A cautionary tale of a clothes dryer

Usually my tendencies towards denial serve me well. Here’s an example where they did not. A few months ago a part of my dryer fell out. It was some sort of inner ring that went around the back on the inside. It seemed to be made of felt. I tried to stuff it back in but it kept falling out with each load. I took it out. The dryer still worked. I decided it must not be an important part.

And on went life with all its many loads of laundry.

In recent weeks I’ve had a few times where the dryer smelled hot when I took the clothes out. I chalked it up to the size of my loads or the number I was doing each day. I took my dry clothes out of the dryer, folded them (eventually), put them away and repeated the cycle. (every day, I do laundry every. day.) This weekend the occasional hot smell turned into something different.

As I walked past the laundry room on Saturday it didn’t smell hot, it smelled burnt. I went in and checked the load in the dryer. It was a load of towels and it most definitely smelled burnt. They were at the end of the cycle so I went ahead and took them out and decided the dryer must need a break. I went about my merry day, occasionally walking into the laundry room to see how it smelled. It smelled burnt. I decided to unplug the dryer and call a repair person Monday morning.

Little did I know that a small fire was smoldering away that whole time. Did I mention I have a gas dryer?

Monday morning I pull the dryer out. The smell is greatly diminished. I begin to wonder if this has something to do with that part that fell out so many weeks ago. I call the repair person. He comes at 3pm, opens the dryer and calls me in.

“Ma’am, there’s been a fire in here.”
“Really? You mean some lint got stuck because that seal fell out?”
“No I mean some lint caught fire. You are really lucky it burned it self out.”

I look inside the dryer, it is filled with ashes and scorch marks. Turns out that felt ring seal is a pretty important part of the dryer. He said he could try to fix it but that he wasn’t sure how well the motor would do after being on fire. There was also the issue of how bad it smelled. My husband & I decided to get a new dryer – the thought of using one that had been ON FIRE is not so appealing.

And now all I can think about is… what if I hadn’t been home to smell the burning smell? I am notorious for putting a load in the dryer as I leave the house. Or what if it had been at night, when my entire family was sleeping? I’m even more notorious for doing one last load of laundry by putting it in the dryer before I go to bed.

Sure, it’s a funny story. A friend of mine made me laugh when she said “That’s it! No more laundry! I’m telling my husband it’s just too dangerous.” And it’s totally the sort of thing I’m good at – denying there’s a problem and assuming the world will go along with my denial. But it could have turned out much differently.

Stupid laundry.

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