Run a washer tub clean (and wipe a front-loader’s door gasket)
Keeps mold and odor out of the drum and, on a front-loader, the door seal.
Who: You can do it yourself.
How often: Monthly, or every 20-40 washes by maker. For: the clothes washer.
Safety first
- Never mix bleach and vinegar.
- No straight bleach on the gasket.
- Don’t interrupt the cycle or force a locked door.
- Wait an hour after a hot cycle before opening the pump filter.
What you need
- An affresh tablet, or 1 cup of liquid chlorine bleach (not thickened or no-splash). GE: bleach, vinegar or a washer cleaner.
- A shallow pan, for the pump filter.
Time: The clean cycle: about 90 minutes on a GE front-loader; on a Samsung, about 1 hour top-load or 4 hours front-load.
The part, and finding the right one
- Drain pump filter (clothes washer). On front-loaders, behind a small door at the bottom front: clean it monthly or every 40 washes. Top-loaders have none. The manual shows where yours is.
On a home’s record, each piece of equipment’s page links its manual and a search for its parts by brand and model. All filters and parts
How to do it
- Empty the drum; no detergent.
- Whirlpool: a tablet in the drum (not the dispenser), or 1 cup of bleach in the dispenser. GE: 1 cup of bleach, vinegar or cleaner in the drum. Samsung: nothing (bleach if it already smells). LG: press TubClean.
- Run Clean Washer, Basket Clean, Self Clean or TubClean (Sanitary if there’s none) and leave it to finish.
- After bleach: Rinse & Spin, or a light load.
- Front-load gasket: 3/4 cup of bleach in a gallon of warm water (or vinegar instead). Pull the lip back and clean under it, remove any objects, and check the holes behind the gasket are clear.
- Clean the dispenser drawer monthly.
- Front-load pump filter, monthly or every 40 washes: unplug, open the panel, drain into the pan, twist the filter counterclockwise, brush it, and put it back securely.
- Leave the door or lid and the drawer open, and wipe the door and gasket dry. Use HE detergent, and not too much.
If yours is a top-loader
No gasket and no pump filter: skip steps 5 and 7.
Normal
- A bleach smell.
- Suds after Self Clean (run it again).
- The door locked until it has drained.
- Two bursts from the pump at the start.
- A tablet not fully dissolved in a steam phase.
Needs attention
- A musty smell.
- The door leaking (a neglected gasket).
- Slow draining (the pump filter).
Keep track of it
Add your home to My homes: each piece of equipment gets this on its own schedule, with “Mark done” and reminders you can turn on.
Sources
Your owner’s manual comes first: where it says something different for your model, follow it.
Still stuck?
Email us at hello@tradewrench.com. Tell us which page you were on and what you were trying to do.