Mould and black scum build up in drawer on WW11BB944DGHS1

[wileyc]

Hi - I am pretty religious about running auto clean cycles on the dispenser drawers (every 2 months) and generally cleaning the auto-dosing detergent drawer and the cavity where the drawer is housed. Im finding a lot of black scum and mould on the drawer and in the housing cavity. I don't live in a damp house. Does anyone else have this problem?

[andy_in_ireland]

yep , terrible black mould in my autodose drawer on my WW90T534 - I dont know why manufacturers cannot make their plastics like this out of anti-mould/anti-bacteria type material , and the same for the grey door gasket as well to stop mould ..... hold on I do , its cost! 

Haier at one time brought out a washing machine with an anti-mould grey door seal once I remember - their machines may still have it.

One thing you could try even though its a bit of hassle is after every wash pull out the drawer, wipe it , and when putting back in dont shut it up properly , leave it open a bit for air to help circulate around it and ventilate it

[wileyc]

Thanks...it's not just me then! My old Miele never had this problem. I imagine most people are not too diligent with cleaning the drawer or the cavity so I wonder if it causes any long term problems...

[andy_in_ireland]

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@wileyc wrote:

Thanks...it's not just me then! My old Miele never had this problem. I imagine most people are not too diligent with cleaning the drawer or the cavity so I wonder if it causes any long term problems...

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apart from smell like with anything when it gets mouldy the other issues i should imagine it could do if its bad is take the black mould down the pipe from the detergent drawer housing into the wash drum and transfer itself onto your clothes in the drum - in fact i think i remember reading before about someone was washing white shirts and were getting black spots and stains and it was this very problem that was causing it 

[EcoBubbleUser944]

My drawer needs a good scrub every 60 days max. The problem is that liquid detergent encourages mould build up, unlike powder (which contains oxygen based bleaching agents).

What I do is give all the parts a good spray and scrub, thoroughly wash and rinse the tanks and fill them with warm/hot water and run a pump clean twice (sometimes one isn't sufficient). After that, I wipe the whole unit, leave it to air dry overnight and it's all good to be put back and be refilled in the morning.

It's all very time consuming though. I've stopped filling the tanks on mine and stick to powder now. Pretty good results (though I use Ariel or Persil Bio. Non bio stuff isn't as good), and Auto Optimal Wash still detects soil levels and uses more water and does more reheats, but can't add detergent on its own.

[andy_in_ireland]

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@EcoBubbleUser944 wrote:
My drawer needs a good scrub every 60 days max. The problem is that liquid detergent encourages mould build up, unlike powder (which contains oxygen based bleaching agents).

What I do is give all the parts a good spray and scrub, thoroughly wash and rinse the tanks and fill them with warm/hot water and run a pump clean twice (sometimes one isn't sufficient). After that, I wipe the whole unit, leave it to air dry overnight and it's all good to be put back and be refilled in the morning.

It's all very time consuming though. I've stopped filling the tanks on mine and stick to powder now. Pretty good results (though I use Ariel or Persil Bio. Non bio stuff isn't as good), and Auto Optimal Wash still detects soil levels and uses more water and does more reheats, but can't add detergent on its own.

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With our other machine I found we used detergent in the drawer (Bio) but the sprays from the jets in the top of the soap dispenser drawer housing were not strong enough to dissolve the powder , so most times were left with a clump of un-dissolved washing powder detergent in the dispenser drawer and not going into the wash. 

I think now if I werent to use my autodose drawer now on our Samsung ww90t534 washing machine I think I would start using the capsules/pods just toss 1 or 2 capsules or use liquid in a dosing ball and put some lenor scent boosters in every wash and see how that worked out

[EcoBubbleUser944]

Forgot to add that I sometimes add powder in the middle of the laundry load when I need more than 70ml powder (which is what the drawer can really handle) once load sensing is done by pausing the machine just before it starts adding water. I haven't had any issues with powder build-up, though my water pressure is quite high so maybe that helps. I'm really not sure.

Liquid is still good to use for quick washes cause it dissolves much faster, but using a dosing ball is the best solution.

What a real shame. Good machines let down by cheap plastics which cannot resist mould buildup.