How to clean a washing machine: the monthly reset for any washer

Step by step: how to clean a washing machine

Safety first. Never mix chlorine bleach with vinegar, ammonia or other cleaners, and do not add bleach and vinegar in the same or back-to-back cycles without a plain rinse between them. Wear gloves for bleach and mold. Water after a hot or Self Clean cycle can scald, so wait about an hour before opening a pump filter, and unplug the washer first.

1. 1

   Empty the drum and pick out debris

   Take out any laundry and check the drum for coins, hair ties, tissue and lint. On a front loader, pull back the folds of the rubber door seal and remove anything caught there. On a top loader, run a cloth around the inside of the rim, where lint and soap collect.

2. 2

   Choose your cleaner

   A washer cleaner tablet such as affresh is the simplest: drop it in the empty drum. Liquid chlorine bleach works too, about 1 cup, or the amount your manual gives. If your manual says to use nothing at all with the Self Clean cycle, follow that.

3. 3

   Run the Clean Washer or Self Clean cycle

   Select Clean Washer, Self Clean, Tub Clean or Pure Cycle, whatever your model calls it, and let it finish. Samsung says its Self Clean takes about 1 hour on a top loader and about 4 hours on a front loader. With no cleaning cycle, use the hottest water and longest, heaviest cycle.

4. 4

   Scrub the detergent dispenser

   While the cycle runs, pull out the dispenser drawer if it comes out, or lift out the softener and bleach cups on a top loader. Soak them in warm soapy water for 15 minutes, then scrub the slime from corners with a toothbrush. Wipe the cavity the drawer sits in, including the ceiling, where black mildew often hides.

5. 5

   Wipe the door seal or the lid and rim

   Once the cycle ends, wipe the front loader’s rubber seal inside every fold with soapy water and dry it. On a top loader, wipe under the rim, the underside of the lid and the lid hinge. You should see grey or brown residue come off on the cloth.

6. 6

   Clean the filter

   Most front loaders have a drain pump filter behind a small door at the bottom front. Unplug the washer, put down towels and a shallow pan, drain the water through the small hose if there is one, then unscrew the filter and rinse out lint and debris. Some older top loaders have a lint filter in the agitator or under the rim; your manual shows where.

7. 7

   Wipe the outside and leave it open

   Wipe the control panel, lid or door and sides with a damp cloth, then dry them. Leave the door or lid open for a few hours, or until the next load, so the inside dries completely.

Washer cleaner, bleach or vinegar: which works best?

The best way to clean a washing machine is its cleaning cycle with a washer cleaner tablet or liquid chlorine bleach; vinegar freshens but is the weakest of the three. Manufacturers design their cleaning cycles around a dedicated cleaner or bleach, and affresh notes that vinegar is safe in a washer but may not remove all the buildup on the drum, pump and drain.

To clean a washer with vinegar, run the hottest, longest cycle on an empty drum with about 2 cups of white vinegar in a top loader tub (check your manual for where it goes in a front loader), then scrub the dispenser and seal by hand as in the steps above. Never add it to a cycle with bleach, or straight after one. It is a good freshen between real cleans, not a replacement for them.

The steps are the same for every brand; only the cycle name and the cleaner the manual wants change. Samsung calls its cycle Self Clean or Pure Cycle and says no cleaner is needed unless there is already a mold smell. On an LG or Whirlpool washer, look for a Tub Clean or Clean Washer setting and check your manual for whether it wants a cleaner tablet, bleach or nothing added. With no cleaning cycle at all, use the hottest, longest, heaviest setting.

What to do if the washer already smells of mildew

To clean mold from a washing machine, run a cleaning cycle with chlorine bleach rather than a plain one, and scrub the seal and dispenser by hand. A routine cycle alone rarely clears a smell that has been building for months.

Samsung’s mold instructions are a good model even for other brands: run a spin-only cycle to clear leftover water, pour liquid chlorine bleach into the detergent compartment up to the max line (not the bleach compartment), and start the Self Clean cycle straight away so the bleach does not sit in the machine. Samsung says this bleach step is only for an existing smell or visible mold, not routine cleaning.

If black spots on a front loader’s seal survive a wipe, scrub them with a toothbrush dipped in a 10% bleach solution (about 1 part bleach to 9 parts water), which is what affresh recommends for mold on the gasket. Spots that have stained into the rubber may fade but not vanish; that is a stain, not live mold, once it has been cleaned.

Front load vs top load: what changes

The method is the same, but the trouble spots differ. Front loaders trap water and residue in the rubber door seal and the pump filter; top loaders hide grime under the rim, in the fabric softener cup and under the lid.

• Front loaders use less water, so detergent residue builds up faster and the door has to stay open between loads. Our front load washer guide covers the gasket and the drain pump filter in detail.
• Top loaders with an agitator can be filled, paused and left to soak, which loosens old softener buildup. The top load washer guide has the soak method and what to do on newer HE models that lock the lid.

How often should you clean a washing machine?

Once a month, or about every 30 loads, is the usual schedule. affresh recommends monthly or every 30 cycles, and Samsung lights a Self Clean reminder after 20 washes on its top loaders and 40 on its front loaders, and suggests at least one a month even if you wash less.

Between cleans, a few habits do most of the work:

• Move wet laundry to the dryer as soon as the cycle ends.
• Use HE detergent in an HE machine, and measure it. Too much soap leaves the residue that smells.
• Leave the door or lid open after the last load of the day, and dry the front loader’s seal with a towel.
• Run a hot cycle now and then if you mostly wash cold, since cold water leaves more residue behind.

Mistakes to avoid

• Adding vinegar to a cycle that already has bleach in it, or right after one, which can release chlorine gas.
• Running the cleaning cycle with clothes or towels in the drum.
• Cleaning only the drum and skipping the dispenser drawer and door seal, where most of the smell lives.
• Opening the pump filter right after a hot cycle, when the water behind it can scald.
• Using far more detergent than the cap line, which is the main cause of the buildup you are cleaning out.
• Closing the door or lid straight after the cleaning cycle, so the inside stays damp.