LESLIE: Talking to Amy in Alaska who listens to The Money Pit on KENI. What’s happening at your house? Something with a washing machine?
AMY: Yes. (giggles) Kind of gross.
LESLIE: OK, we’re ready for it.
TOM: OK, we’re ready.
AMY: (giggling) We bought this home about, oh, probably four or five months ago and they left the washer and dryer. And …
LESLIE: And they left their smelly with them.
AMY: It’s kind of smelly. It smells like rotten eggs. Not all the time; just every once in a while. And (INAUDIBLE).
TOM: And you’ve not been washing your eggs in the dryer, is that correct?
AMY: That’s correct. (Tom chuckles)
LESLIE: (chuckling) Do you notice the smell when it’s on or in between usage? When are you finding that it’s stinky?
AMY: It’s stinky when I put a load in the washer and it starts. The water is – the cycle actually starts.
TOM: Well, here’s a suggestion. What you might want to do is run the washing machine without any clothes on hot water with a gallon of bleach dumped into the whole thing.
LESLIE: That much bleach? Really?
TOM: That will sanitize every piece of the plumbing system associated with the washing machine and it will not hurt the washing machine. And there’s going to be nothing left that smells after that. I would run it once with a high bleach solution and then I would run it again just plain. And that’s going to clean out anything in that washing machine that’s giving you an odor.
AMY: OK. Would it have anything to do with a hot water heater?
TOM: It could. Sometimes water heater develop sulfur smells. And how old is the water heater?
AMY: It’s fairly new, actually. I think it’s between three and four years old.
TOM: Hmm, probably not.
AMY: OK.
TOM: Probably not. I’d run the bleach through the washing machine, Annie (ph). I think that’s going to probably clean it up.
Annie (ph), thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply