Washing machine leaving clothes streaky

February 4, 2018 5:53 PM

We have a new agitatorless top loading washing machine. It consistently leaves lint and general gunk on clothes trapped in the folds of 3-5 pieces every load. This is a blatant example, sometimes it's more subtle, which means I have to carefully sort and then run clothes through a second rinse every single time. Hope me?

I've tried:
- Changing detergents (have always used liquid detergent)
- Decreasing amount of detergent
- Pre-dissolving detergent in water before adding it

posted by platypus of the universe to Home & Garden (15 answers total)

What happens if you load fewer clothes? Is it possible that you could be overloading the machine?
posted by Autumnheart at 5:59 PM on February 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

You're overloading the machine with clothes.
posted by the Real Dan at 6:01 PM on February 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

I agree with the above posters- you’re filling the washer too full of clothes. Check your manual- it will give you load guidelines for each cycle setting.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 6:33 PM on February 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oftentimes these newer machines will have absolutely enormous drums, but you aren't actually supposed to fill them that full.
posted by selfnoise at 6:40 PM on February 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Nthing the overloading. Secondary issue could be that perhaps you need to clean the lint trap or filter?
posted by BlueHorse at 7:11 PM on February 4, 2018

I use a clear liquid and I rinse the fill cup as the machine starts, so the detergent is dissolved before I add all the clothes.
posted by Oyéah at 7:11 PM on February 4, 2018

If you have hard water, add baking soda with the detergent.

Also, don't put so many clothes in.
posted by yohko at 8:00 PM on February 4, 2018

I realize this will not suit everyone and all situations, but: run it through the dryer. At least for me, that stuff only shows up on things I'm going to dry anyway, and it disappears in the dryer.
posted by whatnotever at 9:01 PM on February 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Do you shake clothes out so they don't have any big folds or twists in them before putting them into the washer? (I ask because back when I used a shared laundry room, I was surprised at how many people threw bunched up damp towels, pants with twisted legs, and shirts with the arms still folded up to the elbows into the washing machines.)
posted by mdrew at 10:44 PM on February 4, 2018

Is it a Samsung machine? We had the same problem and it was not user error - we weren't overloading, the detergent was dissolving fine, the clothes were bunched up. It was a lemon of a machine that we eventually had replaced as part of a recall. We went back to an agitator and have had zero problems. Look up your model on the Samsung forums and see if there are lots of similar complaints.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 4:59 AM on February 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have the same issue with the Maytag in my rental apartment. I just noticed that the machine has a button for an Extra Rinse cycle so next time I do a load I'm going to use that.

For some reason it was worse when I used a delicate detergent made for dark clothes (and the drum was definitely not that full), which makes zero sense to me but just throwing that out there.
posted by misskaz at 5:36 AM on February 5, 2018

Check all pockets to ensure there are no tissues, etc. trapped in there.

Load the drum only halfway at most.

Bump up the water level if you can. On my LG agitatorless top loader, this can be done by changing the “Soil Level” setting (go heavier).

If you have an Extra Rinse option, use it.

(This happens to me most often with loads of delicates. These tend to be smallish loads, so it’s not an overloading issue. I think it’s a water level and rinse time issue — both of those are lowest with delicates. It happens much less when I switch Soil Level from its delicate-cycle default “Light” to “Heavy”. My machine doesn’t offer Extra Rinse, sadly.)
posted by snowmentality at 6:20 AM on February 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

This happens to me no matter how small I make the loads or how many times I rinse, so it doesn't always mean the machine is overloaded. And I only use liquid detergent.
posted by FencingGal at 7:22 AM on February 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've only been able to avoid this by separating clothes prior to washing into like colors or like fabrics or if i know which garment is shedding i put that in a wash bag before tossing it in.
posted by WeekendJen at 12:21 PM on February 5, 2018

Not the OP, but I did a load last night using some tips in this thread (tub 1/3 full, soil level heavy, extra rinse cycle, all like colors) and still got white streaks all over a pair of dress pants. I did use the Woolite for Darks which paradoxically seems to have this problem a lot; not sure if it would have been ok with regular Tide.
posted by misskaz at 5:03 AM on February 9, 2018