Hi tradewind 64 aka mildew shark !!
Another poster said purewasher works great and can be found at www.smellywasher.com for $16 plus $3 shipping.
Best of luck !!!

What a great find! I am such an anti-mildew person too, so stinky. I am so glad to hear about your cure. Can it only be used in HE washers?

Oops sorry it took so long to get back to this thread. I THINK Afresh could be used in regular washers, but I don't own one to try it in, so I really don't know for sure. I don't see why it wouldn't work, though.

The smell of Afresh is REALLY strong, overpowering IMO, but it helped me so much that I can't hardly complain about that now, can I? It disipates after a couple of washes.

I now only put my laundry detergent (still using Liquid HE Tide Unscented till I use it up) in the tub and not the dispenser. I play around with adding baking soda, OxiClean, or borax, and once in awhile I put a bit of vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. So far things have been really great.

I wash a ton of dog hair off things, and it is quite wonderful how much less hair is ending up in the dryer. I guess when my washer was stinking musty mildew, it was clogged to a certain extent, and water was not rinsing freely. So my dryer would be FULL of hair, now, not so much.

I am sure that if lots of people have success with Afresh, other companies will come out with generic, cheaper tablets that do the same thing. (Like the Swiffer deal). I told somebody locally about my success with Afresh and they told me they have had great results with WhirlOut (sp?), which is something that peeps with hot tubs use to keep it nicely fresh and sanitary. I don't know if Home Depot carries it, but I would think any place with pool or tub supplies should have it. That would be another thing to try!

All I know is, if your washer gets bad, you might need something heavy duty to do the job. I really, really wanted lovely green stuff like baking soda and vinegar to work. I love green, and do most of my cleaning with microfibers and a steam cleaner, also lemon juice and baking soda. But wow, my stinking washer was so depressing. Nothing like doing laundry and ending up with musty clothes. I hope now that I have started doing things a bit differently that I won't need to use Afresh much, but I am VERY happy with it. And if you can't find Afresh, give WhirlOut a try.

Good luck!

Bought an LG front load about 2 years ago. Its never shown signs of the black mold on the gasket that some people speak of but it always had the musty smell. Leaving the door open didn't help. Just transmitted the smell down the hall. Read about soap film build up causing this and got the Afresh to clean it out. Only used two tablets. It worked. No smell. For awhile. I figured maybe I should try some other soaps that might be less apt to create the film build up in the first place. Also heard that powders leave less film than liquods. Don't know why. I've always used liquod Tide HE. Switched to Sears Ultra Plus with Oxyclean "powder". That was 4 months ago. No Afresh used and still no smell even with head inside the drum (still leave door open). For me.....problem solved.

I think that liquid laundry detergents have a tendency to promote mold in washing machines by leaving a residue behind.
Hot washes and using powdered detergents seems to prevent the growth of mildew.

I have a FL washer too. I leave the door slightly open, and I have no smell. I should say, my washer no longer smells. It use to....I didnt know about Afresh so I ran a few bleach & vinegar loads to get the smell out, then left the door open and switched to only HE detergents. I occasionally used to use Tide Cold water for darks. I used less because they didnt make it in HE. Now, I only use HE Tide...but I dont think that is what made the difference. I think the trick is you have to leave the door open when ever it is not in use. Now that you have the fresh clean scent from using the Afresh, I would leave the door slightly ajar after each use. I bet the smell never returns. When you think about it, closing the door creates an air tight seal.....the wet surfaces do not get to dry out properly. Top loaders do not have a rubber seal to keep water in, so it doesnt matter if you close the lid. Hope your smell doesnt return:)

I think the liquid Tide makes them smell more than any other brand. In fact the other day my nephew said something about his washer (a top load Kenmore) was stinking. I asked him why since it hasn't before and he said he had bought some liquid Tide and he said it had smelled ever since. So he says he is switching back when he gets this used up. He normally uses Arm/Hammer liquid.

Top loaders are less apt to stink than front loads and I think its due to two things.Top loads have a lid on top that never completely seals the chamber and they use a lot more water which more thoroughly rinses out the outer unseen drum. To get the musty smell you need a lot of residule water not leaving the outer drum area. Also,some waters form the odor causing bacteria faster than others.I beleive on a front loader this water gets trapped in a layer of thick film formed over time on the unseen outer drum and doesn't drain out as it should.The front loader doesn't use enough water to thoroughly rinse it out like a top loader. Leaving the door open can help the evaporation but not always solve the problem as was in my case. For me,my water and front loader the type of soap was the main problem causing agent. The liquod HE Tide was building up too much water trapping film. Switching to a powder (in this case Sears Ultra Plus)made all the difference in the world and I think due to leaving less film which allows the drum to properly drain.
Another interesting note, I live in a township and have a septic system which was often generating a bad smell outside. The new septic service man asked me two things. Do you use antibacterial soap? My response was "Yes....Oh ya, I guess that would kill all the beneficial bacteria in the system" Bacteria in the case of a septic system prevents odor. And his last question "Do you use Tide"? he said "Everyone who complains about their septic system smelling bad seem to always be using Tide". Since switching I haven't had any bad septic odor either (knock on wood).