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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I went through all this with my home washing machine a while back. The culprit in my case was trying to DIY laundry detergent and not knowing what the fuck I was doing.

    I would skip the citric acid. I don’t see that moving the needle.

    If your clothes stink, it’s probably biofilm left on them because the washer didn’t properly rinse off all the detergent. That comes from 2 places: too much detergent you added to your wash, and excess detergent stuck all over the washer internals from other people.

    You’ll know that’s the problem if your clothes smell “ok” but if they get slightly damp it suddenly smells like wet dog.

    One-time symptom treatment: make a strong mix of oxyclean and hot water in a bucket. Soak all your smelly clothes in it for at least 4 hours. Then drain and wash them normally.

    If it’s in the machine, you’re in kind of a shitty position because the machine ultimately needs to be cleaned. If you have the time and are willing, run the washer empty with a cup of bleach. You might need to pause the washer and add it after the cycle starts - my machine drains when it turns on and pumps out the bleach, but if I add it a minute later it stays inside. Run the load with hot water.

    Another thing you can do is run the machine with a cup of washing soda. That’s apparently better at removing biofilm, but imo bleach does a pretty great job on its own.

    Moving forward, make sure you use the recommended amount of detergent. Too much and you’re back in the same place. Too little and there’s not enough detergent to actually clean your clothes (but the biofilm will still cover everything).