The Smell in a Kenmore Washer or Dishwasher Is Water That Never Dried

Kenmore dishwasher smells bad: the filter first, always

There is one mechanism behind this and it is not the machine's design. Food residue plus water plus a warm, closed, humid box equals biology, and everything on this page is about removing one of those three ingredients.

The dishwasher filter is a cylinder standing in the floor of the tub, generally a quarter turn to release, with a flat screen underneath it. On a Whirlpool-built 665 and a Frigidaire-built 587 and a Bosch-built 630 alike, it is designed to be lifted out by hand and washed in the sink. It is the intended maintenance point, it is described in every one of those manufacturers' manuals, and in a decade of a machine's life plenty of them have never been out.

Wash it under a hot tap with a little detergent and a soft brush until water runs through the mesh instead of sitting on it.

The two places the spray never reaches

Then the parts a cleaning cycle cannot help with, because no water is thrown at them.

The lip along the bottom of the door, below the level of the seal. Open the door flat and run a finger along it. Whatever is on your finger is what the kitchen has been smelling.

The folds of the gasket, all the way round. Pull them gently open and wipe underneath.

Together these two take three minutes and they are the difference between a cleaning cycle that works and one that runs for two hours and changes nothing.

The same story on a front-load washer

A front-loader has a heavy rubber boot around the door, and it holds water in its folds by design — it is a seal, not a drain. Add a house that never dries out, a door closed after every load, and cold washes that never get hot enough to help, and the result is the smell people blame on the machine.

Clean the boot the same way: fold it open, wipe underneath and behind, and pay attention to the bottom of the circle where the water sits. Take the dispenser drawer out and wash it, because softener residue in the drawer is its own small ecosystem. And on machines that have one, clear the drain pump filter behind the little door at the bottom front.

Both builders ask you to do this, in writing

This is the part worth knowing, because it makes the maintenance somebody else's recommendation rather than ours.

A Whirlpool-built 110 shows a Clean Washer reminder after roughly thirty cycles. An LG-built 796 shows a tub clean alarm — and on a narrow display it appears as two characters and then a third, which is why people search for it as two different things.

Neither is an error. Neither means anything has gone wrong. Both are the manufacturer telling you the interval has come round, and both are ignored by almost everybody who sees them.

Why this climate makes it a maintenance page rather than a curiosity

In a dry climate a machine left closed dries out between loads and the problem never establishes itself. Here it does not dry out. The air in the laundry room is carrying moisture of its own, the seal stays damp from Monday to Wednesday, and by the time anybody notices a smell there is a film on every surface that water touches.

That is also why the ending matters more than the cleaning. Leave the door ajar. On the dishwasher, on the washer, every time. It is the single free habit on this site, and it is the one that stops you needing the rest of this page again.

When it is not just a smell any more

A gasket that has been wet for years hardens and stops sealing. On a dishwasher that shows up as water on the kitchen floor at the front. On a washer it shows up as a leak from the bottom of the door during the wash, and it is a repair rather than a clean.

If you are wiping a seal that feels stiff and glazed rather than soft and slightly tacky, the cleaning has come too late for that part — and that is worth knowing before it lets go with a full drum.