Can bacteria survive in the washing machine?

+1 vote
asked Feb 25, 2019 in laundry/Cleaning by margretwb2 (240 points)
Can bacteria survive in the washing machine?

1 Answer

0 votes
answered Feb 25, 2019 by Cicero (4,320 points)
Washing clothes in detergent alone and hot water may not be enough to kill some bacteria that can be on clothing.

If your clothes or laundry is bleach safe then you can kill the bacteria on the clothes in the washing machine by adding some bleach to your laundry and detergent along with the hot water.

The bleach will always kill the bacteria since the bacteria cannot survive in bleach.

You can also place your clothing in a Ziploc bag and place the clothes in the freezer for a few hours or overnight to kill off bacteria on the clothing and then wash them again which will get rid of the bacteria and odor on the clothes.

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