an excellent idea for a thread i’m sure you all agree 🙄

anyway, have any of you ruined your washing machines at home by washing muddy riding gear at least once a week in it?

my wife is blaming me for the demise of our machine, saying it just can’t take what i’m giving it

clothes are now coming out and don’t smell fresh after being washed and the door seal has a permanent mucky look/feel to it…

i know the seal can be replaced, but surely it’s not all my fault.. is it? 🙁

she’s talking about making me wash my riding gear at the launderette for goodness sakes 😐

I always rinse stuff in a bucket or two of water before thinking of going in the machine. Last machine did 9 years and we only changed it as we fitted a new kitchen

2 x dishwasher tablets + boil wash = clean washing machine 🙂

Also if you use liquid you should revert to powder, liquid is responsible for the mould and smell, can’t remember how or why but Google told me so!

There was a thread about this a few months ago with some solutions

They ain’t complicates, take the back off, remove pipes from pump and clean out filter. Reassemble, couple of boil washes with detergent (or white vinegar or whatever it is) and then see how it is.

My wife tries to kill ours with horse rugs covered in hair and poo as well as our cycling gear, won’t die!

right…. thanks for the top tips lads.. i shall have a butchers

Our machine is many (15) years old does at least one load a day and has washed my kit after every ride, twice some days and certainly more than once a week (probably 4 times a week on average). I’d look somewhere else for the reason for your machine troubles, do you live in a hard water area? do you use enough detergent?

Should not matter. Our machine is 10 years old, used to wash nappies in it. Anything muddy I will put straight into the machine and put it on a cold rinse first. Then wash as normal. This really gets all the mud/stains out. Has never caused any trouble with our machine.

You’ve killed a washing machine by putting dirty clothes in it? What are you supposed to put in there, clean ones?

Don’t know what you are talking about. My washing goes in this magic basket in the bathroom, 2 days later it turns up on the bed clean.

Really muddy stuff gets hung up in the garage until dry and then shaken, gets 90% of the mud off and depending on the item can either be washed or re-worn.

You can wash riding gear?

Ours got ‘gunked’ up after nearly 10 years hard labour, and again developed a smell and manky look.
Took out the sump drain catcher thing (we do this regularly, I cannot believe that some machines do not have this) and emptied the usual coins/paper wad/random hair clips and suchlike.
Cleaned door seal and drum by hand.
Took out detergent drawer and realised in the back of their was awful, so lots of stick-with-cloth on, bleach and boiling water.
Then put the whole machine on a boil wash, with a dose of cleaner of some kind in.
Another boil wash to flush cleaner out.
Sparkly and clean.

matt_outlander ++

You need to periodically kill the organisms growing on the rich diet of detergent and crap.

You’re riding gear is not the problem!

Mudguards. End of thread.

I had this earlier in the year. It’s caused by mould. I had to get a new seal and do the boil wash with the magic cleaner twice, then a few rinses to get rid of the last of the loose mould. Google it and there’s info there.

Modern low temp washes and liquid detergents are a part of the problem amd the plastic drums are worse. Dry the seal and leave door and drawer open after use to prevent recurrence.

That last sentence is the best advice in the entire thread.