Why laundry smells bad after drying?

Introduction.

Every time you wash your cloth, it starts to smell bad after drying. It smells moldy. The smell disappears with time but it worries you. Is your washing machine defective? Is there a bad smell coming from your washing machine? Do you your wash your laundry well? Are the products you use responsible? Does a particular cloth contaminate your other linen with its smell?

We will go through all of these topics in this article to unravel the true from the fake.

The materials that make up our laundry.

To understand where these bad smells come from, you need to know all the elements involved in making these smells. We will start with the main thing, namely the laundry itself.

At the beginning of human history, we like to imagine our distant ancestors dressed in animal skins. The reality is that they had to use products at their immediate disposal ie leaves. This behavior is observed in monkeys using leaves as umbrella, so it is easy to imagine that humans have also used this strategy at the beginning.

Which brings us to the natural plant fibers still used today in the clothing industry: cotton, wool or linen to mention only those there. (There are many others!)
The fibers are natural and composed mainly of cellulose, and they degrade.
Not as fast as a plant that would degrade in nature, but it degrades anyway.

You feel the thing coming, dare I say?

Humus with a particular smell, a musty smell that is also found in our laundry!

Part of the bad smell of your laundry comes from the degradation of the natural fibers that compose it: it degrades.

But our laundry is not only made of natural fibers, today, our technology helping, we know how to manufacture synthetic fibers, chemical. In large part these new fibers are composed of hydrocarbon. You've already seen their names at least once in your life: Polyester, Polyamide, Polyurethane, Elastane, Acrylic

They also suffer a degradation even if it is small, and thus releases odorous particles adding to our mixture.

Cleaning products, another smelly source.

They are there to help with the washing, to take off the dirt and to guarantee us a clean cloth.
But they too are added to the list of products generating bad odors in your laundry. Indeed, the action of heat due to the hot water washing will also degrade detergents and other detergents.

Imagine the chemical cocktail that happens when you wash your laundry machine ...
I'm saving you the long list of products that can be found in a laundry.

Obviously much will be flushed out of their rinsing, but not everything! You will rinse many times, it will always remain.

Which will also lead us to a future article about the bad smells coming from the siphons and filters of our household objects and how to get rid of them.

The water quality, an element to take into account.

In our rare modern societies are those who still wash by hand. Yet many will tell you that the laundry was cleaner! At the time people used public wash house, close to a watercourse. The water did not stagnate like in a washing machine, the laundry was not washed in its own 'juice'.

But the water was also purer than today. Because we have to admit, we have abused chemicals and our waters are now polluted. These pollutants are present in minimal amounts in our reclaimed waters but add to our smelly mixture.

The return of bacteria, but not only!

Now that we have seen everything that could be a bad smell, here comes the return of bacteria. And yes, again our friends the bacteria are at work! We do not get rid of them like that! Especially with the feast that we prepare for each wash ... but they are not alone at the table: molds are also part.

According to major brands of washing machines, washing between 30 ° C (86ºF)  and 40 ° C (104ºF) produces the most odor.

You read correctly: the manufacturers are perfectly aware of this problem.

Always according to them, you need to air your washing machine to limit the development of bacteria and mold, as well as dust mites. If you do not, they will develop and colonize the linen you put in it.

Moreover, and it can be understood, washing at 30 ° C is not enough to kill the bacteria. This is also an optimal temperature for them!

To kill bacteria, mold and mites, it is necessary to wash above 40 ° C. More often between 60 ° C and 90 ° C. Now if you wash your clothes at this temperature, I do not guarantee the result!

So you can limit the proliferation of bacteria and molds to prevent unpleasant odors after drying.

I wonder what would be the action of a UV sterilizer for shoes in a washing machine. After all, this is again destroying bacteria ...

Conclusion.

Through this article, I hope to have taught you things. In any case, it was my case! Hoping that it is useful to most of you and that it avoids you to bring a home repairer who will make you pay a price not necessarily necessary.

Anyway, you should know that washing machine cleaners exist too.


As announced, we will see later the case of clogged pipes in a future article.


Down with bad smells!