I wonder if anyone else has had a similar problem-and been able to solve it. First, I live in a 2 flat building we own with someone else. They sanded and put polyurathane on the floors upstairs. The smell was horrendous! Anyway, the smell is finally dying down but it is in my dryer. I have no clue how it got there since the dryer is in the basement. When I use the hot cycles, my clothes stink. I washed my towels 3 times before I realized that it smelled only from the dryer. If I use the air dry cycle, no problem. But the air dry takes forever to dry the clothes. I usually hang the clothes to dry but for towels and sheets, I use the dryer. The hot cycles make it smell like I put my clothes over charcoal lit with lighter fluid. Does anyone have any ideas for me? I'll have to go to the laundromat this week to dry my kids blankets but I don't want to do that all the time.
Well, I have been running the dryer repeatedly with just an old sheet, which just bugs me because it is such a waste of energy. The smell has decreased though not gone all the way. At least I can dry my stuff without making it stink. Thanks to everyone--and now I know we are not doing our own floors. P-U!
Not totally sure that this would even work, because I've never dealt with this before...perhaps try running the dryer with "rags" or something old that you don't care about. Do this a few times and perhaps it will burn off the fumes in there so it doesn't keep stinking up your clothes. Good luck!
This happened to me after I was staining furniture in my basement. It went away after a few loads.
The reason you have the smell in the dryer is because of the burning of fumes from the chemicals. The fumes travel all over! We had the same thing happen when our neighbors remodeled their kitchen. I started getting that horrible smell on all my clothes (when drying clothes in the basement) I also smelled it when cooking. I thought it was some type of gas leak and called Peoples Gas to come and take a look. They recognized the smell instantly and asked if anyone was getting their floors done. I too had to go to the laundry mat to re-wash everything. The smell lasted for 2-3 weeks. It was awful.
Yes, that happened to us after I did some furniture refinishing in the basement, even with the windows open. It went away after a few loads.
