front Loader Cleaning Question

[Anonymous]

Love, love, love my front loader. But yes, you have to leave the door open.

We always leave the door open, never use fabric softener, and use the hot water cycle for the towels and sheets. Occasionally I use bleach on the white sheets. With this type of routine, we never have had to clean the washer. The detergent drawer looks as clean and white as the day we bought it. Inside of the drum has no odor.

We also run a dehumidifier in the basement near the washer; this probably helps, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I learned the hard way with my first front loader. I treated it like a regular top loader, closed the lid after using it. wrong!! my washer was ruined, so much so that we left it behind when we moved.

I have another front loader and that sucker stays open all the time!

The lid of a top loader should always be left open, also. Top loaders get mildew and smell bad if the lid is allowed to be closed all the time. My previous top loader was over 20 years old and in good condition because we always made sure to keep the lid up to allow air to circulate freely.

[Anonymous]

I wish they had a way to let them air out without the door swinging open 24/7. Ours is in our laundry room that we walk through to the garage. We run into the washer door all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been using Affresh tablets once a month for the past 18 months after buying our frontloader, and I don't have a mold problem. The washer does have a weird smell at times that eventually dissipates, but no visible mold.

affresh poster here. I forgot to mention that we also remove the detergent dispenser every time, dump any excess water in the dispenser and then leave it on top of the washer to dry. For some reason our Whirlpool Duet washer's detergent dispenser always has water in it that's left behind, so we make it a point to open, dump and air dry every time.