Lawrence Milbourn wrote:
Yesterday my wife took out the soap dispenser drawer in our Hotpoint washing
machine and was horrified to see black mould-like yuck growing down from the
water inlets. It's been scrubbed but there are still signs of it.

1) Is it mould?

yes. it's probably a slime mould and we have it in the fabric softener section
of our washing machine. it's harmless as long as you don't eat it and will not
do any damage to your clothing. it does look a bit manky tho.

2) What's the best way of getting rid of it?

simple, use an industrial biocide in the fabric softener manufacturing process.
there is a chance that the mould has become resistant to whichever biocide
the manufacturers are using, it's happened before. or maybe they have a really
filthy manufacturing plant, that's also common.

3) How do I stop it from coming back?

dunno. mrs RT (Industrial Microbiologist) is going to get one of the lab bods
to grow some up and see exactly what it is. however, moulds can be extremely
difficult to identify. the growth process should take 3 to 5 days and a couple
of days to identify.

there is a high probability that the fabric softener is the substrate in which it's
living, which brand are you using ? we're using Lenor, bulk pack bought from
makro, but we've seen slime in the fabric softener drawer bit with other brands.

sadly, there is no indication on the label as to which biocide Lenor use, otherwise
mrs RT would be able to speculate more accurately. apparently, it does comply
with "test OECD 301B" a EC wide test for biodegradability. so now you know

I'll post the results of the grow next week. cleaning with a simple detergent is
probably the best way to clean the drawer, bleach is probably OTT :-)

hth

RT