I washed my clothes and later used a hand towel to clean my face with. It had a bad sour smell to it. I had a cut so I used a towel again and poured hydrogen peroxide on it and noticed it started bubbling. Doesn't that only happen if there is bacteria present? I need help with this matter. Do I change detergent or try vinegar or ammonia to clean the washer? Why do my towels have bacteria on them after washing?
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I would rewash them and in the rinse cycle add a cup of white vinegar. No fabric softener. It will fix it.
This happens to me especially in summer. If I don't put the clothes in the dryer soon enough also. I found that washing the load again on hot with an oxyclean type powder added will kill the sour smell present in the clothing and towels.
This happened to me and it was because I was using too much laundry detergent and putting too many clothes in the wash. Cut back on the clothes and the laundry detergent
You might also try:
Running the washing machine without detergent through two complete 'boil wash' or hot programmes - you probably have a build of excess laundry detergent AND/OR general gunk (lint, bits of paper, soap scum, etc). Most modern machines don't have a hot water rinse but the hot water cycle of the hottest programme should work to rid your machine of excess/built up detergent and softener gunk, mould, etc. There are products you can buy meant specifically for this purpose but usually the simple two hot washes followed by one more with vinegar in the dispenser where bleach or softener goes does the trick for much less money! Btw, you should run the washer empty on boil wash at least four times a year to keep it clean.
After cleaning the machine of built-up gunk, cut down on how much laundry powder or liquid you're using per load - try dropping the amount by a quarter or third and go from there to determine how much detergent you need to get your fabrics clean and fresh smelling. Also consider skipping the softener if you're using it - vinegar works far better and is multi-purpose (cleans and deodorises machine, assists rinse water to get all the detergent out of the fabrics, softens fabrics). Vinegar is also a fabulous savings over commercially prepared softeners!
Cleaning the filters at the hose to tap connections - small mesh screen should be under the washer ring on the hose end, use an old (clean!) toothbrush to get all the accumulated gunk on the screen - you may not be able to see how thick the film on that screen really is until you brush off some of it. Repeat at least twice a year.
Check the washing machine user guide - the machine may have a more accessible filter in addition to the one at the hose to tap and that filter needs to be cleaned regularly as well.
If none of the above solutions resolves your problem, a small (usually a sock) item has likely worked into an area it wasn't meant to and is quietly moulding away causing the 'swamp stench'. This is a job for a repair tech.
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