Thank you @JaneJones and @Griffin36 . I have used bicarb on its own to try to clean the machine but I understand it’s a bleach so I can only put it in with whites?
I never use clothes softener at all and don’t really have too much of a problem with limescale but the black slime clogs everything up really quickly…
@AngelaR , I have found some clear advice for you
This idea I found very effective at a previous home
Try This Secret Washer Trick to Get Rid of Mold - CNET
Leaving the door open a jar between washes is also a good idea.
“Never mix bleach and vinegar – it creates toxic chlorine gas” is a good warning.
Oh no! Its not a secret anymore…
Why would it be a secret? Do you want your family and friends laundry to smell so you can have a na, na, nana moment, silly journalists.
I use what is called a radiator brush to clean out the pipe from the drawer to the drum.
Bicarb and vinegar is fine though - I don’t use bleach. I’ve found for e.g. loos, bicarb and citric acid work really well together.
Mixing bicarbonate and vinegar just gives lots of co2 and neutral water. May not do anything useful though.
As for ‘secrets’ I believe the term is clickbait.
Same here. For cleaning clothes and stopping the black mould issue, we use sodium percarbonate, which is the same stuff that is put in the ‘oxi bleach’ products you can buy.
You can buy it at a small fraction of the price you pay for the oxi bleach stuff in the supermarkets. Here’s where I got mine
I got 5Kg as I also use it for cleaning all my winemaking stuff.
I hope you don’t buy the supermarket ones. See my previous post here and save a lot of money 
Oxiclean or one of the substitutes is sodium percarbonate and hydrogen peroxide.
It was our vet who recommended it and I’m not sure which one breaks down the cat hair but it works brilliantly, we used to use vamoosh but this works just as well and is way cheaper.
Vinegar is great for getting fluffy soft towels.
Even if you line-dry?
We line dry most of the time as our clothes lines are under cover at the end of the car port/hanger, it’s the bit where the two stone seats are on the right.
That’s good (and environmentally sound of course 
)
I much prefer to line dry if feasible but we don’t have a covered space to do it and we do get quite a bit of rain here. However, my partner likes to tumble-dry towels so that they aren’t stiff. If vinegar sorts that, I shall be very pleased. Do you put it in with the lessive or the rinse cycle?
The rinse cycle, it’s what big hotels use.
My cousin used to be the laundry manager at The Hilton many years ago.
Oxiclean is pure sodium percarbonate. Sodium percarbonate is washing soda and hydrogen peroxide. Many of the others (think pink) are sodium percarbonate with an ionic surfactant.
Every day is a school day 
both Oxiclean and Vamoosh listed them as separate ingredients so I went with that.
It is OK and common to list them separately as in chemistry, sodium percarbonate is not strictly a chemical compound, but something called an adduct. It’s two compounds that are bonded together in a way that doesn’t make them a seperate entity.
I think that’s what happened to my dad after fathering 6 children and in his 73rd year 
My chemistry was limited to bulk glass making and it’s waste products, so mainly sand, soda ash and limestone, with at the other end mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead etc.
Right then, chemists, perhaps you can advice me on my small problem.
I wash dark denims at 30C ‘denim wash’ cycle with Woolite for black, plus Calgon liquid.
So why does everything still come out with white crazy paving lines? Is it because the water is high calcium? What can I do, if anything, short of installing a water softener?
Powder or liquid detergent.
