Similar to what Weedmeister said, you have lint built up in the interior of the machine. I have seen where lint covering the floor of the dryer has caught fire, burned briefly, then extinguished itself. Generally the lint build up is caused due to bad venting where the vent pipe is not properly connected causing lint to be pulled back into the dryer. A layer of this lint will build up on the base and around the burner. at one point there may be enough build up to ignite from the burner. The only way to take care of it is to remove the back of the dryer and vacuum out the lint.

Thank you so much for your experience with this. That puts my mind at ease. The gasket in mine is not smooth at the 4 and 8 o'clock position but good to hear its normal for these machines. I really didn't believe the serviceman since it it different compared to other brands i've seen. And he said that I shouldn't be using powder detergent because it is bad for the machine. That made me wonder if he really knew his stuff or not. Everything that I have read on here says powder is the way to go to avoid buildup in the frontloaders. I have to say I am impressed so far with it and the ability for it to get stains out. Thanks again!

"Could older hardware cause this type of smell?" Certainly not. The smell of mold/mildew is unique. You are smelling what it is. Now you need to: 1. Find the mold or mildew, and 2. Eliminate the cause. The cause is moisture. The place you will find the mold/ mildew is inside the walls around your shower stall and the floor under the shower pan. Just about any shower stall built in the early 1990's is going to have mold. The construction materials and methods commonly used during that era have been discontinued. Poly plastic was often used as a vapor barrier, and sometimes a dreaded "double vapor barrier" situation occurrs. Also it is common that gypsum board products, like green board drywall, were used rather than a cement board product such as hardibacker or a proper mortar bed. I would gut the bathroom shower stall. The home inspector's report recommending replacment of the fiberglass shower pan, is a gentle way of phrasing "you need to gut the shower" I've never just replaced the shower pan in a tile shower. By the time the shower pan is bad, the tile walls are also bad. The shower pan is more robust and water tight than any tile work done in 1993. Can you open the drywall on the back side of one of the shower stall walls? That would be a good way to look for mold and still be able to abort the demolition work if you do not find it.

It is what it is. Dryer filters can't catch 100% of the lint or they'd clog very quickly and impair the airflow to deteriorate performance. I've heard of people placing a nylon stocking or some such over the outlet but keep in mind that anything used in an attempt to catch the debris would have the same effect of quickly clogging and need to be cleaned very often.