Polyester holds body oils....and is difficult to wash clean. Try using smaller loads....and adding some borax and some oxygen bleach to your wash water.

Agree with lindac92.

I do a pre-wash cycle with half a dose of detergent and 1/2 cup of Borax in my top load washer--front load washer will use about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of Borax. I let it soak after agitating to release the odors and soils. Drain and rinse, then proceed to wash cycle with another half dose of detergent (use oxygen bleach too if it's a whites load). Makes a positive difference here. Borax helps your detergent work better and also is good for removing odors if you find your laundry is prone to not being sufficiently odor free after washing. Oxygen bleach will whiten your laundry, helps remove stains and assists with odor removal as well. I buy oxygen bleach on Amazon as I don't get useful results from brand name oxyclean.

Also, use a cycle that enables you to increase wash time and temperature of water, such as Heavy Duty or similar. Hot and warm temp washes are your friends. Cold water washing is not going to get body oils and odors out as well as hotter water will. Get some powder detergent, such as Tide, All, Gain as powder tends to 'scrub' the fibers better than liquid for many people. Turn on extra rinse cycle as detergent residue can be a cause of freshly washed, but smelly laundry.

Hope that helps. :)

How much detergent are you using? Are you using a front loader or top loader? If top loader, is it he?

I have a front loader. I have found that washing in warm or hot will help with stink. Also, if you use too little OR too much detergent, you can have stink. Finally, make sure that you are rinsing completely. If you do not rinse completely, then the stink can stay then, too.

HU-318847582,

The first questions are what water temperature are you using, and what brand/model is your washing machine?

Generally, bad smells are attributed to a buildup of body oils or detergent residue, both of which start to turn rancid and cause the bad odors. My suggestion is to change the temp on your washer to "hot" to help release the body oils and add an extra rinse to all your cycles, especially if you're using a Whirlpool/Maytag front load washer (they are notorious bad rinsers). If you have a front-loader, you might also have a build up of detergent residue on all the inner workings of your washer. Run a cleaning cycle with Lemishine Machine cleaner to dissolve the funk.

Thank you all, I will try some of your advices,I use a front loader from Indesit. the washer is new and the clothes smell, even with the old washing machine clothes had a bad smell, and we changed it. I use hot temp. I don t know what it could be...

What detergent do you use and how much? What temperature do you typically use as well?

Think about how many times you wear the clothes before washing. And think about how often you bathe/shower. It all makes a difference along with how you launder your clothes. Just sayin'.

How much detergent is being used and is it liquid or powder. Do you know if you have hard water as well?

Indesit ... you're in the UK, yes? Does the machine have onboard water heating (much more common there than in the U.S.)? You shouldn't have any trouble getting whatever temperature you want within its heating choices.

The odor problem remains a mystery!

It's harder for a front loader to soak, but you might run something like Oxyclean with a little detergent with the clothes. Or, better yet, soak the offending clothing in a bucket with Oxyclean first. 8 hours is a good time to soak them.

What Sea Sea said...Very good advice.

I m from Romania, not UK. I use this site because no one in Romania gave me the advice I needed. I use both liquid and powder detergent. We have hard water in here. thx for all your comments!!!

Most care labels suggest washing at 30 or 40, so if you have to wash at anything hotter than that as a default in order to get rid of the smells, you've not really solved the underlying problem. It is just an energy inefficient work-around that is not going to be good for your clothes in the long-term. Most detergents I have seen are designed for washing at 30 or 40, but maybe you need to try different ones. We live in a hard water area and I use a capful of vinegar in the rinse cycle and find that helps, especially with the ironing. There are a few things you could try in order to identify where the problem is.

Does all the laundry smell (including towels and bed linen), or is it just clothing? Is it all clothing or just some items or some individual's? Do brand new clothes come out smelling the same? If it is only some items, then it might be down to a deodorant or fragrance that someone is wearing. You could try washing each person's clothes separately to see if there is one culprit who is causing the stink.

