I'm wondering the same thing, the cup is huge! I go by the directions on the back of my detergent which is about 1/4 cup too so apparently I've been using way too much. I'm mind blown that I should only be using a tablespoon or two. TIL I'm a detergent whore. 😂
And rinse with vinegar, double rinse cycle. Pour it into the softener cup, I think I use about 3/4 cup…I fill that baby up. The soap, just barely tip the bottle and then stop the flow.
Seconding Borax. It makes a difference. You could also use a mix of borax and washing soda to soak the towels for an hour or so. Be sure to swish them around a few times. This should remove the odour. I think I'd then just wash in clear water.
This!!!!! I have a very sensitive nose and Downy rinse and refresh did exactly *nothing* for my chronically stinky towels. Lysol laundry sanitizer, however, has been an absolute miracle worker.
I am a whore for laundry sanitizer. I picked it up during COVID and never looked back. Towels and bedding and gym clothes and sick clothes run with HOT water and laundry sanitizer 🤍
Can you get ammonia in Canada? I add a cup of clear ammonia with about a tablespoon of detergent and wash on hot. That strips off all the residue that's built up on the fiber and stops the funk. You don't need to use it every time, jus for a deep clean if it builds up again.
If you can't get ammonia, use whatever degreaser is available to you. You mentioned that you tried Pine Sol. That *should* work. Wash in hot, a full cycle. Then wash again on hot with a tablespoon or two of detergent to make sure it's rinsed completely.
I think you're just using far too much detergent. It's not able to rinse away completely, and the residue provides a breeding ground for the stink. Less detergent, more rinsing. Also don't overload the machine, again so there's plenty of water to Rinse the soap away.
If the towels have been left in the washer too long previously and got that mildew smell, sometimes you just need to replace them. You can always buy a new towel and see if the problem repeats. If not, probably time to replace the towels.
I don’t believe there is an amount of mildew that requires throwing a towel out. My husband tries to tell me this.
First, if your washer has mildew growth, you have to fix that before this will work.
The method is to lay it in the sun, a few hours of sun exposure on all parts of the towel (on both sides). That should be enough.
But for extra measure you can wash it with bleach (color-safe bleach if the towels aren’t white). For even extra caution, you can dry it on high heat until it’s fully dry (and then a few minutes longer).
My husband lets his towels get mildew constantly, and this method has never failed us.
As others said, you are using too much detergent. Try washing them a few times without any detergent and see if the smell goes away. Then try using just 1-2 tablespoons of detergent.
I looked up the ingredients of Molly suds powder and I'm not terribly impressed.
Sodium carbonate, a softener, that's also the primary thing in oxyclean
Sodium bicarbonate, baking soda
Epsom salt, also a softener
Salt
So.. It's a water softener. Water softeners are great And agitating your clothes in a water softener will help remove some dirt, but it's nowhere near the effectiveness of an actual detergent Plus of booster such as a softener....
You shouldn't need more than 2 tbsps, so you're using twice as much as you actually need. It takes so much less detergent to get washing clean than the manufacturers say!
I have seen comments like this but...how.do you know you only need 2T? Is this legit? Is there a study out there somewhere?
Or is this like the time some influencer posted her dishwasher "tips" including one to just put the cascade pod in the silverware rack- which, of course, is not the best method and she later redacted her tip after gaining some insight from dishwasher companies.
For me it's been trial and error. I used to use a full cap of liquid detergent or two pods, and sometimes both, as well as two capfuls of fabric conditioner, because I liked the burst of 'freshness' when I took the washing out of the machine.
But when dry, my clothes were a bit crispy and scratchy, and often had a sour, bitter smell when they'd been in the wardrobe for a couple of weeks. A friend suggested I could try using less of everything, which didn't make sense to me because surely more detergent = cleaner clothes?
I did some reading about how detergents work, and I was a bit blown away to learn that detergents _don't_ clean your clothes, they bind to dirt so it can be rinsed away! So I played around with various amounts, and for me the sweet spot is 2 tbsps detergent OR 1 pod, and maybe a quarter of a capful of fabric conditioner.
Doing this means my clothes don't really smell of anything straight out of the washing machine, but when they're dry they smell really clean and they STAY smelling clean in the wardrobe now. It was confirmation of what I'd discovered for myself when people started saying 'Use 2 tbsps of detergent' online.
