how do you clean the black mildew build up in the washer which gets all over my clothes and my clothes smell?

Answer 1

If it is indeed mildew then run your washer without clothing. Add either bleach or vinegar (not both). If you are washing lots of clothing that has a high amount of grease or automotive oil, that can build up in your washer as well.

If this is the case, run your washer again without clothing but add tide. Then when washing the dirty jeans/work shirts add 1 can of Coca Cola with your regular detergent. This is an old trick I learned from the wife of a railroad worker.

Hope this info helps.

Answer 2

You've probably used bleach before with limited results. It's what you use but how as well. Put some bleach in a spray bottle and get that stuff all up and inside the upper parts of the drum. After about a half hour then run an empty load with lots of bleach in it. Then hose it out and run it again with just water. This will get rid of almost all of it. To keep it from coming back you have two options; repeating this process, or moving the washing machine to a place where there isn't so much moisture in the air. Mildew just loves dark damp places.

Answer 3

Run the washer without clothes on the hottest water setting and pour bleach into the wash cycle and the rinse.cycle. Bleach can be very caustic so I would only use maybe a cup thru each cycle and repeat a few times.. then run a cycle with hot water only to remove bleach before putting clothes in. try leaving the lid up after doing laundry so the machine can dry between uses.

Answer 4

You can run your washer without clothes and put a cup of white vinegar in the wash instead of detergent. The vinegar with clean the mildew and remove the scent.

Answer 5

If its actually mildew it needs to be killed with bleach. However, if its more of a grey colored sludge throughout the machine, enzyme based cleaners such as oxyclean work best.

Answer 6

Straight bleach