Kenmore 11020932991 Washer leaving soap residue after rinse

[Fred Weather]

21 year old top loader and still going... after a couple repair parts.  

Lately our towels have become quite stiff and even the new ones don't seem to stay soft for very long.  After a spin cycle completed, the wife noticed a bit of soap bubble residue on the tub just above the towels.  That cycle had two rinses.  She did another single rinse and another.  I came in and looked at it and sure enough there was soap residue still there.  I started another rinse cycle with warm water and was amazed how much soap suds came to the surface after it started agitating.  It literally looked like it was the start of a wash.  I didn't brush the soap suds away to look at the water beneath to see how cloudy it was but the entire top of the washer was suds.

Never really paid any attention to something like this but I wouldn't think it's normal.  We use All free and clear soap or Kirkland.  Softener half the time.  I do clean out the softener dispenser often due to some of her clothes getting spots after a wash when I found buildup on the agitator ports.

The washer always runs a normal cycle with no issues.

Any thoughts on this?  

Thanks.

[16345Ed]

What type of detergent?

[Fred Weather]

I noted above either All or Kirkland.

[Vance R]

Use cold water wash?

[Fred Weather]

Warm and hot.  Not really noticed with cold wash.  The last time with the towel situation was with hot.

[Vance R]

Let me restate a more consice question. Does the customer use mainly cold water washes? The reason for this question is that if they just use cold water for washes the soap won't dissolve correctly and over a long term builds and start leave reisdue.  The informal fix would be to use serveral hot water full water level flush to remove the residue, can add small amount of bleach or vinegar to help. Next would be use of affresh, wash warrior or tide product to remove residue. Last would be to remove the basket and hand scrub out out the residue from the basket and tub.

[16345Ed]

Also if using too much. Like unknowingly using concentrated or turbo like a lots f customers do...

[Fred Weather]

Mostly warm washes. Rarely cold.  We did the vinegar thing recently due to some stale/sour odors in the laundry room.  Probably should pull the inner tub and do a cleaning.  I just noticed soap on it again in the last load. 

Thanks for the input.

[Fred Weather]

I ended up tearing the washer apart and cleaning the plastic tub, drum, agitator, everything.  No soap residue to speak of.  The bottom of the drum had a bunch of gunk (15 years worth) but no soap suds when I used the power washer on it.

After putting it back together we ran a full load of towels, first with Oxiclean and then a load with soap (cutting the soap in half of what we normally use, a full cap).  After a full cycle with two rinses it looked like it hadn't rinsed at all.  I ran another two full wash cycles (and two rinses) with warm water and NO SOAP an it still had a ton of soap suds on the last rinse. We're talking... wash, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse and there were still suds on top of the load.  It drained and spun normally with each cycle.

Only thing I can now think of is the Oxiclean has something to do with this.  Other than that, I'm at a loss.

[Vance R]

Max water level, empty basket, water should fill to the top row of holes in the basket if i remeber correctly. This an old fashion washer and uses a ton of water should washer and rinse with no issues. Depending on your cap size about a 1/3 is all you would need.