Posted on 02/13/2012 8:36:50 AM PST by Smokin' Joe
A couple of nights ago, my wife hollered to me that the dryer was smoking, even as she shut it down. I grabbed the machine, dragged it out of its slot, and disconnected it from power and the dryer vent, ready to drag its hot and still smoking carcass into the yard rather than have it burn the house down.
The smoke was some of the most acrid I have encountered, and that includes my time as a firefighter in structural, woods, marsh/brush, boat, and vehicle fires.
Before I made it to the threshhold, though, the fire burned out.
With the immediate threat removed (that of a house fire of my own), I set about investigating the event while the house was airing out, windows and doors open (ambient temp 14 degrees).
The wiring on the back of the dryer was normal, pliable, and showed no signs of overheating (in fact, the breaker had not tripped), so I suspected the problem wasn't a simple short.
There was no sign of scorching in the dryer vent, so it wasn't the ignition of lint in the vent pipe.
At that point, (after feeling the sides to make sure they had cooled) I opened the back of the dryer to discover a coating of scorched and burnt lint throughout the lower half of the inside of the dryer. This is not in the drum, where the clothes go, but rather, the 'engineering spaces' within the unit.
The surviving lint coating inside the dryer was an inch or more thick in the bottom of the dryer, and thinned up the sides to about a half-inch. But the lint, even where it had not caught fire was pervasive inside the dryer, even having accumulated under the cover over the circuit board near the top of the machine to a depth of roughly a quarter inch.
The scorched lint was removed, along with the uninvolved fuzz accumulation, and the wiring inspected for damage.
Three wires had been heated enough to distort the insulation, but none had had the insulation breached. There were no signs of arcing or wires having shorted out against one another.
There was some scorching on the metal in the vicinity of the element, but that was apparently from the ignition of the lint inside the dryer case.
Conclusion: the lint accumulating inside the dryer had caused the fire, ignited by the heating element (electric dryer), and had burned so long as there was air provided while the dryer was in operation. When the dryer was shut off, the fire choked itself with its own smoke.
Continued operation might well have led to a less satisfactory result.
Where did the lint come from?
The connection between the pipe coming out of the back of the dryer and the vent to the great outdoors was not the culprit. It was secure, and did not leak; the lines were clear. This led me to check further, and the pipe which connects to the vent, the pipe coming from the filter chamber in the front of the dryer and heading out underneath the dryer seemed inordinately loose. In fact, the pipe was 1/8 inch larger in diameter than the flange it connected to, and was secured by the manufacturer with a single sheet metal screw. Any back-pressure in the line, and there was an open gateway for the sort of fine lint that would elude capture by the filter screen--the same sort of material which had accumulated inside the dryer and fueled the fire.
The dryer was cleaned, any scorched wiring inspected and taped well with a good grade of electrical tape, and the loose pipe sealed with a single wrap of 'Gorilla Tape', something which either should have been done at the manufacturer or which should have been rendered unnecessary by better fitting components. (Any air coming through that part of the dryer should be cool enough that this should not present a hazard, otherwise, the clothing and lint screen it passed through would be at risk as well.) The idea is to prevent future accumulations of lint and stop the blow by which also fanned the flames. (No fuel, no air, no fire)
Keep in mind that this is one of those 'high end' front loaders, which paired with the 'energy saving' front-loading washer ran for about $1800.00 a set retail when new.
What to look for:
I had noticed lint in the laundry area, something most anyone might expect. However, there really shouldn't be, if the vent is venting, if the connection is good, there should be no lint in the area except what falls out of the clothes, or you scrape off the screen. Fine, wispy lint fuzz accumulations might mean there is another source, and that could mean your dryer is accumulating lint inside, too, just waiting to ruin your day.
Check behind your dryer, check the louvers in the sheet metal in the back, and see if there is any accumulation. If there is, you might have a developing problem. If you can, peek inside and check for a mat of lint--and if there is one, either clean it out or have a qualified technician do so. Either way, make sure the dryer is unplugged from its power source first. I can't give advice about gas dryers, because I have never had one, but I'd think such an accumulation would present a similar hazard with either type.
Hopefully, this can save someone some grief.
I have a 25 year old Curtis Mathis TV still going strong..
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Amazing ,,, they were always the very lowest rated by Consumer Reports back in the day with the highest failure rates ... they didn’t build their own ,, had the low bidder make their sets ... nothing but marketing.
Count yourself lucky. See post 70 for the insane way we are billed here in Florida.
Yeah I find it amazing.
Its just a 19” SD and no componet inputs just rf.
I have a box on it and watch it most every day.
That’s really amazing.
In the summer, when temps here can be in the 90s and 100s, our electric bill (including heat pump) is well below $100, and that’s with still running the dryer for two adults and two kids. Only 1500 sq ft home but no shade to speak of.
Good for you Steve. Guess it all depends on what your power co. is charging for kwhs and fuel charges. Our state and counties get a cut too. It is big, big business in Florida.
BTW this home is around 2500+ sq. ft. Our heating/cooling systems are the most energy efficient, designed by my personal mechanical engineer spouse. I am down to around 950 kwh per month right now. That is a good 1500 kwh less than most homes this size. I don’t know what else to cut. I still enjoy cooking indoors and reading by lamp at night. Then there is this darn computer. Can’t give that up just yet.
Our total kwh nearly hits 2,000 in Dec and Jan, falls to 700-800 in the spring. I think electricity is 6.5 cents per kwh IIRC. Heat pump is an old 1999 model - 9 seer, I think. Don’t know how anyone but Rush Limbaugh can afford power down there.
Here they get you with fuel charges, customer charges, gross receipts tax and a county utility tax. Example Feb. billing:
Customer Charge: 8.76
Energy Charge
First 1000 kwh 973 kwh @ 6.27500 61.06
Above 1000 kwh 0 kwh @ 7.36600 0
Fuel Charge
First 1000 kwh 973 kwh @ 4.86000 47.29
Above 1000 kwh 0 kwh @ 5.86000 0
Total Electric Cost 117.11
Gross Receipts Tax 3.00
County Utility Tax 2.31
Total Due: 122.42
Some months the fuel charges are higher than the electrical costs.
Count yourself lucky.
Hi Joe,
Same thing that happened to you happened to us as well - almost word for word. Found that the same connection was very loose so we put in a small screw to hold it tighter and used some duct tape as well. Just thought I’d show you what our dryer looked like when we opened it up...
http://s9.postimage.org/6i744749b/dryer.jpg
(hope you can see the pic)
Thanks for sharing your experience - nice to know we aren’t the only ones with a poorly made dryer!
Yep, that sure looks familiar! The smoke from ours was incredibly irritating (and I say that as a former firefighter). Glad you came out of it okay! (I hope you really carefully checked the wiring over for signs of damage, too.)
I know this is an older thread, but our brand new DELIVERED TODAY speed queen clothes dryer would not shut off on it’s own.
One of the gentlemen said he set it for ten minutes to clean out any dust, etc., and then he left.
Over an hour later, it was still going.
Yes, it was set for ten minutes, but the timer moved so slowly, it didn’t turn of for over an hour UNTIL WE OPENED THE DRYER DOOR.
So then we turned it off manually, and reset it and this time it turned off in ten minutes.
Hubby said maybe something just had to loosen up.
What worries me is that I’m afraid it will happen again, say if we fall asleep, etc., and it could cause a fire.
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