I just moved into an apartment and there is a washing machine. It smelled terrible so I ran it with vinegar and baking soda and that seemed to help. However, I would feel better if I could run it with hot water, and there is no hot water setting. There is only a warm/cold and a cold/cold setting. I turned the water heater all the way up to get somewhat warmer water, but not hot enough.

I was thinking of installing a valve so that I could manually shut off the cold water to the washing machine, and then choose the warm setting, which should fill the machine with hot water. Would this be inadvisable? I'm trying to understand what could possibly be the reason that this washing machine has no hot setting. I just want to make sure that I don't damage the machine with hot water somehow. It is a whirlpool super capacity, but not sure of the model.

Thanks for any help you can give!