About six or seven years ago, we moved a front load washing machine from a tenant's apartment to our basement. It was moved in a hurry and not drained or set for storage, but rather left with the door closed, hoses attached and any with any water that may have remained in it. We had the intention of setting it up and putting it to use "soon", but that didn't happen until now. So, it has sat for all of these years, possibly wet, completely closed up. Obviously, I'll want to run it a few times before actually washing anything in it, but should we be concerned about or take any special steps to be safe with regard to possible microorganism growth in the wet/damp environment with little/no air all of this time? It didn't smell when we, without thinking, just opened the door to get it going, but now I'm a little worried that we might have just wafted some nasty germs into our systems and home by being careless. Any thoughts?
I think it unlikely any harm will occur and the likelihood of "harmful" germs is low. As you say put the machine though a number of hot washes before use.
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