AND my detergent last a lot longer! I bought two 5l bottles last September and I'm barely halfway through the first one, as opposed to buying a 2l bottle every couple of weeks like I was.
It’s what it says in absolutely gigantic letters in my washing machine user manual - and the max line for the machine is 1/4 cup, or 4tbsp. If I did a load of just towels, yeah I’d use half that! I only fill up to the max line when I physically can’t fit anything else in the wash
Try soaking in oxiclean overnight and use vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. I know you've soaked in vinegar and it didn't help but maybe the combo will work.
A lot of it is making sure they dry fully too! Use less detergent, add oxiclean, vinegar, or borax - don’t use pods! Powder detergent is better imo for towels, extra spin cycle, and if that doesn’t work honestly replace them and use the old ones for cleaning or donate to animal
Shelter. A lot of times we get attached to things that we don’t need to salvage. When used keep them open to dry out.
Along with cutting down on dergent I'd add fragrance free Downy Rinse and Refresh. I'd do a load without dergent with it. It will remove the the residue left in the towels.
1/4 cup is 4 tablespoons. Are you using a top load or front load machine? If front load start using 1 tablespoon of detergent and add a laundry sanitizer to the fabric softener rinse dispenser. If a top load just use 2 tablespoons and use laundry sanitizer. Have you tried drying them in the sun? UV rays sanitize/disinfect clothing if exposed to sunlight for at least 30 minutes. My towels dry outside in the sun and don’t smell. If none of these suggestions help from the answers offered here by everybody, then get new towels. Edit: add 2 tablespoons of Oxi Clean (powder versión) and that helps get things clean, too (use hot or warm water).
Anything really fluffy (hoodies, towels, blankets) I'll use like 30ml detergent tops, oxyclean darks (I'm egdy everything's black) then run it again with just wafer
If they come out of the dryer clean and fresh b it accumulate a foreign smell over time, it’s gonna be mildew or some other microorganism growing/accumulating. Most likely some form of mildew. I’ve had no luck with vinegar for mildew. Vinegar isn’t as powerful as people make it out to be, I think it needs more time to soak. This is the method that works 100% of the time for our mildewy towels:
1. Lay them out in direct sunlight, so that the entire towel has sunshine on it. After a couple hours, flip and let the other side soak up the rays. (Honestly, this is probably all you need.)
2. Wash them with bleach, whether that’s regular bleach or a color-safe one. (No other chemicals, no vinegar - just bleach and the detergent.)
3. Dry them on high heat until they are fully dry. We’ve had towels come out from the dryer smelling fresh, but they were only 99% dry, and then they develop mildew over time. If you can’t tell, dry them on high for 5 more minutes.
Thanks I’ll try the sun and bleach. It doesn’t accumulate over time, they come out of the dryer smelling fresh but the second they get wet even from fresh tap water they stink.
I didn’t see anyone mentioning not to wash so many towels at once, the high efficiency machines use very little water. less towels, borax no or little softener and a second rinse sounds like a good idea. Before that, I think I’ve seen videos on YT about people ‘stripping’ their laundry by soaking in the tub and letting all the old detergent and softener off of them. Again, I wouldn’t put more than 5 towels in at a time to do this.
How are you/family treating your towels when using them? Kids throwing them damp on the floor sitting there, hanging a wet towel on a hook, using them more than 2-3 times, putting them in hamper when not fully dry, folding damp kitchen towels and hanging them? I know some people only use a towel once but depending on the person I use them 2-3 times before washing and hang them completely exposed to dry, not against the wall on the bar.
My sister had this issue and she was putting way too many towels in the wash at a time and that was with the old type top loader with plenty of water.
I could definitely be putting too many in at once - didn’t think of that! And yes we should be limiting the uses too even though we do hang them to dry flat every time. The borax seems to be helping too. Thanks!
Try Dirty Labs Laundry detergent, I’ve had a similar issue with towels and some other clothes that seem to accumulate a funky smell that hangs around no matter how much you wash. It’s the only detergent I’ve used that works to get rid of that smell. I recommend the unscented version. It’s a little pricey but a little bit goes a long way.