Try hand-washing a few items in the same detergent to see if you get the same smell. Ideally, choose items that are fairly clean and do not smell before you wash them. If you get the smell, it might be a combination of your water and detergent.

Buy a cheap bedsheet or other new material and wash it. If you get the smell, then you know it is not body odor or fragrance, but a problem with the machine, water or detergent.

Ask your neighbour if you can use their machine for a couple of loads. Try one with your detergent and one with theirs. Perhaps ask if you can try their detergent in your machine.

When do you first notice the smell? When they come out of the machine? When they are drying? When you iron them? If the latter, check you have cleaned the steam nozzles of the iron.

I know you have cleaned the drum, dispenser, etc., and you say the machine is new, but you can get special detergents that clean the machine throughout. It might be worth running one of those through it.

Is there any noticeable difference if you machine dry the clothes or just dry them normally on the line? Any difference between drying indoors or outdoors.

Are you able to check that there is nothing in the water supply that is causing the issue? Disconnect the water hose, run a bucket of water and see if you can smell anything odd. As a last resort, you could try connecting the machine up to a different part of the house.

It might come down to trial and error before you find the underlying issue.

Have you tried using Borax in the wash? Helps to both soften the water and remove odors. Worth a try.

30°C is 86°F which is less than body temperature so poses a challenge to dissolve skin sebum and such in fabrics.

40°C is 104°F which is better but only marginally.

Per Ci_Lantro's suggestion, borax is a good additive to combat odors.

yes, all the laundry smell even the brand new clothes. When they come out of the machine they smell like detergent and fabric softner but combined with a bit of bad smell. They smell even if they are dried in the dryer or on the line. Also, when I wash my hair it doesn t smell like shampoo when I dry it, it smells also bad and I think it could be a problem with my water...But why my neighbours don t have this problem? I m confused

It could be your water heater. There is a sacrificial anode placed in the tank that starts to degrade before the water heater fails; it can give a foul odor to heated water.

Sacrificial Anode link: Sacrificial_Anode

As in whole house water heater tank.

It sounds like you are using too much detergent or your new washer isn't rinsing that well. Try adding another rinse to your cycles and see if that helps.

Detergent residue can cause that underlying bad odor you describe.

Washers are usually connected to both hot and cold water supplies, except not always in countries that have higher than 120v power service as the norm. I don't know what's the standard in Romania.

Wow, you gave me lots of good information I wouldn’t think of. Thank you so much, I will try someone s washer and I will try and do something if I see it s just my problem.

Dadoes, Romania is in Europe, so will be 220 to 240v. Very few countries outside North America use 120v (Saudi Arabia and Taiwan are the only two I have come across*).

I have never seen a washing machine connected to a hot water supply in Europe (West or East). I am not sure if you can still get new machines with hot and cold fill, but any A-rated machine would have to be cold fill only (and needs to be correctly plumbed to the cold water supply), as it is more energy efficient for the machine to heat the water it needs. Modern wash cycles use very little water, so water taken from the hot pipe is unlikely to be very hot anyway. The enzymes in biological detergent are killed off and therefore become ineffective at high temperatures, so the water only needs to be heated to 40c/104f, which the machine can easily heat to.

HU-318847582, do you know if the machine is connected to the hot water supply? Also, do you have your own hot water boiler or are you connected to your city hot water and heating system?

*I am told that Japan and a few south American countries also use 110v, but I can't vouch for that.

Ecuador uses 110v just like the US

I'm still curious about how much detergent you are using? Are you filling the washer and using the required amount? Or more? Or less? How many rinses are you doing? I found that when I was in Bulgaria I had to do more rinses (this was several years ago).

Just to say for the record ... the residential voltage standard in the U.S. is 120v and 240v. No longer 110v and 220v except perhaps in unusual instances. It's still commonly referred as such but that is not correct.

Checking my 120v outlets with a multimeter, the reading is 123.4v.