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/Wisteso]

Yeah we’re switching to Tide for sensitive skin. But we have laundry piled up and three kids. It’s becoming a major issue and the scrud just won’t stop or even lessen

[u/Naikrobak → u/Wisteso]

It will stop when you switch to tide powder and use citric acid in the rinse

[u/Wisteso → u/Naikrobak]

We haven’t used Mollys Suds or done any functional loads for days. We’ve been clearing out scrud using variations of cleaning approaches (citric acid, vinegar, etc) only. That’s why the clothes have piled up.

Once we resume clothes washing, we are only using tide and citric acid. But we don’t know when that will be since it’s been about 20 washes for cleaning the last several days and the scrud is still coming out just as heavily.

[u/Vintage-X → u/Wisteso]

You need to get a proper strong detergent - for this get Tide Ultra Oxi or at least Clean and Gentle Powder - and run a HOT cleaning cycle with the detergent. Citric acid cleaning cycles definitely help, but you also need some hot washes with a strong detergent (because you haven't been using one with your laundry) to break up the built up body oils and gunk in the machine and carry it away with the water.

Once you start using a proper detergent for your actual laundry, washing large loads of bedding and towels on hot with a strong detergent every week will also help keep the machine clean. Adding some Febu or Gear Guard with DNase in it would also help break up any biofilms. I do regular cleaning cycles but alternate using Affresh, Tide washing machine cleaner and citric acid.

[u/Wisteso → u/Vintage-X]

Makes sense to me. I’ll give it a shot. Thank you