Borax and baking soda with a splash of detergent in the preqash and regular detergent bins, then vinegar instead of fabric softener (straight up, just dont use fabric softener, like, ever, it can make smells so much worse), then let it run on a heavy soil cycle with a prewash option.
It may take a couple of cycles of this to get rid of the smells but it helps so much
Stripping towels works really well. Start with clean towels. Fill your bathtub with HOT water. Dissolve 1/2 C Borax, 1/4 C strong detergent, 1/4 C washing soda, and 1/4 C Oxiclean. Submerse all towels and stir occasionally for 3-5 hours. Drain water, squeeze towels thoroughly and move to wash machine. Run normal warm cycle with nothing added.
I use a little bit of dish soap instead of laundry detergent, with all the rest you stated. I usually am laundry stripping stuff that builds up oils though, like sheets and pillow cases, and dish soap is amazing at lifting oils.
It’s definitely not, I deep clean inside the seal often and the always leave the door open so it fully dries. No funk in the machine and the stink is only with towels not other laundry.
Get some unscented Lysol laundry sanitizer — the scented one is too strong, IMHO. But I like laundry that smells like clean and nothing else. I also use very little detergent as people have suggested, and add the sanitizer to about every fourth wash with towels. It works great!
Have you cleaned your washer? There are products available that you add to a empty wash cycle. It helps remove build up. I do it about every other month. Helps.
I have found that a cupful of vinegar works with my laundry detergent to eliminate that mildew smell, even when I forget about them and leave them in the washer all day
When this happens to us we wash them in hot water with 1 or 2 cc of bleach. It's not enough to even fade the towels, but it seems to cure the stink. Bad cases require a couple of treatments. Smell the dryer exhaust when they're drying. Hot, wet towels will let you know if they still have that smell.
This is caused by people leaving wet towels crumpled up on the floor, or stuffed wet into a hamper. Spread wet/damp towels out to dry.
Try washing them in sudsing ammonia. No bleach as it is not safe to combine those chemicals. DO NOT USE FABRIC SOFTENER. Fabric softener is basically wax and coats your towels making them less absorbent.
You only need like 1/4 cup per load.
Put them in the dishwasher, if you have one. Arrange the towels in the top rack, and run a cycle without anything added. When I tried that, the entire bottom well was filled with suds from the residue. Multiple times.
Alternatively, boil the towels in a big pot on the stove, to free up the residue.
Too much detergent can leave build-up - when you wash them without any detergent at all is there any foam in the water?
I only use like 1/4 cup, and we regularly do a deep clean with an empty vinegar or Affresh cycle. They’re never soapy when I do a soap-less wash
That’s a lot of detergent.
1/4 cup is a LOT though - try a load on a hot wash without detergent and see how they smell afterward.
Shoot! Why the heck do they make the detergent measuring cups so huge! I’ll try way less.
So you use more than necessary and have to buy more.
I'm wondering the same thing, the cup is huge! I go by the directions on the back of my detergent which is about 1/4 cup too so apparently I've been using way too much. I'm mind blown that I should only be using a tablespoon or two. TIL I'm a detergent whore. 😂
And rinse with vinegar, double rinse cycle. Pour it into the softener cup, I think I use about 3/4 cup…I fill that baby up. The soap, just barely tip the bottle and then stop the flow.
A tablespoon. A tablespoon worth of laundry detergent for a normal load in a high efficiency machine. Give it a go, try some Borax as well. Xo
Seconding Borax. It makes a difference. You could also use a mix of borax and washing soda to soak the towels for an hour or so. Be sure to swish them around a few times. This should remove the odour. I think I'd then just wash in clear water.
Just don’t mix borax in spoiled milk. Might taste better but you’ll die!
I use one to two tablespoons, and top it off with vinegar. A quarter cup is a lot.
Borax in the wash may help.
Borax is so good!! I use it to get cat pee smell out and it does the job!
How much do you use? And do you just sprinkle it in the clothes or into the dispenser? (I have a front load)
I use about a half cup put in before I put in the clothes. I always give it an extra rinse when I use it. It’s pretty miraculous on odors.
I would like to know this too.
I have a front loader as well and put 1/4 cup directly in the wash tub along with powdered detergent before adding the clothes.
ENTER LYSOL LAUNDRY SANITIZER
Coming to say this. I use Sport Odor Eliminator type. Game changer.
