Rust stains on laundry?

Sisugal

My neighbor was telling me over the weekend that shehas been having a problem with her laundry having rust spots on them. She wondered if it could be her water heater (old) or if it was her washer (a Sears front loader).  I really did not know and suggested she talk with a plumber or Sears service.

Anyone have a similar problem?  If so - what was the cause and your solution?

Our neighborhood is older, but I have had no similar problems, but my water heater is new as are my washer & dryer.

GeorgiaRiah

This happened to my mother.  It was because she kept leaving wet laundry in the machine until something in the washer started to rust and stained her clothes.

hereonceagain

yes!!  We just ran into that issue.  It turns out it is a common problem.  It is a part in the dryer that leaks oil.  It appears to be rust stains on clothes.  It took us forever to figure that out and we found out via google.  My husband looked in the dryer and sure enough we could see the oil.  He scrubbed it like crazy and we cleaned it out really good and haven't had a problem since.  Thank god.  We were ready to buy a new washer and dryer because of it.

 

Edit:  I read online that sometimes the part the leaks oil needs to be replaced.  But we haven't had a problem since.

pennyplf

she'd better change a new water heater

mattandbekah

Does she have a well?  We were having rust stains on our clothes, and we had to have our water softener hooked up (we rent, so for some reason the landlord was reluctant to do that until we insisted).  We then had to run a product called Iron Out through all of our appliances (washer, dishwasher).  Those two steps have really helped with the rust stains.

Sisugal

Thank you for the input so far. i will pass the input along.

No well

New water softener

Passanie

This happened when I was a kid. I want to say it was a hard water problem, but I'm not positive.

RachelAtHallak

This should be fixed ASAP or replaced. Rust stains on clothing is very difficult to remove and sometimes impossible!

carlab44

It could be a very simple solution. We had this issue and discovered that there was a golf divet replacer thing that got stuck in the folds of the gasket of the door of our washer (we have a front load washer). It was starting to rust and the rust was getting on our clothes. We cleaned out the gasket and problem was solved.