Just so you know...there wasn't any smell in my machine or any indication that it needed cleaning. I just read about cleaning it this way, and thought I'd see what would happen. It amazed me because we keep soap to the very minimum, always use the extra rinse at the end, and do all we can to get the clothes clean. We live in the country, too, use a bit of bleach in our whites and haven't had any problem with the septic tank. We have tons of lime from limerock and it tends to turn everything grey, even with the bleach. So we do use bleach. Anyway, never a front loader again.