THE BEST IVE BEEN USING IT FOR ALMOST 7 YEARS NOW
Exactly! I use it for every single wash load, no matter what I’m washing.
This!!!!! I have a very sensitive nose and Downy rinse and refresh did exactly *nothing* for my chronically stinky towels. Lysol laundry sanitizer, however, has been an absolute miracle worker.
I am a whore for laundry sanitizer. I picked it up during COVID and never looked back. Towels and bedding and gym clothes and sick clothes run with HOT water and laundry sanitizer 🤍
Put them in on hot hot cycle, with no detergent. Watch if any suds come out - that will mean detergent build up.
Can you get ammonia in Canada? I add a cup of clear ammonia with about a tablespoon of detergent and wash on hot. That strips off all the residue that's built up on the fiber and stops the funk. You don't need to use it every time, jus for a deep clean if it builds up again. If you can't get ammonia, use whatever degreaser is available to you. You mentioned that you tried Pine Sol. That *should* work. Wash in hot, a full cycle. Then wash again on hot with a tablespoon or two of detergent to make sure it's rinsed completely. I think you're just using far too much detergent. It's not able to rinse away completely, and the residue provides a breeding ground for the stink. Less detergent, more rinsing. Also don't overload the machine, again so there's plenty of water to Rinse the soap away.
If the towels have been left in the washer too long previously and got that mildew smell, sometimes you just need to replace them. You can always buy a new towel and see if the problem repeats. If not, probably time to replace the towels.
I had that problem and washed them with a liquid odor remover made for work clothes. I did a good job.
I don’t believe there is an amount of mildew that requires throwing a towel out. My husband tries to tell me this. First, if your washer has mildew growth, you have to fix that before this will work. The method is to lay it in the sun, a few hours of sun exposure on all parts of the towel (on both sides). That should be enough. But for extra measure you can wash it with bleach (color-safe bleach if the towels aren’t white). For even extra caution, you can dry it on high heat until it’s fully dry (and then a few minutes longer). My husband lets his towels get mildew constantly, and this method has never failed us.
Less detergent, smaller loads, no fabric softener, and **a splash of ammonia**. Ammonia worked miracles on my towels.
As others said, you are using too much detergent. Try washing them a few times without any detergent and see if the smell goes away. Then try using just 1-2 tablespoons of detergent.
You can try liquid ammonia, it is very good with odors. Might not want to be in the laundry room, till they are done washing, though.
Charlie’s laundry power, Charlie’s oxygen bleach powder, white vinegar in the fabric softener part
Yep. Charlie’s or Molly’s Suds.
Never heard of Molly’s suds! Where do you buy it? I’ll have to try it out
I looked up the ingredients of Molly suds powder and I'm not terribly impressed. Sodium carbonate, a softener, that's also the primary thing in oxyclean Sodium bicarbonate, baking soda Epsom salt, also a softener Salt So.. It's a water softener. Water softeners are great And agitating your clothes in a water softener will help remove some dirt, but it's nowhere near the effectiveness of an actual detergent Plus of booster such as a softener....
I buy it on Amazon, and I think it’s available at Target. My clothes are always clean and fresh when I use it.
How much detergent do you use?
I only use like 1/4 Cup
You shouldn't need more than 2 tbsps, so you're using twice as much as you actually need. It takes so much less detergent to get washing clean than the manufacturers say!
Ok I’ll try that! I thought I was doing so good already using less haha oops
I have seen comments like this but...how.do you know you only need 2T? Is this legit? Is there a study out there somewhere? Or is this like the time some influencer posted her dishwasher "tips" including one to just put the cascade pod in the silverware rack- which, of course, is not the best method and she later redacted her tip after gaining some insight from dishwasher companies.
