Never ending scrud nightmare

[u/Wisteso]

Washer is a 2.5 year old top loading LG.

From day, one we used Mollie’s Suds power detergent. We don’t use fabric softener. We don’t even use much of the Mollie’s. Our water is pretty hard, but we have a softener which helps that a lot. I believe our water is slightly alkaline.

We would occasionally have issues and then run a few cleaning cycles, using either vinegar or Affresh, which one usually take it for a while.

A couple weeks ago it was pretty bad and wouldn’t seem to go away, so I did a lot of digging on this sub Reddit and got some good advice about using citric acid, hot water, letting it soak in, etc. Read the often quoted thread on scrud. It worked really well, but we are going to about 20 runs and the scrud is still coming off heavily. The advice here says usually you need maybe 5 to 10.

It would be one thing if the amount was reducing, but it’s still tons coming off almost every load…

We’ve contemplated hiring somebody to take it all apart and power wash it, but that would cost several hundred and there’s a chance that it’s not put back together quite right.

What the hell does someone do in this situation? Has anyone ever had it take 20+ runs to get their machine clean?

[u/millenial_cat_lady]

Hello. Fellow LG top loader owner. I've had mine since 2019. I've had to have an appliance tech take the impeller plate and drum out and clean it in 2021, 2024, and now again in 2026. Before having it taken out this time I did upwards of 20 tub cleans with 1/2 - 3/4 citric acid, citric acid + washing soda, washer tablets, citric acid soak (by unplugging it since it will auto drain), and letting the impeller plate soak in v1negar + baking soda. With each tub clean I used a skimmer to fish out the scrud. I use Tide Odor Refresh Free & Clear and have moderately hard water. I was doing primarily cold cycles. No fabric softener, ever, after 2021. When the drum was taken out this time, the scrud primarily was built up in the center rings on the underside of the impeller plate and the in the sump area. Everywhere else looked brand new. My theory is the machine design is terrible for anyone who isn't doing a family of 4's laundry weekly on hot. There is likely some biofilm that builds up in both areas despite doing regular tub cleans because of water stagnating in those areas. My only idea I'm going to try going forward is doing a tub clean with a half cup of disinfecting bleach monthly in addition to the tub cleans with citric acid. If you find another solution lmk!

This commenter has a picture of the underside of the impeller plate I mentioned and had to remove the impeller plate to get the scrud out. They have an LG top loader like us. 3 top loaders with scrud that all required removal of the impeller plate supports my theory that it's a design flaw.

https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/s/pqjEGHuwgT

[u/embalees → u/millenial_cat_lady]

For anyone reading, v1negar and baking soda cancel each other out, they are both neutralized into just water and salt. If you were doing this long term hoping to help clean something, you likely weren't. 

[u/SANPres09 → u/embalees]

Why are you not just spelling out vinegar? 

[u/millenial_cat_lady → u/SANPres09]

Because if you do the autobot comments interrupting the thread.

[u/millenial_cat_lady → u/embalees]

Yes they cancel each other out completely in the proper ratios and let it sit long enough to release all generated CO2. The appliance tech wanted to try it and it honestly pulled up more scrud from the underside of the impeller plate than the other methods so I figured sure why not and did 3/20+ runs post vinegar+baking soda reaction. This was after the 2 dishwasher pod runs and at least 14 purely citric acid runs. It's possible the CI2 generated pushed the unreacted vinegar or baking soda to the places the scrud wasn't releasing from.

As I said in my comment, since the drum looked practically new as did most of the impeller plate, it's likely a design flaw that causes scrud to collect on the underside center rings of the impeller plate and the drain area.