How LG helped me remove that musty smell out of my clothes WITHOUT laundry detergent or fabric softeners.

Last spring, my daughter pulled her soccer jersey over her head in the back seat on the way to a game.

Then she pulled it right back off.

"Mom, why does this smell like a wet dog?"

She was holding it out away from her shoulders, the way you hold something you've already decided not to put on. I'd washed it the night before.

And here's a secret.

I didn't switch detergents to fix it.

And still, her jersey comes out of the dryer smelling like nothing at all, which is exactly how clean is supposed to smell.

The musty smell in our towels, socks and shin guard sleeves is completely gone.

It just boggles my mind how well this works. Let me explain.

My husband is a mechanic. All of his clothes are disgusting.

And that's just his day job. Two nights a week, he coaches our son's team. On Sundays, he plays in a men's league.

So it's grease-stained coveralls Monday to Friday, a sweaty coach's polo after practice, and a Sunday-league jersey that sits in his gear bag until I find it.

I have tried every detergent brand in the store and also a few homemade detergent recipes.

But it would always take a double dose of even the harshest detergent to make his coveralls and jerseys smell decent.

Don't tell my husband but, for years, I thought the smell came from his clothes. All that grease and sweat.

I never once thought it was coming from my washer.

And yet these days, I don't double-dose anything. I use one normal scoop of the same detergent I've always used, and his coveralls and jerseys come out smelling like clean laundry, not like the bottom of a gear bag.

And best of all, they smell like absolutely nothing. Softener always left a heavy, cloying scent on top of clothes that were still sour underneath. Now there's nothing on top, and nothing underneath either.

And just in case you're wondering...

Our towels used to get a musty smell.

Maybe it's from years of use.

Or maybe it's just the kids leaving them balled up in the gear bag all weekend.

Well, when I wash them now, they come out with no musty, no wet dog, nothing.

I'd tried hot cycles for years.

They never fixed it, because the problem was somewhere the hot water never reaches.

And it wasn't because I left them sitting, either.

I always figured I'd waited too long. Wet towels in the gear bag all weekend, a load sitting in the washer overnight.

Then we spent a tournament weekend at my mom's. By Sunday night, the kids' towels had been balled up in the gear bag for two days, same as always. I washed them in her machine, with the same detergent I'd packed from home.

Same towels, same soap, same two days in the gear bag, but different machine.

And the clothes finally came out fresh.

Have you been seeing these on your clothes?

I'd been picking black bits off the kids' white socks for about a year, and I had never once looked up what they were.

LG calls it SCRUD.

"Scrud is the name given to the waxy build up that can occur within any washer when the Fabric softener comes into contact with detergent."

Then I read the next line, and I was shocked.

After years of fighting that smell, LG told me exactly where it was coming from:

"If Scrud is allowed to build up in the machine it can result in stains on the clothes and an unpleasant smell in the washer."

That's scrud too.

It sits damp in my washer between loads, and the rinse water runs right through it on the way to the kids' clothes.

I'd been fighting each one separately for years. A stain stick for the marks. Scent beads for the smell. Picking flecks off socks by hand.

Not one of them went after the scrud.

And then the line that finally explained why my vinegar never worked:

"The chemical reaction between the two agents causes the slimey substance to form and adhere itself to the surfaces that are not subjected to the washing action of the clothes."

Read that last part again. The surfaces the wash never touches.

My vinegar went in the drum. My hot cycles went through the drum. The drum was never the problem, and that is why every single one of them worked for about a day.

So all those double doses for his coveralls and jerseys were making it thicker.

And the softener I was adding to make the towels smell nicer was half of what it's made of.

I was not doing laundry wrong.

I was feeding the thing that was causing the smell.

After what I read from LG, I cut way back on fabric softener.

But I was never going to get a house full of soccer clothes fresh by cutting back on softener alone.

The scrud was already in there.

So what's my secret?

I use a bizarre little tablet called X-All.

I guess the X is for crossing out ALL the gunk in the washer you cannot reach.

A couple of us moms were talking on the sideline, and I mentioned the smell. I didn't think Jess was even listening.

Then at the next practice, she handed me a box.

"Just try it. It's what I use."

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical that a tiny tablet would undo 9 years of smell and scrud, but Jess had thought of me, so the least I could do was try it.

X-All is a tablet made to go after scrud, right in the hidden spots where the smell comes from.

It works using citric acid, which is what LG tells you to use.

You know how dish soap just smears the film on a glass window around? You wipe and wipe, and it's still cloudy.

But grab a glass cleaner, and one pass leaves it sparkling.

Same window. Different cleaner. It's made for that kind of dirt.

