The door seal, drawer and filter: the three hiding places
Start with the rubber gasket on a front-loader. Peel it back gently with your fingers and look into the fold at the bottom. Expect grit, hair, a hair clip, and black speckling. Wipe the whole channel with a cloth dipped in hot soapy water, working all the way round, then dry it. If there is stubborn dark mottling, an old toothbrush and a little washing-up liquid will lift most of it; heavy staining in old rubber may never fully go, but removing the debris kills the smell.
Next, pull out the detergent drawer completely — most slide out with a press on a small tab — and soak it in hot water. Scrub the underside of the lid and the siphon tube where softener sludge collects. While it soaks, reach into the empty housing with a brush and clean the roof of the cavity, which is almost always furred.
Then the filter, behind the small hatch at the bottom front. Put a towel and a shallow dish down first, because water will come out. Unscrew it slowly, let it drain, remove whatever is trapped inside, rinse it and screw it firmly back. Top-loaders vary, so check your manual before hunting for a hatch that does not exist.
The maintenance wash, done right
With the parts clean, run the hottest cycle your machine offers, empty, with either a dedicated machine cleaner or a generous dose of your normal powder detergent. Powder contains cleaning agents that liquids often lack, and heat is what finally melts the greasy film. If your machine has a drum-clean or tub-clean setting, use that.
Once it finishes, wipe the drum and the seal dry and leave the door and the drawer open for a few hours. That is the single habit that prevents the problem returning: air. A machine that dries out between washes simply does not develop the same smell.
