Yea, this happened to us, too when we moved in. I had to replace the rubber gasket. It was sooo gross. I wipe the rubber seal down after every use, leave the door open, and once in a while, when I see mold or black gunk starting to accumulate in the rubber gasket, I pour a bit of bleach in their and let it sit for a bit, then rinse with water.

Yes, powdered gunks up less. Same reason no one uses liquid in dishwashers anymore. Try it and buy a small box of powdered.

Anonymous wrote:Hint! Powdered detergent is 10x better for front loaders. It doesn't leave that moldy gunk everywhere that liquid detergent does. I know, I prefer liquid too, but the powdered just doesn't gunk everything up the way liquid does.

NP here. Is this true? I always though liquid was better! Huh, maybe I should switch?

Hint! Powdered detergent is 10x better for front loaders. It doesn't leave that moldy gunk everywhere that liquid detergent does. I know, I prefer liquid too, but the powdered just doesn't gunk everything up the way liquid does.

Thanks everyone for the links and suggestions! Very helpful. To PP who was wondering why I can't get a top loader, the washer and dryer are under the granite countertop in the kitchen. This is not the design choice I would've made but there are a couple more urgent renovations we have to get to before we fix this. In the meantime I'll try all these suggestions. Thanks again!

keep your whites/towels separate and wash them with bleach once a week. Bleach is your friend here. My front loader never smells the least bit musty.

We had a Bosch washer in the UK. That thing was a revolting mold farm. Not so much the barrel of the washer, but in and around the detergent drawer. It was awful. I'd scrub it out with bleach and a bottle brush every few weeks, but no matter what detergent/washer cleaner/whatever was used, it would come back inside of a month. None of the usual suggestions worked -- we tried everything.

We now have a front loader Kenmore and have had no issues at all. No visible mold or mildew smell at all.

How is it that a front-loader will fit but not a top loader?? Unless this is an economy size, they have roughly the same footprint.

I hate front loaders and would clean and sell ASAP.

You may need to replace the rubber gasket if above all fails.

Note there is a lip to it which most people miss in wiping down. It is actually under the top rubber, and is the rubber part proximate to the metal tub. Wipe/scrub behind that to remove the surface layer of gunk, by lifting the lip up to clean and move along 360 doing this. This is in addition to the main visible part of the rubber seal.

Leave the door open after use, wipe out the rubber seal, pull out the detergent tray and let dry. Also don't use liquid detergents - they will stick to the rubber seal. Run several bleach or vinegar loads empty.

Anonymous wrote:We just moved into a new place and found that the previous owners must have never cleaned their Bosch front loading washer in the 5 years they owned it, because the mold smell bowled me over as soon as I opened the washer. Gross. I think I've scrubbed it all away for now but how do I keep it from coming back?? I know to leave the door open when it's not in use -- anything else? Due to space constraints, a top loader isn't in the cards unless we do a complete remodel.

This video is long, but it talks about the mold in the discharge hose:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E9Q1mDdj-o

That's probably the issue.

I do a load on super hot and add bleach.

I would also do an empty load with hot water and vinegar. I've also done loads with dish soap.

I keep a dehumidifier in the room and constantly empty it.

We just moved into a new place and found that the previous owners must have never cleaned their Bosch front loading washer in the 5 years they owned it, because the mold smell bowled me over as soon as I opened the washer. Gross. I think I've scrubbed it all away for now but how do I keep it from coming back?? I know to leave the door open when it's not in use -- anything else? Due to space constraints, a top loader isn't in the cards unless we do a complete remodel.