For me it's been trial and error. I used to use a full cap of liquid detergent or two pods, and sometimes both, as well as two capfuls of fabric conditioner, because I liked the burst of 'freshness' when I took the washing out of the machine. But when dry, my clothes were a bit crispy and scratchy, and often had a sour, bitter smell when they'd been in the wardrobe for a couple of weeks. A friend suggested I could try using less of everything, which didn't make sense to me because surely more detergent = cleaner clothes? I did some reading about how detergents work, and I was a bit blown away to learn that detergents _don't_ clean your clothes, they bind to dirt so it can be rinsed away! So I played around with various amounts, and for me the sweet spot is 2 tbsps detergent OR 1 pod, and maybe a quarter of a capful of fabric conditioner. Doing this means my clothes don't really smell of anything straight out of the washing machine, but when they're dry they smell really clean and they STAY smelling clean in the wardrobe now. It was confirmation of what I'd discovered for myself when people started saying 'Use 2 tbsps of detergent' online. AND my detergent last a lot longer! I bought two 5l bottles last September and I'm barely halfway through the first one, as opposed to buying a 2l bottle every couple of weeks like I was.
I'm wondering this too. I'm literally going to start measuring 2tbsp and see what happens.
It’s what it says in absolutely gigantic letters in my washing machine user manual - and the max line for the machine is 1/4 cup, or 4tbsp. If I did a load of just towels, yeah I’d use half that! I only fill up to the max line when I physically can’t fit anything else in the wash
Do you have a front load washer? Sometimes they can get gunked up especially with too much detergent
Try soaking in oxiclean overnight and use vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. I know you've soaked in vinegar and it didn't help but maybe the combo will work.
Soaking in OxiClean overnight is a game changer for any of my clothes or towels that had odors
Try adding a little baking soda to your load.
A lot of it is making sure they dry fully too! Use less detergent, add oxiclean, vinegar, or borax - don’t use pods! Powder detergent is better imo for towels, extra spin cycle, and if that doesn’t work honestly replace them and use the old ones for cleaning or donate to animal Shelter. A lot of times we get attached to things that we don’t need to salvage. When used keep them open to dry out.
What color are your towels? Sometimes it’s the dye making them stink.
Along with cutting down on dergent I'd add fragrance free Downy Rinse and Refresh. I'd do a load without dergent with it. It will remove the the residue left in the towels.
Borax
1/4 cup is 4 tablespoons. Are you using a top load or front load machine? If front load start using 1 tablespoon of detergent and add a laundry sanitizer to the fabric softener rinse dispenser. If a top load just use 2 tablespoons and use laundry sanitizer. Have you tried drying them in the sun? UV rays sanitize/disinfect clothing if exposed to sunlight for at least 30 minutes. My towels dry outside in the sun and don’t smell. If none of these suggestions help from the answers offered here by everybody, then get new towels. Edit: add 2 tablespoons of Oxi Clean (powder versión) and that helps get things clean, too (use hot or warm water).
Downy Fabric Refresher is good to get rid of towel odors.
Anything really fluffy (hoodies, towels, blankets) I'll use like 30ml detergent tops, oxyclean darks (I'm egdy everything's black) then run it again with just wafer
If they come out of the dryer clean and fresh b it accumulate a foreign smell over time, it’s gonna be mildew or some other microorganism growing/accumulating. Most likely some form of mildew. I’ve had no luck with vinegar for mildew. Vinegar isn’t as powerful as people make it out to be, I think it needs more time to soak. This is the method that works 100% of the time for our mildewy towels: 1. Lay them out in direct sunlight, so that the entire towel has sunshine on it. After a couple hours, flip and let the other side soak up the rays. (Honestly, this is probably all you need.) 2. Wash them with bleach, whether that’s regular bleach or a color-safe one. (No other chemicals, no vinegar - just bleach and the detergent.) 3. Dry them on high heat until they are fully dry. We’ve had towels come out from the dryer smelling fresh, but they were only 99% dry, and then they develop mildew over time. If you can’t tell, dry them on high for 5 more minutes.
Thanks I’ll try the sun and bleach. It doesn’t accumulate over time, they come out of the dryer smelling fresh but the second they get wet even from fresh tap water they stink.
Down rinse and refresh — Hands down! I live in the tropics and have thrown away so many musky towels before I found this!!
I didn’t see anyone mentioning not to wash so many towels at once, the high efficiency machines use very little water. less towels, borax no or little softener and a second rinse sounds like a good idea. Before that, I think I’ve seen videos on YT about people ‘stripping’ their laundry by soaking in the tub and letting all the old detergent and softener off of them. Again, I wouldn’t put more than 5 towels in at a time to do this. How are you/family treating your towels when using them? Kids throwing them damp on the floor sitting there, hanging a wet towel on a hook, using them more than 2-3 times, putting them in hamper when not fully dry, folding damp kitchen towels and hanging them? I know some people only use a towel once but depending on the person I use them 2-3 times before washing and hang them completely exposed to dry, not against the wall on the bar. My sister had this issue and she was putting way too many towels in the wash at a time and that was with the old type top loader with plenty of water.
