What’s Hiding Under Your Washer’s Rubber Seal?

This is a picture of the rubber seal lining the inside of my front-loader.

And do you see that there are socks inside of it?

No, they are not supposed to be there.  Ever.

But for whatever reason, I have to constantly fish socks from under that ring.

The problem is that there are drainage holes under the lining and if socks are blocking the holes, the water doesn’t drain well.  If you are one of those that struggles with mold growing on that seal, you don’t need any reason for the problem to worsen.

I check this seal every single time I move clothes from the washer to the dryer.  It literally takes 2 seconds to pull the seal back and take a peek underneath.  If socks and other small items consistently stay trapped there, it will cause extra wear and tear on your machine and possibly even cause it to malfunction.  And no one wants to deal with that.

Like with the maintenance of most appliances, prevention is key:

• If you wash a lot of little socks, especially baby socks (they are the worst culprits!), consider putting them in a mesh garment bag.  They won’t clog up the drain on the seal and they’ll be much easier to match!
• When transferring laundry from the washer to dryer, get in the habit of checking the seal.  It is much better to catch a stray sock immediately after it washes than two or three loads later.  It really takes only about 2 seconds to make sure nothing is hiding in there.
• Add it to your list of items to complete when you sanitize your washing machine during its monthly cleaning.  You paid a lot of money for your front-loader and you want to keep it in good shape!