My Bad Laundry Habit Was Making My Washer Smell — and the Fix Was Embarrassingly Simple

For months, I couldn’t work out why my washing machine smelled so bad. I cleaned the drum, dispenser drawer, and out-of-sight slime in the door seal, but a stale odor persisted, and my garments often came out sopping wet. Eventually, I called an appliance repair technician, thinking it was a mechanical problem. Instead, he quickly identified two of my laundry habits as possible contributors.

Believing it would help keep my clothes clean and fresh-smelling, I was habitually heavy-handed with detergent and often crammed too many clothes into the machine. I didn’t realize both were interfering with effective rinsing and leaving residue behind.

Ahead, I’ll share how I discovered why using too much laundry detergent and overfilling the drum were a problem, how I fixed it, and what two laundry scientists say you should be doing to avoid making the same mundane but major-impact laundry mistakes.

Why Too Much Detergent and Overloading Can Cause Problems

My technician identified the problem immediately after asking a few simple questions about my laundry care habits and taking a quick look inside the machine. To my surprise, rather than diagnosing an expensive mechanical fault, he patiently explained that I was guilty of making a couple of common washing machine operation errors.

I was frequently filling the cap almost to the top with concentrated detergent, which was contributing to residue buildup in my machine, creating damp conditions where odor-causing mold and bacteria thrive. In my case, that sludgy buildup was particularly noticeable inside the door seal and out-of-sight pipes.

Detergent overdosing can also leave residue on fabrics, making them feel stiff or less fresh, and excess suds can reduce friction between garments, so dirt may not loosen as effectively during the wash. These problems are even more apparent with a high-efficiency (HE) machine, which uses less water, making accurate dosing especially important.

If you have a habit of stuffing your drum full of garments, as I frequently did, it adds to inefficiency and unnecessary wear and tear.

“Clothes won’t tumble or circulate properly through the wash solution if the washer is overloaded,” says Mary Gagliardi, aka “Dr. Laundry,” Clorox’s in-house scientist and cleaning expert. “An overloaded washer may not be able to properly balance the load in the drum, preventing it from reaching high enough spin speeds, especially if there’s a single heavy item (like a large bath towel) that can throw the load out of balance during spinning.”

She explains that a machine that is spinning out of balance may automatically default to a lower spin speed, reducing extraction and resulting in ineffective rinsing. This fits with my experience, as loads were regularly emerging soaking wet, and this, combined with the bad odor, was what motivated me to call out the technician.

And don’t forget the waste. Every unnecessary glug of detergent means buying another expensive bottle sooner, using more electricity running extra rinse and spin cycles, and sending more chemicals down the drain into our wastewater systems.

How Much Laundry Detergent Should You Actually Use?

Don’t rely on my haphazard eyeballing method for measuring laundry detergent quantities, and be aware that there’s no single dose that works for every wash. The key lesson I took away from the experts I talked to isn’t simply to use less detergent, it’s to use the right amount.

Gagliardi recommends starting with the lowest amount specified by your detergent manufacturer, typically line one on the measuring cap or scoop or one detergent pack, and referring to your washer’s Use & Care Guide. You can then adjust for important variables such as load size, soil level, and water hardness.

“If you think you have hard water, check with the agency that supplies your water to see just how hard it is,” Gagliardi recommends. “Alternatively, you can have your water tested to see what the concentration of dissolved minerals is, and if there are any metals like iron or manganese.”

With hard water, she recommends using a liquid detergent and experimenting to see what produces good laundry results. “How much extra you add above the baseline recommendation depends on how hard the water is,” she says.

It’s also important not to swing too far in the opposite direction. Jennifer Ahoni, P&G Fabric Care Principal Scientist, points out that up to 70% of the soils on our clothes are invisible, including body oils, sweat residue, and odor-causing soils.

“Underdosing can limit cleaning performance, particularly with larger or heavily soiled loads,” Ahoni says. “If there isn’t enough detergent to capture and suspend soils in the wash water, dirt, and body oils can remain on fabrics or redeposit back onto clothing during the wash.”

What To Do If You’ve Been Overdosing and Overloading

Reducing my detergent dose wasn’t the only step I took to tackle the bad smells. Following my technician’s advice, I rinsed out the detergent dispenser and ran a high-temperature empty cycle with a manufacturer-approved odor-eating antibacterial washer solution. He also recommended replacing my old, stained, and perishing door seal, which had become a problem area for residue buildup.

I rewashed some clothes that had come out smelly to rinse away lingering detergent and, importantly, stopped cramming the drum quite so full.

If you’re experiencing similar problems, start by checking your washing machine’s manual for its recommended cleaning procedure. Ahoni advises running the washer’s cleaning cycle, if it has one, and, as I did, cleaning accessible washing machine areas where residue accumulates.

“Products such as Tide Washing Machine Cleaner can help remove odor-causing residue and help keep machines fresh when used as directed,” she says. She also points to auto-dosing technology in some newer washing machines as one way to take the guesswork out of measuring detergent.

The biggest lesson I’ve taken from all this isn’t simply to use less detergent. It’s to stop guessing. I now measure the right amount for the load according to the detergent manufacturer rather than automatically adding extra, and I’ve stopped stuffing the drum to the brim. Since making those changes, the persistent smell has disappeared, and my laundry no longer regularly emerges sopping wet. Most importantly, it’s made me rethink my embarrassingly long-held belief that more detergent and fuller loads equal cleaner clothes.

About the Experts

• Mary Gagliardi (aka “Dr. Laundry”) is Clorox’s in-house scientist and cleaning expert.
• Jennifer Ahoni is the P&G Fabric Care Principal Scientist.

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