Excess suds in front loaders

Suds are bubbles or froth normally produced during a wash cycle. We expect to see some suds during the wash cycles. However, sometimes too many suds are produced, leading to excess suds or over foaming.

If your washer can keep washing, or clear the suds, then even a fair amount of foam is ok (if a little wasteful on detergent). If your washer is struggling to clear the suds or items are not moving, then the volume of suds is too large and it’s time to act.

The main causes of excess suds are incorrect detergent type for water hardness, excess surfactant for the amount of soiling, and blocked filters.

Fixing a whiteout or suds lock

Some machines will continue to wash with excess suds, just extending the cycle to rinse them out. Others will display an error code and pause the cycle. The machine will wait for the the suds to dissipate, and then restart the cycle.

If your washing machine has the word “SUDS” on the display, it has detected an over-sudsing condition, and will stop for a short period to allow the suds to dissipate. This error code is usually caused by too much detergent, or the wrong type of detergent.

Samsung

If this is a one-off problem, and the machine is not clearing the suds, dilute some hair conditioner or fabric softener and pour it down the detergent drawer. The fabric softener/ hair conditioner will wash out during the wash cycle.

Fabric softeners and hair conditioners are both cationic surfactants. Cationic surfactants bind to the excess anionic surfactants in the detergent, reducing the suds.

Blocked washing machine filter

If your machine suddenly produces excess suds, and nothing has changed in your wash conditions, the cause could be a blocked filter or blocked drainage pipe. 

Check your washing machine filter for blockages first. This is often located at the bottom right-hand side of your machine. 

Small items like reusable breast pads, cloth wipes and baby socks can get sucked into the filter and cause blockages. Prevent this by adding them to laundry bags/delicates bags.

Check the drainage pipe if you don’t find any obvious blockages in the filter. Small items can also get stuck here and may need to be removed.

Selecting a detergent that matches your water hardness

If the filter and drainage pipes are clear, and you still have excess suds, it is time to reassess your detergent choice. Sometimes the cause is ingredients in the laundry detergent. 

The base of powder detergents is often a water softener, usually sodium carbonate. This is added to bind to the dissolved minerals in the water allowing the detergent surfactants to effectively remove soiling. As a result, using powder detergent in soft water, in a front loader, may result in excess suds.

High-performing detergents for soft water

Australia

• Omo liquid  (all varieties) 
• Biozet Attack powder
• Biozet +Softener powder

New Zealand

• Persil liquid (all varieties)

Matching detergent to soiling level

If you have soft water and are already using an appropriate detergent there could be a mismatch in the amount of detergent and the amount of soiling in your washing loads. 

This can happen with longer, hotter first washes, or if your main wash consists of only items that have been through a first wash.

Each wash cycle is different, the level of soiling is never identical. You might have the same cycle length and water temperature but the the soiling and staining of each load is different. This means you need to be mindful of when to adjust the detergent dose (and chemical factors).

~ Anastasia, Environmental Scientist and founding Facebook group admin

Check the suds level when washing other items such as clothing or linen. If there aren’t excess suds when washing other items, then potentially there is too much detergent for the main nappy wash.

In this situation, there are two options:

• Add soiled items to the main wash (for example, clothing with food or dirt), so that the surfactant is being used up.
• Reduce the amount of detergent to match the soiling level

We used to advise people to add clean items to help bulk out their main wash, even suggesting people have a pile of terry towelling cloths or tea towels in their laundry specifically to ‘bulk the wash’. We now focus on the amount and type of detergent to the level of soiling in the machine. 

Excess suds cushion and prevent friction, which reduces the removal of physical soiling (for example poo, vomit, food, mud). This can be an issue if there is a large amount of soiling in your wash cycle. If you have recurrent stains, smells or marks as well as excess suds it is time to reassess your wash cycles, detergent choice and stain removal methods.

Our advice on suds differs from Fluff Love and other cloth nappy advice websites. Clean Cloth Nappies’ members have been washing nappies for almost 10 years and we have continually refined and updated our advice in that time. 

Preventing excess suds checklist

• Clean your machine filter.
• Review your detergent choice
  • Use a low sudding detergent in soft water areas
• Review your detergent amount
  • increase soiling level in your main wash by bulking with at least 25% of soiled items; or
  • Reduce detergent amount