Last Updated on September 22, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Mold in a washing machine lives in four places, and the drum is not one of them. It grows in the fold of the front-door rubber seal, in the detergent drawer and its housing, in the pump filter at the bottom front, and under a door that gets closed on a wet drum. All four are dark, damp and never fully drain. That is why running a hot cycle with a cleaning product changes almost nothing: the water goes round the drum, and the mould is in a trough the water never reaches.
Before the cleaning, the reframe. Front-loader odour is not a niche housekeeping failure — it is a documented characteristic of sealed, low-water machines. Consumer Reports covered the settlement: a case “involving 5.6 million Whirlpool, Maytag, and Kenmore front-loaders made by Whirlpool”, covering machines “made between 2001 and 2010”, with LG separately settling over “up to 800,000 front-loaders bought in the U.S. between 2002 and 2006” (Consumer Reports). Five and a half million machines is not a user-error problem.
Why the door seal grows it and the drum does not
The rubber bellows between the cabinet and the outer tub has to flex, so it is made as a fold. That fold sits at the lowest point of the door opening and it is the only part of the wash system that is never emptied. Water, lint and dissolved detergent collect there at the end of every cycle, the door shuts on it, and the temperature stays mild for hours. Samsung states the condition plainly: “When moisture or other residue (such as leftover detergent or other additives) is trapped in a dark place, it may promote the growth of mold and mildew and may cause unpleasant odors” (Samsung).
Top-loaders are not immune, but they fail differently. There is no bellows and no sealed door, so the growth turns up around the upper rim of the tub, under the lid lip, and in the dispenser cups — places that dry out faster and are easier to reach. A top-loader that smells is usually telling you about detergent dose rather than about a design trough.
How to remove mold in washing machine seals, drawers and filters
Work through the four sites in order. This is a wiping job, not a cycle-running job, and it takes about twenty minutes.
- The door seal. Pull the fold back with your fingers and look inside it. Wipe the trough out with a cloth and your chosen cleaner, then go round the underside where the drain holes sit. GE’s own instruction is stated twice in one short procedure: “Make sure there is nothing blocking the holes behind the gasket.” Clear them with a cotton bud.
- The dispenser drawer. Pull it out fully — most release with a catch in the softener compartment — and wash the drawer and the housing above it. The roof of the housing is where the slime is, and you cannot see it without a torch.
- The pump filter. Open the access flap at the bottom front, put a shallow tray down first, and unscrew the filter. Expect about a cup of water. Rinse the filter and wipe the housing.
- The drum. Now run the tub clean or self clean cycle, with whatever the manufacturer’s own manual specifies. Samsung’s mildew page says to “Pour liquid chlorine bleach into the detergent compartment and fill it to the max line. Do NOT use the bleach compartment”, then start immediately — “Do not leave liquid chlorine bleach in your washer.” Self Clean runs “approximately 1 hour for top load washers and 4 hours for front load washers.”
- Dry it. Leave the door and the drawer open afterwards and let the whole thing air out before the next load.
Do the wiping first and the cycle last. A tub clean run on a seal you have not touched just recirculates the problem for four hours.
The vinegar disagreement, with both names attached
Two manufacturers publish opposite instructions for the same liquid, and averaging them would be dishonest.
Samsung permits it on the hottest cycle the machine has: “The Sanitize cycle (for applicable models) will use exceptionally hot water, which can help to clean the inside of the tub. When running the cycle, up to 6 cups of distilled white vinegar or bleach may be added directly into the tub to assist in eliminating odors” (Samsung: washing machine or laundry smells bad). Note where it goes — “directly into the tub,” not a dispenser — and that the same page allows that “Multiple cycles may be necessary to remove stubborn odors.”
Maytag says the opposite in its headline: “No, you should not pour vinegar in your washing machine drum. The acidity can damage rubber seals, hoses and other components of your washer over time.” It does allow a limited use — “White vinegar isn’t harmful to all washing machine parts. You may be able to use it on some dispensers, doors and other external surfaces” (Maytag). Worth knowing: that page footnotes that the cleaner it recommends instead is owned and distributed by Whirlpool Corporation. GE sits between the two, permitting “mild detergent, diluted bleach or diluted vinegar” on the gasket provided you “wipe away any cleaning solution with warm water before using the Washer.”
The pattern is dwell and rinse. Every procedure that permits vinegar either runs it straight through a cycle or has you wipe it off afterwards; the warnings are about repeated, unrinsed exposure. No manufacturer publishes an exposure time or a concentration threshold behind the seal-damage claim, so treat it as direction rather than measurement. More on the trade-offs in vinegar in a washing machine.
One rule is not up for debate. Never mix bleach with vinegar, and never follow one with the other in the same drum. Whirlpool’s own wording is “Never use vinegar and bleach together, however.” Pick one chemistry and rinse before switching.
What actually stops it coming back
Here is the position this site will defend: leaving the door and the drawer open is worth more than every cleaning product in this article combined, and it costs nothing. Samsung prints it as the first prevention step — “Leave the lid or door open to let the washing machine dry. Also leave the detergent drawer open to help it dry as well.” Mould needs standing moisture in the dark. Remove the darkness and the standing water and the fold stops being habitat. Cleaners treat the symptom; the open door removes the condition. The counter-argument, which is a real one, is small children and a reachable drum — see should you leave the washing machine door open for how to handle that.
Three supporting habits do the rest. Take the wet load out when the cycle ends rather than at bedtime. Cut the detergent dose — residue is food, and most people overdose a low-water machine by a wide margin. And wipe the seal fold dry once a week, which takes fifteen seconds and is the single highest-yield thing in the whole routine. If the growth is already established in the rubber, how to clean a washing machine gasket covers the deeper clean.
FAQ
Is mold in a washing machine dangerous?
For most people it is an odour and a laundry problem rather than a medical one. If anyone in the house has asthma or a mould allergy, treat it as worth removing promptly. Wear gloves, and open a window while you are scrubbing.
Does vinegar kill mold in a washing machine?
Manufacturers disagree, and this site will not pretend otherwise. Samsung permits up to six cups of white vinegar in the tub on a hot Sanitize cycle. Maytag says not to pour vinegar in the drum at all. If you use it, dilute it, keep it off the rubber for long periods, and rinse.
Can you use bleach to clean a washing machine gasket?
Yes — Whirlpool publishes a dilution of 3/4 cup of liquid chlorine bleach to one gallon of warm water, wiped on the seal and left for five minutes. Never combine it with vinegar or any other cleaner.
Why does my washing machine still smell after a clean cycle?
Almost always because the seal fold and the drawer housing were not wiped. A cleaning cycle moves water around the drum; it does not reach the trough behind the gasket or the roof of the dispenser housing. Wipe both, then re-run it.
Should I leave the washing machine door open all the time?
Leave it open until the drum, the seal and the drawer are dry — that is the part that matters. Samsung’s prevention step is to leave both the door and the detergent drawer open so the machine can dry. Once everything is genuinely dry, closing it changes nothing.
Do top-load washers get mold too?
They do, just less and in different places — the upper rim of the tub, under the lid, and in the dispenser cups. There is no bellows fold, which is why the problem is smaller and easier to reach on a top-loader.
Leave the door open
If your front-loader smells, you have not been doing laundry wrong. You have met a known characteristic of a sealed, low-water drum, and several million people met it before you. The fix is unglamorous and it is mostly mechanical: pull the fold back, wipe the trough, clear the drain holes, empty the filter, then run the cycle the manual specifies. After that, the door stays open.
The products are optional. The wiping is not.
