Have you been struggling with getting the really good cleaning results from your washing machine that you had when you first bought it?
If your clothes are coming out of the machine after a cycle still smelling faintly musty or dirty, or even if they have stains then it’s pretty likely that your washing machine needs a clean.
When faced with this thought, your first idea might be to put some strong bleach into the detergent drawer or the drum itself and let the machine run.
But is this a good idea?
Putting bleach into your washing machine is a good way to clean it to keep it washing your clothes properly. This method is useful for cleaning the drum of the washing machine. This is applicable to most washing machines, but always check the manufacturer’s instructions to be sure.
In this piece we’ll look at the reasons for using bleach in your washing machine, the best way to do this and other ways to clean your machine if you can’t use bleach.
Why Would You Put Bleach in the Washing Machine?
As mentioned before, you may find that once your clothes come out the washing machine, they are not as clean as they should be and may even still smell quite bad.
If your washing machine happens to be dirty, then washing your clothes in it can actually end up doing more harm than good.
This is because your clothes won’t be coming out actually clean and you’ll most likely end up having to wash them again once you’ve sorted the problem, wasting time, water and detergent.
But don’t worry, having a dirty washing machine doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve done anything wrong.
Dirt, detergent, mould and hard water deposits (limescale) will build up naturally inside your washing machine purely through usage.
These things will all contribute to a musty smell inside the drum of your machine, which will in turn start to transfer over to clothes you try to wash in there.
As well as the benefits of actually being able to clean your clothes properly, cleaning the machine will also increase its efficiency, as if the build up is left for a long time it can really start to affect its power.
As an added bonus to these benefits, a regular cleaning schedule on your washing machine could also extend its lifespan.
So after reading all these benefits, you’re probably pretty convinced that cleaning your washing machine is definitely worth the time and effort it takes.
So let’s see how to use bleach to do this.
Using Bleach in Your Washing Machine
As you might have guessed, bleach is only really needed if the machine needs a pretty intensive clean.
Bleach can be pretty powerful stuff and will kill off lingering bacteria so this is a great choice for when you want to completely sterilise your machine.
To clean your washing machine with bleach is actually pretty simple. Adding a small amount of bleach (about 60 mL) to the drawer of your machine should be enough to give a fresh clean.
You can then run your washing machine on a hot cycle to clean the drum and inner workings out.
You should always to an extra spin and rinse cycle once the first one is completed to make sure that no traces of bleach remain in the drum.
If you still smell a faint bleach smell after this rinse, you can even do another rinse.
Bleach should never be used in conjunction with other cleaning products so always make sure that it’s just bleach that you’re using.
It can sometimes react with other products, which could cause damage to your washing machine.
It’s also very important to only use the recommended amount of bleach as hot water and bleach will often create a huge amount of foam.
Following this method should get rid of any stubborn stains or build up that you may have in your machine and leave your clothes smelling fresh after each wash again.
But maybe you don’t need to go quite so hard and use bleach?
Other Methods of Cleaning Your Washing Machine
There are a couple of other ways to clean your washing machine if you don’t need something as fierce as bleach.
Vinegar and baking soda
This is a classic home made cleaning solution that works pretty well in a lot of different settings.
To make the solution, you want to keep each bit separate until they mix inside the washing machine, otherwise you will end up with a huge mess!
Mix some baking soda (or bicarbonate of soda) with a small amount of water to make a thick paste.
This can be added directly to the detergent drawer. Then add a large amount (about 250 mL) of white vinegar to the drum of your washing machine.
You can then run a hot, long cycle and you’ll see the two reagents mix together and create a lot of foam, as well as clean stains and residue.
This mixture is also effective at getting rid of smells in the washing machine.
You will definitely want to run another hot spin cycle once the clean is finished to make sure that your washing machine doesn’t smell of vinegar!
Make sure to check the drum for smells before loading laundry into it to be sure that the smell is completely gone.
Soda crystals
These have been used for a while to get rid of grease and other stubborn stains.
You can directly add these to the drum and run a hot cycle to shift residue and grime.
This comes with the added benefit of no vinegar smell as soda crystals have a pretty neutral scent.
You may find you need to add vinegar anyway, particularly if you happen to live in an area that has hard water, since soda crystals on their own will not be effective against limescale build up.
To do this you can just add the vinegar to the drum with the soda crystals and run the machine on the hot cycle.
This will behave similarly to the baking soda/vinegar mixture, so again you will want to do an extra rinse after the wash cycle has finished.
Summary
So there it is!
You can indeed put bleach in your washing machine and this will be one of the most effective ways to clean it to keep your clothes clean.
Just make sure that you don’t use too much and that if you still smell the bleach after the wash it’s best to do another rinse to get rid of bleach residue.
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