The Complete Handbook of Washing Machine Cleaners

Chapter 1: Understanding Washing Machine Cleaners

What a Washing Machine Cleaner Actually Is

A washing machine cleaner is a formulated product designed to remove inorganic scale, organic soil, and microbial biofilm from the interior surfaces of a washing machine. It is not a detergent, though it shares some chemical ingredients with detergents. A detergent is designed to suspend and remove soil from fabric during a wash cycle. A washing machine cleaner is designed to clean the machine itself, and it uses different chemistry to do so.

To understand the category, it helps to look at what accumulates inside a washing machine over time. Three distinct types of contamination build up, and each requires a different chemical response.

Mineral scale is the most common and the most visible problem. Hard water contains dissolved calcium and magnesium ions. When water is heated, these ions precipitate out of solution and deposit as a hard, chalky layer on the heating element, the drum, and the hoses. In a front-load machine, the heating element is the primary victim. A layer of scale as thin as two millimeters can reduce heat transfer efficiency by over ten percent, which means longer heating times and higher electricity consumption. Over a year of daily use, a scaled machine can cost noticeably more to operate than a clean one, and in severe cases the heating element will overheat and fail completely. A cleaner that removes scale must contain a chelating agent or an acid that can dissolve calcium carbonate. Citric