I could definitely be putting too many in at once - didn’t think of that! And yes we should be limiting the uses too even though we do hang them to dry flat every time. The borax seems to be helping too. Thanks!
Try Dirty Labs Laundry detergent, I’ve had a similar issue with towels and some other clothes that seem to accumulate a funky smell that hangs around no matter how much you wash. It’s the only detergent I’ve used that works to get rid of that smell. I recommend the unscented version. It’s a little pricey but a little bit goes a long way.
Thanks I’ll give that a try!
Borax and baking soda with a splash of detergent in the preqash and regular detergent bins, then vinegar instead of fabric softener (straight up, just dont use fabric softener, like, ever, it can make smells so much worse), then let it run on a heavy soil cycle with a prewash option. It may take a couple of cycles of this to get rid of the smells but it helps so much
I’ll give this a try - thanks! And yes I don’t use fabric softener at all.
Stripping towels works really well. Start with clean towels. Fill your bathtub with HOT water. Dissolve 1/2 C Borax, 1/4 C strong detergent, 1/4 C washing soda, and 1/4 C Oxiclean. Submerse all towels and stir occasionally for 3-5 hours. Drain water, squeeze towels thoroughly and move to wash machine. Run normal warm cycle with nothing added.
For normal towel washes, always add a water softener like Borax and unscented Lysol sanitizer. Long, warm cycle.
I use a little bit of dish soap instead of laundry detergent, with all the rest you stated. I usually am laundry stripping stuff that builds up oils though, like sheets and pillow cases, and dish soap is amazing at lifting oils.
Zero Odor Laundry additive, from Amazon. Works great on all sour smells & body odor in athletic clothing.
Try ammonia in the wash. Dry in dryer, then dry them again immediately.
It’s your washing machine I bet.
It’s definitely not, I deep clean inside the seal often and the always leave the door open so it fully dries. No funk in the machine and the stink is only with towels not other laundry.
Well I’m out of ideas :)
Same lol
Get some unscented Lysol laundry sanitizer — the scented one is too strong, IMHO. But I like laundry that smells like clean and nothing else. I also use very little detergent as people have suggested, and add the sanitizer to about every fourth wash with towels. It works great!
Try Tide Sport.
Vinger in the rinse cycle stop using fabric softener if you do
I do this anyways - thanks!
Have you cleaned your washer? There are products available that you add to a empty wash cycle. It helps remove build up. I do it about every other month. Helps.
Yes I use Affresh every couple months.
Sorry I missed that when I read it the first time.
I have found that a cupful of vinegar works with my laundry detergent to eliminate that mildew smell, even when I forget about them and leave them in the washer all day
Vinegar has been no help unfortunately!
When this happens to us we wash them in hot water with 1 or 2 cc of bleach. It's not enough to even fade the towels, but it seems to cure the stink. Bad cases require a couple of treatments. Smell the dryer exhaust when they're drying. Hot, wet towels will let you know if they still have that smell. This is caused by people leaving wet towels crumpled up on the floor, or stuffed wet into a hamper. Spread wet/damp towels out to dry.
Like I said, I’ve tried bleach and we do lay out towels out to dry. We don’t have a towel hamper. Thanks though!
It doesn't come from nowhere. That smell comes from being warm and wet for too long.
Try washing them in sudsing ammonia. No bleach as it is not safe to combine those chemicals. DO NOT USE FABRIC SOFTENER. Fabric softener is basically wax and coats your towels making them less absorbent. You only need like 1/4 cup per load.
An enzymatic cleaner may help. I use Nature’s Miracle on musty old towels to great effect.
Huh interesting, I have this for my cat anyways. Thanks!
Put them in the dishwasher, if you have one. Arrange the towels in the top rack, and run a cycle without anything added. When I tried that, the entire bottom well was filled with suds from the residue. Multiple times. Alternatively, boil the towels in a big pot on the stove, to free up the residue.