Oh-oh!! Stinky Laundry!!!

It happened again….We use fabric softener and dryer sheets…and yet the odd time everything coming out of the dryer smells stinky, like some sort of chemical smell like hot asphalt or burnt rubber,...ever happen to you? We were mystified, until I made a discovery: Our clothes dryer runs on natural gas. Apparently, it is the ambient air that gets passed thru the combustion chamber, through the drum, then exhausted outside. I had spent the entire day with Minwax stains on my current project, and the vapors are contaminating the air that gets drawn into the clothes dryer!!!! Though by code a gas furnace draws outside air for combustion, a clothes dryer just sucks in whatever ambient air is around it, and my workshop door is just a few steps away!! Yikes…I’d never given any thought to that… assuming everything draws in outside air like the furnace does. Now I’m going to look at our gas water heater, undoubtedly it also draws in ambient room air too. In my neck of the woods it will be 5 months before I can stain outside again. I think I’ll take another look at aqueous stains and finishes… This makes me nervous. Oh, and p.s….Rewashing does get rid of the smell, thank heavens!

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!