Washer - Soap or White Residue in Clothes
If you notice that your washer does not seem to be rinsing your clothes properly, leaving soap or a white residue in your clothes, check out the troubleshooting list below for possible causes and solutions to this issue.
Poor Rinsing Causes and Solutions
- Inlet Water Quality
- Some parts of the country have naturally soft water. Much of the chemistry of laundry detergent goes towards softening the water so effective cleaning can happen. If you happen to live in an area with naturally soft water, you should use less detergent than detergent manufacturers recommend, as otherwise it is like overdosing the detergent.
- Low Water Pressure
- If the installation has very low water pressure, both the wash and rinse may be shorted with water, which increases detergent concentrations and hence residual detergent in the load. Verify that the washer has at least 20 PSI water supply pressure at the washer while it is actively filling. If not, the installation issue causing the low water pressure needs to be resolved.
- Overloading the Machine
- Clothes must move freely for detergent to be released from the fabrics. Towels especially need to be the appropriate size load for the water level because they hold detergent.
- Laundry Products
- Overuse of detergent is the most common cause of rinse complaints. Carefully measure detergent and use less when lightly soiled clothing is being washed.
- If you have been overdosing detergent for some time, you likely have a heavy build-up of detergent in your clothes. One way to confirm this is to wash a load of clothes without adding any detergent. If you see any suds at all in the washer near the end of the wash cycle, the clothes have detergent build-up. At this point, it is recommended to continue to wash your clothes without detergent until no suds are seen during the wash cycle. It could take 3 or more wash cycles to get the detergent build-up out of the clothes. Once you reach a suds-free wash, then start dosing detergent per the manufacture's recommendations or less if you have soft water.
- Liquid detergent dissolves easier.
- Liquid fabric softener may be used to remove suds because its content chemically defeats suds.
- Overuse of detergent is the most common cause of rinse complaints. Carefully measure detergent and use less when lightly soiled clothing is being washed.
- Washer's Rinse Options
- If available on your washer model, try using Deep Rinse or Extra Rinse options.
- Some models offer a Rinse & Drain feature that can be used when needing to remove extra soap residue.
Additional Support
For more information on the operation of your washer, please take a look at the Owner's Manual for your model. If you need further assistance, please reach out to our Bodewell experts through our Contact Us page. See also a short video on getting the best wash performance from your washer:
Video - Clothes Not Clean - Set Water Level
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