Why does my front load washer smell, and how do I fix it?

A front loader seals tightly and uses little water. Both are good for your bills and bad for drying out. Detergent and fabric softener residue collects in the fold of the rubber door boot, in the dispenser drawer and in the drain filter, and cold washes never get hot enough to clear any of it.

The smell is that residue going biological. It is not usually a sign the machine is failing, and replacing the machine without changing the habits produces the same smell in the new one within a year.

Peel back the rubber door boot and wipe the whole fold out. This is where the smell lives and it is the step people skip. Expect to find gray slime, hair and the occasional coin.

Pull the dispenser drawer right out and wash it. Clean the drain filter behind the kick panel at the bottom front, with a towel and a shallow tray down first because there is usually a quart or two still in there. Then run an empty cycle on the hottest setting the machine has, with either a machine cleaner or plain white vinegar in the drum.

One pass may not do it if it has been building for a year. Two or three hot empty cycles a week apart is normal for a bad one.

Leave the door and the dispenser drawer ajar between washes. This single habit prevents most of it.

Use less detergent, and use HE detergent in an HE machine. Most people use several times what the machine needs, and the excess does not rinse away, it stays. Run a hot wash occasionally rather than everything cold. Take laundry out promptly rather than leaving it damp in the drum overnight.

If there is standing water in the drum or the filter housing that keeps coming back after you clear it, the machine is not draining properly and that is a repair. Same if water sits in the door boot after every cycle.

A torn or perished door boot needs replacing rather than cleaning, and you will usually see the tear in the lower half of the fold. A drain hose routed wrongly into the standpipe can also let sewer gas back into the machine, which smells quite different from mold and is worth saying on the phone.