Kerosene smell in clothes dryer - mystery solved!
Lizzie J
8 years ago
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DRYER smells
Comments (6)Well, the mystery is solved! Thanks to all who responded, especially to those who kept talking about the dryer "drawing" smells in. That little tidbit helped us find the problem. It is actually kind of interesting, so I thought I would share. Here is the scoop. My laundry room is on the second floor so we had a floor drain put in under the washer/dryer in case there was ever a flood, so that it wouldn't do any damage. As part of the floor drain setup, a tap primer valve was installed to be sure that water always stayed in the trap and keep sewer gases at bay. Well, the valve had apparently stopped working and eventually what water remained in the trap had evaporated. So, some sewer gases were seeping in and apparently the dryer was pulling the smell in. So how did we figure it all out? After nothing else was panning out as the culprit -- ductwork clean, no dead mice, no water damage (ah ha! - because we have the drain!), there wasn't much left except the fume theory. And that left ... the drain. So, we poured a gallon of the water down the drain and 20 mins later the smell was better and within an hour and a short 10 minute run of the dryer the smell was GONE! So we checked the valve by shutting the water off and the valve did not click when we turned the water off so we knew that it was shot. (We had that knowledge from earlier on when we turned the water off for something else and heard clicking, so we called the builder and he explained that the valve was supposed to do that to alert you that it couldn't do it job with the water off). Then it all made sense. So with water back in the trap and the plumber coming tomorrow morning to replace the valve, we are set! Thanks again. This forum is AWESOME....See MoreGetting rid of mildew smell on clothes..
Comments (21)Mara... I would LOVE to live off-post, but we have 3 chows ( sweetest, most friendly dogs ever ) and most places here at Hood won't let renters have "aggressive breeds" We're allowed to have them on post as long as we keep insurance on them and they don't cause any problems. When we first moved in, the backyard had those old metal poles for line drying, but no line. A few weeks later, maintenance came and took the poles out and we had to sign an agreement to not hang dry laundry to help keep up the appearance of the neighborhood. We have a back porch, but its not covered and is closed on three sides and we back up right next to the housing office haha. I supposed if this load is still stinky, I will just suck it up and them to the cleaners. I really appreciate all the suggestions you all have given me! I have gotten so much help for many problems.. who knew laundry could be so complicated?!...See Moremystery sewer gas smell !
Comments (37)FOLLOWUP! In July 2012- I had sewer gas leaking into my bedroom, bathroom, and then up to the upstairs level of the house for five months. It was awful. I have an 18 inch crawlspace and a raised floor. Under the house is dirt and the pipes. I had FOUR plumbers and TWO handymen check it out. They found NOTHING! They were too big to fit around the pipes!!! We had put in a new toilet, and I had that pulled up and put down again, just in case. but that was fine. We checked all the traps, and now keep them full of water, so they are fine. The plumbers gave me estimates of $4500 for a sewer cleanout installation in front of the house, and $6800 to repipe the bad pipes, if they found any.... I did not have the money, and they really had no plan, just guesses. Last August 2012, I luckily found a neighbor friend who was able to crawl around under the house. He was a little guy, and knew how to do plumbing and other repairs!! He found leaking and large cracks in the main drain sewer pipe at the ground level, around the back of the pipe, hidden from general view and he used epoxy to repair it. This pipe was attached to other pipes, and if it needs to be replaced it will be a difficult job. That pipe was directly below the downstairs bathroom. That reduced about 70 % of the smell and seems to be holding tight with no more leaking there. But sewer gases were still leaking from somewhere else, but not as bad, or as often. it still kept coming back about every three days.They centered in my bedroom, and seemed to come out of the floor. Oddly, from the beginning, the gases only happened around 1am until 5am, then stopped all day long, so no one could smell them, unless they stayed all night. From the first repair, the gasses only occurred about every three days or so, and not as severe, but still stinky. My friend came back into town in November, and went back under the house, and found stress marks on the larger pipe that attached to the MAIN drain sewer pipe, and ran towards the front of the house. This pipe traveled directly under my BED, and the cracks were basically under my pillow area. (What LUCK!) He had to replace that whole pipe, and to get it inside we opened the ground vents and slid it through, and the old pipe out. After he replaced that and all the fittings, the gases were gone! THANK YOU GOD!!! It cost me $800 just to investigate all this, and get nothing for the repairing of it from that! Plumbers were just ready to get paid, with no idea what was actually wrong!!! My friend only charged me $550 plus parts for this! I suffered through it for five months, and hope the sewer gases didn't harm me in any way! I sure appreciate the clean smell now!!! By the way, it was an acrid stinky burning smell. It did NOT smell like METHANE, or anything described as general sewage smells. It was just hard to breathe it, and would cause eyes, throat and nose to burn. I had a runny nose right up to the day the last pipe was replaced, and it all stopped. GOOD LUCK TO ANYONE STILL HAVING THIS PROBLEM. I learned far more about plumbing than I ever thought I would need to know!...See MorePlease help solve this mystery
Comments (23)Re: mike_home Et al In the case of the PO the average cost to run a 5-ton Waterfurnace Series 7 in all but the most brutal conditions would probably be ~51¢/hr. That’s hardly more to heat the whole house and to heat most of their DHW than the cost to run one 2kW baseboard heater in a studio apartment! Over capacity for cooling is no longer an issue as these systems are fully variable speed, blowers, compressors, flow centres and EEV’s. You can either size for cooling or full capacity heating without compromising effective cooling and dehumidification. The colder the climate, the more of a Big Deal defrost cycles become. Re: OP I’m not confident the proposed Mitsubishi HP will integrate well with your existing oil boiler hydronic system. This sounds more like a good solution for the installer, perhaps not so much for you. BTW: The proposed 3-ton Mitsubishi system has an EER rating of 12.5 and has an output of slightly more than 2-ton at 17˚F. This configuration might save some money but you will still be burning a lot of oil at a very low rate of efficiency if you don’t get to the meat of tackling your situation. By contrast, the Waterfurnace Series 7 has an EER rating of as high as 53.2. I still advise getting rid of the oil system completely, perhaps going completely all forced air and installing the most efficient system you can due to your high energy costs. Otherwise you’ll cringe for years to come opening your utility bills. ‘Buy once; cry once’! IMPO SR...See MoreJennifer Spade
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