Vinegar Washing Machine Clean: An Effortless Solution

Last updated on April 3rd, 2024

If you’re anything like me, keeping the house clean feels like a never-ending battle, especially when it comes to laundry. But fear not, because I’ve got a trick up my sleeve that’ll not only keep your bath towels hygienic and fresh, but will also ensure your washing machine stays healthy and clean – especially if you usually run cold washes only. It’s all about washing towels.

Let’s talk about those bath towels – they’re little germ magnets, right? With all the moisture they soak up, and the humid environment they spend much of their time, it’s no wonder they need a good wash frequently to eradicate those musty smells. But here’s the thing – putting those musty towels into your washer on a cold wash is also a great way to accidentally dose your washing machine with humidity loving microbes. The same microbes causing that musty towel smell , you’ve just introduced them into your washer, where they’ll happily set up camp, especially loving the nooks and crannies of the rubber door boot.

The Issue with Cold Wash Cycles

If you wash on cold cycles either to save money or for sustainability reasons – or both – your machine, especially the rubber seals, will be particularly susceptible to microbe invasion. While washing on cold cycles is a great way to save money and is the more sustainable way to go, you also want you washing machine to, well, wash – and part of that is sanitisation. Cold water washes do little to nothing to kill microbes, and they thrive in the humid environment inside your washing machine if they get established. Using hot water as a sanitising agent is the more sustainable option as opposed to waiting for the machine to become a mould infested heath hazard that at best needs bleach and harsher chemicals to resolve, and at worst sees the machine thrown away well before its time.

A Simple Solution: A Hot Wash, Once a Week

I’ve found the best way to keep my machine fresh is by throwing my towels in for a spin at 60°C (140°F) once a week. If you make a habit of washing your towels once a week, it also sets a good sanitation schedule for the washer, and the rest of the time you can continue washing on cold cycles. Here’s the beauty of it – by keeping up with those weekly towel washes, you’re inadvertently staying on top of washing machine maintenance too. It’s a two for one, a three for one if you count the built in reminder to sanitise your machine. You’ve gotta love the efficiency! I recommend a wash temperature of around 60°C, but you can go hotter if you want to. Higher temperatures result in faster, and more certain elimination of microbes:

At 90°C (194°F), bacteria and moulds are eradicated within minutes.
At 60°C (140°F), it takes around 30 minutes to achieve the same level of sterilization.
At 50°C (122°F) it typically requires around 60 minutes to effectively kill germs. Any colder and you’re unlikely to get full sanitation

Remember – the cycle you select will also include fill, rinse and spin time, so you can’t just go off the cycle time displayed on the machine. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the water sits in the bottom of the bowl, and you want to sanitise the whole bowl right up to the top. So while you might have 50 degree water sitting at the bottom of the bowl that might not be enough to heat the top of the bowl, and in particular the top of the rubber door seal, meaning that once the cycle is over, microbes are ready and waiting to quicky recolonise the machine from the top.

Will Hot Water Ruin my Towels?

While most towel manufacturers recommend regular washing at 40°C and an occasional deep clean at 40-60°C to eradicate bacteria and body oil accumulation, I prefer ensuring my towels are thoroughly cleaned after each wash. I’d rather not have a build up at all – to me the presence of a build up can only mean my towels are not coming out of the wash clean enough. To my mind if a towel cannot withstand temperatures hot enough to sanitise it, it is not fit for purpose.

Temperatures below 60°C are unlikely to achieve effective sanitation under real-world conditions. Washing towels at 60°C, despite a possibly diminished lifespan, is a compromise I’m willing to make for consistently clean towels and a sanitised washing machine. It’s a bit like saying if you leave the towel in the drawer and never use it, you will extend its lifespan. Sure, but its not very useful to me if I can never use it, just like its not useful to me if I slather myself in bacteria and body oil every time I leave the shower.

For towels made from a cotton rich or poly-cotton blend, a 60°C wash could excessively shorten their lifespan. In practice for those looking to sanitize towels and bed sheets effectively without compromising fabric integrity, opting for 100% cotton materials is a better choice. Poly-cotton blends are not fit for purpose when it comes to towels and bedding because they cannot usually be safely washed at the temperatures needed for proper sanitation. Avoid cotton rich or poly-cotton blends especially if you’re looking to avoid environmental downsides like microplastics shedding in the wash and ending up not just down the drain, but blasted out from your dryer as lint, and then shed over your body as you dry yourself. Going for pure cotton might hit the wallet a bit harder, but it’s a better choice for both health and environmental reasons.

A Bonus Tip: Vinegar as a Fabric Softener

Adding vinegar to the fabric softener compartment will not only help soften your towels, it’s great for preventing mould infestations with its anti-microbial properties, while being safe and non-toxic.

Dealing with an Already Infested Machine?

Now you know the best way to keep your front loader washing machine clean, and prevent mould infestations, but what if you’re dealing with a mould infested machine? If you can see mould, its too late for hot washes and vinegar. Vinegar is a great preventative, but once mould has taken hold, you need to turn to harsher chemicals like bleach. Read our guide here.