Scrud is the same way. Detergent and vinegar just smear it around. Citric acid is made for it. It cuts right through, so the scrud lets go of the walls and drains away.

You simply drop it in with no clothes in there at all, after one cycle, open the door and smell it for yourself.

So I dropped the tablet in the empty drum and ran a cycle. When I opened the door, I braced for that musty whiff that always hit me. It wasn't there.

Then I put through a load of old rags I didn't care about.

They came out smelling like nothing at all. No musty. Just clean.

Then the gear-bag towels. I pulled one out of the dryer and buried my face in it. No wet dog.

Then his coveralls and his Sunday-league jersey, the ones it used to take a double dose to get smelling decent. One normal scoop. They came out smelling like clean laundry.

You get the picture.

I could smell the difference after that first cycle. But 9 years of gunk went on in layers, and it came off in layers. It took a couple of weeks before the musty smell was gone for good.

I was hooked. And here is the absolute best part.

Remember what LG said?

"If scrud is allowed to build up…"

So I don't let it.

Scrud forms when detergent meets softener. That happens in every single load.

It's like the white ring in a pot after you boil water. Rinse it right after, and it wipes off with your finger. Leave it for a few months, and you're scrubbing with steel wool.

So after every load, I drop a tablet in the empty drum and run a cycle. I start it the minute the clothes go into the dryer. By the time I'm done folding, it's finished.

The scrud washes out while it's still thin, before it ever gets a chance to build up.

Wait a month, and you've given it a month of soccer laundry to dig in.

And if your clothes already smell, the buildup is already there. One tablet won't undo years of it. Even one X-All customer said so:

"Although XAll is cleaning up a lot of the gunk I don't think it will erase the 'years' of no XAll." — Sharon W.

That's why it takes steady use, and why I run one after every load.

That way, two things happen at once. The old scrud washes away a little more each cycle, and new scrud washes out before it can ever build up.

I never added it up until Jess asked me one day at practice. So I did.

Not one of them went after the scrud. So every dollar of it went straight down the drain.

And I was this close to spending the big one: $800 or more on a new washer.

Turns out my washer didn't need replacing. It needed cleaning.

Now my money goes to the one thing that actually fixed it.

But that is not the only reason I love this thing so much.

My daughter wears that jersey every game, so it goes through the wash twice a week.

We tried dozens of different detergents on her soccer clothes. And no matter what I used, they still came out smelling musty.

Well, not since we started running a tablet after every load.

She pulled the jersey on in the back seat last Saturday, the one she said smelled like a wet dog. This time she didn't say a word, which from a teenager is a rave review.

My husband never believed me about the smell. I'd hold a towel up to his face, and he'd just shrug.

Then last Saturday, he walked through the laundry room and stopped.

"Did you do something in here? It doesn't smell like it used to."

He has never once mentioned that room in 9 years.

My washing machine used to have a funky, rotting softener smell.

It's a front loader, and the fold in the rubber ring around the door would fill with black gunk.

Not only did the machine stink, but it was putting that stink onto every load. And the black flecks right onto the kids' white socks.

I used to wipe it out with vinegar every Sunday. It helped for a day or two, then the gunk came back.

Not so after I started using X-All.

I am not going to tell you it looks brand new in there, because 9 years of gunk went on in layers and it is coming off in layers.

But the black flecks are gone. And so is the smell.

Which brings me to my final point.

I love this thing.

Our towels, socks and jerseys come out of the dryer smelling like nothing at all. No musty. No wet dog.

I will still use softener on sheets, at about a third of what I used to, but this is the only way I will be looking after that machine from now on.

Not only am I not picking black bits off socks anymore, but I am not buying scent beads either. We are a household of four with three soccer bags, and it really adds up.

And I'm not the only one. X-All's own reviews are full of moms like me:

I have been telling every soccer mom on the sideline. Jess was right.

You can't get X-All in the aisle. The company sells it online.

During soccer season, we do about 6 loads a week. One box comes with 6 tablets, one for every load, so a box lasts me a week.

That's why the monthly pack comes with 4 boxes, just enough for a month.

If you do fewer loads, each box goes further.

Mine is 9 years old, so I went with the 24.

I'll be honest: what made it easy was the math on the other side. A new washer runs $800 or more, and I was this close to buying one.

Works in front loaders and top loaders, old or new.

Try it for yourself.

You can keep doing what I did for 9 years. Double-scooping. Buying scent beads that last a day. Picking black flecks off socks. Pricing out a new washer.

Or you can go after the scrud that's been causing it all along.

One tablet, an empty drum, one cycle. You'll smell the difference the first time you open the door.

If you've read this far, you already know what that smell is. Now you know what to do about it.