Here is the deal. I had checked everywhere, and a new in box washing machine seemed to be pretty much impossible to find. Even floor models were few and far in between. I went to look at a floor model not too far away from where I live at an appliance liquidator, but it was so beat up that I would have assumed that it would have been used only for parts. The worst part is, they still wanted $1000 for it. I had pretty much given up on the idea. One night my wife and I were going into Walmart and beside Walmart is a Future Shop store (chain store in Canada owned by Best Buy) which sells electronics and appliances. I know that they used to sell these models because during my search for this machine I found some posts back in the summer on Red Flag Deals when they were clearing them out. I thought maybe I should go in and check as teh last resort to see if there happens to be a floor model kicking around or possibly if they could see in their system if a floor model exists anywhere. As I am walking towards the appliances I am doing a scan of the machines on display and of course I do not see anything. Then all of the sudden, my wife stops, and I look at what she is looking at and I see an Anthracite Bosch machine sitting out in the end cap. At first glance I figured it was another dryer as teh dryers are easy to find, but upon closer look it was a washer! It appeared to be in good shape too. Price on it was marked at $899, which isn't a deal compared to what others were getting back in the summer, but when I can get the matching dryer for $296 brand new in the box it works out pretty good. The salesman wouldn't go down in price, but I bargained for a 5 year extended warranty which in the end we settled on a reduction of $150 on the price and then add back in $200 for extended warranty. So $949 was final price and $296 for the dryer. Picked up the washer last week and the dryer on Sunday. Have them all hooked up and wow these really are nice machines. Way nicer than my old front loader, which never gave me any problems but didn't have internal heater and such. The only thing I am slightly disappointed in is the drain pump on the washer is louder than I figured it would have been, and that sort of scares me when it is a floor model. It isn't louder than my old front loader, I just would have expected it to be really quiet being a Bosch. The dryer is also louder than I thought it would be when it is cool, but as it warms up it gets quieter. According to the manual this is normal until the rollers heat up. Again being a Bosch I had higher expectations. The colour is a perfect match for our Montak Black honed slate floors that we are going to do in the laundry room. I am glad I did a bit of leg work to find these machines. Ideally I wouldn't have bought a floor model as floor models scare me, and that is why I took the extended warranty which I would not have bothered with if it was new in the box. Hopefully I wasted my money on the extended warranty and never need to use it. Apparently earlier that day someone else was in the store and asked the sales guy if he could put the machine on hold but was told that they can not do so with floor models. Did I get lucky? Time will tell I suppose.

Please allow me to post my opinion and experience on this stinky issue. I am the owner of a HE3T washer, and I am really unhappy with it, mainly because of the smelly and moldy issue, that crept up on us unexpectedly. My wife and I have 4 kids, so doing laundry is a daily affair, and not to be underestimated or procrastinated either... I am on the verge of throwing that ugly beast out of the laundry room for good. It is unbearably revolting to pick up an (alleged) clean towel to dry one's face just out of the shower, and "smear" moldy smell all over you. The vomit factor is very high on this one.... :-( However, I want to highlight a point, and that this issue is NOT an issue with ALL the FL (front loader) washing machines in general. Maybe just US made ones... Overseas, ( Italy ) where I grew up, FL are 99.999999% of laundry machines available on the market and this issue is completely unknown. To put it simply, I am now 45 years of age, I have lived in Italy 28 of those years, and I have never, ever, seen or heard of moldy smell on clean laundry out of the washer. Never. If you knew my mother (she redefines the word "neat freak") you would understand. Just the hint of a remote possibility of having mold in the washer and/or laundry, would bring that washer in the front yard in flames... Seriously, I believe US manufacturers have gone wrong somewhere in the making of this machines. They either cut one too may corners ( quality of rubber, maybe ?) or are attempting to reduce the amount of water in the cycle at the point where the quality of the rinse cycle is not an issue with them, and us as consumers are not part of the equation. I just came back from a one year of living in Italy with wife and kids, and the FIRST thing we notice, ever single time we go over there, is how much fresher and overall incredibly better smell of "clean laundry" they have from their washers. I know, we are weird... and on the contrary, as soon as we are back to the US, and to our $#@! HE3T, we pick up the moldy smell again. The customer/user/consumer SHOULD NOT have to do any gimmicks or use any "special" tablets, in order to operate these washers, or any washer, for that matter, NOT A SINGLE ONE. This washers are NOT cheap and they should just... well, work. Living in Italy for the last 12 months, we used two washers, one that came with the apartment we rented, and besides a slower spin cycle, it worked as expected (put dirty clothes in, put detergent, push the button, wait, get wet CLEAN laundry out, END OF THE story. Then the landlord needed his washer back, and for a "rent discount" he took that one back, and I got my old 12 years old Miele washer out of storage. This Miele has a somewhat smaller load capacity than most, and it worked for a family of 6 for a long time. Same for my mother's Candy ( Italian brand), and my sister's old Italian washer (San Giorgio). That one lasted 16 years of day in and day out operation for a family of six. It is just so frustrating, since I know that as a concept, FL do work very well, I have seen it work for decades... and one more time, we should NOT need to use "tablets" or do complicated procedures to have clean and good smelling laundry. As I said before, millions of people overseas use FL day in and day out, without doing anything else other than 1) put dirty laundry in 2) select cycle 3) put detergent in 4) push button 5( get clean clothes out. End of the story. Kenmore, Sears, whatever, get your acts together !!

So to reiterate, it's not my washer, it's in my parents' rental. The tenant was apparently kind of clueless when it came to appliances. Mold and mildew fortunately doesn't seem to a problem, it's a combo of a year's worth of limescale from the very hard water, massive buildup from overdosed liquid detergent and fabric softener, and I'm sure a lovely biofilm as well. I believe the bulk of the detergent residue is gone at this point, so it's mostly a matter of getting the scale off the drum, which may take a couple of washes. The scum on the boot and outer edge of the casket will also need to be cleaned off manually, but I think I'm going to let my parents deal with that parent ;) @Sparky, that's interesting about them recommending cold water with the vinegar wash, and it does make a certain amount of sense. I know citric acid has to be used hot, but that's because calcium citrate isn't very soluble at lower temperatures. In my own experience vinegar isn't the best at dealing with scale, but it's great at taking off hard water soap scum. We always just pour it straight into the tub or wherever, without any hot water, let it sit for a while and the soap scum usually comes off in flakes when you scrub it.

It wouldn't be kind to lock a cat in with a motion scare any more than it is kind to lock them in with a scent deterrent. The laundry room is pretty much the only safe space that cat has known since a kitten- they got it last May and it's still considered too young to be left alone in the house. It's locked in there during night hours and probably during day hours when they are out of the house too. So a lot of it's training, bonding, and comfort time is spent alone locked in the laundry room. Putting scent deterrents or jump scares into the little safe space they are locked into and can't escape is just cruel. It's not nice to do it to an animal that can escape the fear and get out of the room/space with it, but it can be effective training if used humanely. To do it to to a trapped animal is just not OK. It would be kinder to rehome it, even if the kids do like playng wth it when it's allowed out of the room.