Originally Posted by
alha
Hi guys, thought I'd jump in for a sec to pass on an opinion based upon what I've found at work, I do appliance repair for a living. One thing about soap and front loading washers, is that you only need a small amount. At least when it comes to commercial brands like Tide, etc, you only need to use about a tablespoon, and it has to be HE style. You may need to either pre-treat or use slightly more if you have really dirty clothes, or hard water, but for normal everyday non-"dirty" clothes, about 1 Tbsp is all you need. If you have a top loader, then you need to use more, because they are much less efficient and use a ton more water. As for power vs. liquid, I prefer liquid, because it disperses better. I can't tell you how many times I have worked on a customers front loader where they use powder, and when I opened the dispenser door, it was all coated with crusty soap, because the water blasting into the dispenser sprays it everywhere. One big issue with that, is that it brings soap in every time it fills with water, which you certainly don't want in the rinse cycle.
About stinking machines, this is caused by using too much soap. Some ppl unfortunately read the directions on the soap bottle, and use Way too much. Then within a year or so they find mold growing on their boot seal, and it's also growing in their tubs and tub to pump hoses. It's caused by too much soap, and it not rinsing out properly. I also do an extra rinse on every load I run, have for 15 years and never had an issue with odor in mine. With front loaders, you Don't want to see it sudsing up when it is washing, if you do, then you're using too much or the wrong type of soap. One easy way to tell if you are using too much soap in front loader is to run a cycle with nothing in it and no soap, pick the longest, hottest cycle it has, and watch it run. If at about 20-40 mins into the cycle you see anything other than hot water splashing around, you're using too much soap.
This is becoming a book, I'll leave it at that, but if you have a question about what I've mentioned, please feel free to ask, I'm happy to try and help. Especially in this section.