We have had our front loading high efficiency (HE) washing machine for about 5 years now.
It works very nicely, doing it’s thing without any fanfare. It uses less water and energy than our former top loading washing machine. Here is a picture of it, the Duet front loading washing machine from Whirlpool.
However, for the past year or so we have noticed an odor coming from inside the machine. Why is this starting all of a sudden after several years of no issues?
We don’t think it’s anything to do with the plumbing.
So Cath, my wife, went on the Internet (imagine that, using the Internet for information 
) several weeks ago and search for possible causes.
What she found was that we were not alone; others with HE washing machines seemed to have similar issues.
Even being sure to leave the door open after using the machine to let the inside air dry didn’t really seem to help.
In doing her research she found out above a new product called affresh, which is nothing more than a tablet that you place directly inside the washing machine on it’s own and run the normal cycle using hot water.
So, that is what we did. If you look closely in the above picture you can see the white tablet inside the washer in the upper part of the picture at the start of it’s usage.
Once the cycle finished, sure enough the odor was gone. According to both the packaging and the product web site, the tablet dissolves and removes the order causing residue, including what you can’t see with the naked eye.
Once the cycle was finished sure enough no more odor. It’s been 2 weeks since we first used it and the odor has not returned. 
The package recommends using a tablet once a month.
The 3-pack cost us around $12 at our local big box building supply retailer. Cath found it not in the aisle with different cleaning products but right with the washing machine display.
Or you can order it directly from their web site affresh.ca or affresh.com.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Chad // Jun 16, 2009 at 12:09 am
Rather than spending $4 per month on a “cleaning” tablet (I’ll bet its just baking soda anyways) here is a totally free way to keep your washer from getting “stinky”. Just leave the door open in between washes. Front loaders are air tight unlike top loaders which don’t need to be air tight to keep water in.
What happens to water in an air tight space? You start to get mold and mildew! So leave the door open. Also leaving the detergent dispenser open helps too. If it does get a little smelly, run a cycle with some vinegar.
2 Dan // Jun 16, 2009 at 2:30 am
Hi Chad,
Actually no……..at least not in our case.
We did that and after 4 years we started to get that ‘arroma’.
No, you would loose that bed that the tablet is simply baking soda.
Sorry,
Dan
3 Ron // Jul 2, 2009 at 8:23 am
I’ve looked at the small print - the active ingredients are stated to be sodium carbonate (baking soda, available in bulk for about $2 per kilogram) and sodium percarbonate (effectively a combination of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, available in bulk for under $4 per kilogram). The price is $2.33 for a 40-gram tablet (over $4 in England), but its active ingredients cost no more thsn twelve cents.
4 josh // Dec 16, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Although you can get the active ingredients, you still have a small problem. The tablet is designed to have the ingredients slowly dissolve. You would lose your cleaner after the first rinse.
5 Dan // Dec 16, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Hi Josh,
As I understand it, from the product packaging of the “Used once a month, Affresh washer keeps yoru machine fresher and cleaner by removing the odor-causing residue and cleaning the mold and mildew stains in all HE washers”.
Dan
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