Paul Flynn, a former appliance repairman, has made a mint with SmellyWasher.

MCT / Bruce Bisping

MINNEAPOLIS Appliance repairman Paul Flynn, of Savage, Minn., was getting calls from customers suffering allergic reactions to their foul-smelling front-loading washing machines. During nearly every $150 service call, Flynn found mold and mildew inside the inner tub.

Flynn got to thinking about his experience cleaning metal lathes and kitchen grills in the Navy, and in 2002 started working to perfect a granular, citrus-based product for washers. Since last year, Flynn has been selling SmellyWasher online, filling 75 to 100 orders a day for shipments worldwide. He’s sold about 20,000 of the $16 bottles, enough to quit his job as a repairman.

But besides selling a product, Flynn also educates consumers about solving the problem before it occurs, at his Web site, SmellyWasher.com.

“The whole reason this problem exists is the fault of the detergent manufacturers,” Flynn said. “They tell us to use too much of their detergents.”

Consumers who own front-loading washing machines should use only about one-quarter of the recommended amount of high-efficiency, or HE, low-sudsing detergent. Standard, non-HE detergents in front-loaders are too sudsy.

Why don’t top-loading machines have this problem? Less efficient top-loaders that use more water typically flush out excess suds, soil, detergent and fabric softener.

Class-action lawsuits against manufacturers such as LG, Whirlpool and Maytag have been filed, alleging mold and mildew problems in front-loading washers.

Some suits have been settled while others are pending, affecting hundreds of thousands of consumers, said Rob Shelquist, a partner at the Lockridge Grindal Nauen firm, in Minneapolis.

According to Whirlpool, the low water use and airtight seals on HE front-loaders create the potential for odor-causing mold and mildew. Whirlpool has its own anti-odor product, Affresh, which sells for $7 for three treatments. SmellyWasher is more expensive than Affresh initially ($16 for 24 treatments), but Flynn’s product lasts a year.

SmellyWasher can be used as a preventive monthly or less often if smaller amounts of detergent are used. Affresh is also used monthly, but a $7 packet lasts only three months. Flynn’s product will also remove musty odors from towels or clothing, which Affresh does not claim to do.

Susie Thymian is such a believer that she now sells SmellyWasher in her own store, McGinnis Appliance, in Morris, Minn. Thymian had blamed the musty smell from her towels on her teenagers, who often leave wet towels in a pile in their bedrooms. Her kids’ solution to the stink was to use more towels. Thymian’s answer was to use more bleach in the laundry, but nothing got rid of the mystery mold odor. The problems of smelly or moldy front load washing machines has been a recent topic of discussion in Consumer Reports and housekeeping forums such as the Laundry Room at thathomesite.com.

A front-loading washer must, by necessity, be more tightly sealed to prevent leaking, unlike a top loader, through which air may circulate between loads to help water evaporate, preventing mold and mildew.

Some users have had success wiping down the rubber door gasket and leaving the door open on their front-loading washers between loads to let air in. Running a load of white laundry through the hot cycle with bleach occasionally, or running diluted white vinegar through the machine, can also clear detergent residue and mildew from inside the machine.