How to Clean your front Loader Washer and make your dryer dry faster

 

I have always had a dream of having the nice sleek front loader washer and dryers, that have an inviting feel when doing laundry.... Ok, there is nothing that has an inviting feel to do laundry, or at least I have never found. I came close though when I was doing some laundry for my mother-in-law. They had Bosch front loaders and I was helping with some laundry one day, I had washed a whole load of jeans - probably about 7-10 pairs of jeans. I went about my business and I'm not kidding, 10-15 minutes later, the load was done. WOW!! First thing through my mind was, my family of 5's laundry wouldn't take all day with these!! When I was telling my husband about them you would have thought it was the best invention since sliced bread.... to me it was close to it!! So from then on, I wanted a pair, bad!!
When we moved into our new home last month there was a regular washer and dryer that we needed to hook up. You would have thought I won the lotto when my in laws brought their washer and dryer over (they had moved and didn't need them anymore) for us to have. That is when I was excited to do laundry!!
We went through how to use them, what soap to use etc. She said to wipe the seal in the washer out about once a week and to prop the door open when not in use to prevent molding of the seal. I did this religiously! But about a month into using it the clothes were coming out smelling really bad of a mildew smell. I could not figure it out. I wiped the seal out, tried it with beach, nothing was working. So I was on a hunt. Look what I had found!!! YUCK!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of us when we wipe around the seal, it is just the inner part of the seal that we see. And yes, doing this helps to cut down on mold and the smell, but if you CAREFULLY pullback the lip of the seal you will see more mildew that you are not getting. - Or likely not getting. EWWW!! So much for clean clothes!! So I was on the hunt on how to get rid of this. I took a thin towel and filled up our laundry room sink with warm water with about a cup or two of bleach. I wiped down all of the seal a few times and got all the mildew out. - It took some scrubbing but it was worth it. I then wiped down the drum of the washer with the same rag after I rinsed it out. After it was all clean I wanted to make sure the smell was gone. I put baking soda right into the drum of the washer and turned on the washer with the hottest setting I could. I then added about 1/2 cup of vinegar to soap area. The mix of that worked amazing and got all smells out and make it very clean!!
I have since wiped out the seal with a little bit of bleach once every few days, done the baking soda and vinegar about once a week. I also think that the laundry soap I make helps to cut down on it too. - It is really easy, works great for HE machines, and costs about $5.00 to make a five gallon bucket!! Can't beat that price. (I have heard many times that people think it takes too long to make.... nope I have a batch done and ready to sit over night to cool in about 10 minutes!!) Give it a try! You will love it!

Another great trick to help you cut down on your drying time is to clean your lint filter about once every other month - or as needed. You will knock about 10 - 15  minutes per load off with this trick. I love doing it, and can't believe I didn't know about this trick before! Here is the video I made for it... http://youtu.be/RmU7CYTlpQw

 

So here is the before and after on the seal... let me know if this works for you!