Thread Number: 12368
Never take advice from the internet.
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Post# 217172   6/20/2007 at 15:33 (6,148 days old) by carmine (Detroit)        

Well you guys told me that "scrud" from body/cooking oils was leaving black streaks on my clothes.

So I figured, what cuts through oil real good? Gasoline and Lacquer thinner. So I figured it would clean out my washer pretty good too, so I filled it with a mix of Gas/Lacquer thinner, and Kerosene.

Well guess what you guys caused with your advice? I am never taking advice from this site again!






Post# 217173 , Reply# 1   6/20/2007 at 15:38 (6,148 days old) by nmaineman36 ()        

Wow is all I have to say. Now who in the world would give someone advice like that in the first place? I hate to say but you might not be the sharpest tool in the shed.

Post# 217177 , Reply# 2   6/20/2007 at 15:59 (6,148 days old) by carmine (Detroit)        

Ok, I'll come clean (pun intended)...

I didn't really use Gasoline to clean body oils from the washer.

I followed the dishwashing detergent advice from this thread:

www.automaticwasher.org/TD/THREAD...

...and it seems to have done the trick.

Coincidently, my neighbor had a dryer fire the next day. (Nobody hurt) so I figured I'd have some fun with the picture.

Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-)


Post# 217178 , Reply# 3   6/20/2007 at 16:04 (6,148 days old) by liberator1509 (Ireland)        
You need one of those 50s public safety films...

Now where's that thread with the film about the dangers of trying to dry-clean with gasoline at home?!?

Glad you haven't blown yourself up....


Post# 217189 , Reply# 4   6/20/2007 at 16:46 (6,148 days old) by maytagbear (N.E. Ohio)        
This was not

particularly funny.


Lawrence/Maytagbear


Post# 217190 , Reply# 5   6/20/2007 at 16:48 (6,148 days old) by roto204 (Tucson, AZ)        
Eep!

roto204's profile picture
The more I see of dryer fires, the fonder I become of my clothesline. Geez!

Glad no one was hurt!




Post# 217198 , Reply# 6   6/20/2007 at 18:24 (6,148 days old) by andrewinorlando ()        


Not amused.....in the least.


Post# 217201 , Reply# 7   6/20/2007 at 18:50 (6,148 days old) by carmine (Detroit)        

Well, what can I say... Y'all need to loosen up a bit, or was that melted washer picture traumatic?

Post# 217225 , Reply# 8   6/20/2007 at 21:07 (6,147 days old) by unimatic1140 (Minneapolis)        

unimatic1140's profile picture
Oh come on you guys, lighten up, Carmine was just being silly, and he "came clean" so to speak in less than 1/2 hour after he posted it.

I thought it was pretty silly when I first saw this.


Post# 217232 , Reply# 9   6/20/2007 at 21:20 (6,147 days old) by jetcone (Schenectady-Home of Calrods,Monitor Tops,Toroid Transformers)        
wow I'm goonna

jetcone's profile picture
run right duwn stiaz an drayne the gaz outta myh beendix ryht now!

Post# 217234 , Reply# 10   6/20/2007 at 21:27 (6,147 days old) by nmaineman36 ()        

That dryer looks like a Frigidaire and they have been known in the past to catch fire. If I remember right they got recalled in Canada but not here in the US. A dryer fire is not something to kid about and it can happen to just about anyone. I am in the habit of not leaving the house if my washer and dryer are going. Gawd knows if my Samsung built Maytag should catch on fire I wont hear the end of it.
But I do see the humor in this but there are people out there numb enough to do something like that...fill a washer with something flammable and have a go at it. Its almost like the advice I heard someone give to another that had hemroids...sit in a basin filled with turpentine and it will shrink your roids...I couldnt even imagine.


Post# 217236 , Reply# 11   6/20/2007 at 21:42 (6,147 days old) by carmine (Detroit)        

Just to play fire investigator... Here's what happened.

First off, the neighbor's wife is a little...uh..um...

Anyways, she claims that she smelled smoke, so she called the fire department. They sent a bunch of guys in who disconnected her central A/C, saying the burning smell was the A/C blower... The dryer was in the same room, about two feet from the furnance blower.

So a little later she's still smelling smoke. She opens the dryer and there's flames inside. The FD comes out again, stands around debating whether to hook up a hose, or use the water in the truck. Fire continues to burn.

FD smashes side door window.

FD finally decides to use the water in the truck, and pretty much makes a mess of the house.

Now the husband says that nobody had used the dryer for a couple days. (I asked about flamable liquids on clothes, he says "no")

I looked the thing over, and the fire was definately not at the bottom of the machine. The vent pipe was still clean... no soot even, just some unburnt grey lint.

Go figure? BTW, this was a gas dryer. The console pretty much evaporated in the fire, so I have no idea what brand it was. The washer console melted, but it was a super-cheap Sears (not even a Kenmore).

What do you think happened?


Post# 217276 , Reply# 12   6/21/2007 at 05:43 (6,147 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)        
Just Bounce-ing around an idea, here.

toggleswitch's profile picture
Use of softener sheets.

Carmine- Take my word for it: jokes in the yellow / Imperial secion fly best. DON'T MESS WITH OTHERS' OBSESSIONS! *LOL*

There are times when it can be dryer [pardon the pun]and more somber here than an office full of accountants (ducks and runs)!






Post# 217284 , Reply# 13   6/21/2007 at 06:28 (6,147 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)        
I opened the door expecting to find coins banging around....

toggleswitch's profile picture
HMMMM dryer appears to be gas-fired.

Maybe lint caught fire.
Maybe the pressure regualators failed, and the resulting flames were a meter (3ft) long.
Maybe a gas leak.
Maybe two washer load put into one machine.
Maybe the vent cap at the wall was obstructed.
Nature? Mice / birds in hose?

Or MAYBE,just maybe, someone is a police officer who dried their uniforms in there- including BULLETS. Yes, live ammo.

Laugh all you want- that exact sccenario happened to me, and I'm lucky my jingle-bobs did get shot off as I was at the stove (next to the dryer) cooking up some ethnic feast.



Post# 217312 , Reply# 14   6/21/2007 at 09:18 (6,147 days old) by nmaineman36 ()        

Toggles that would have been funny to have that on video. I can almost see you now. Did that cop frisk you vigorously and thats why his clothes just happen to be in the dryer.....
(running for my life)
Moi


Post# 217343 , Reply# 15   6/21/2007 at 14:08 (6,147 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)        
oooooh, I like how you think.

toggleswitch's profile picture
Quita me las esposas. ...
(take the handcuffs off of me...!)



Nah.

In my Co-op (cooperative apt-NYC verison of a condominium) the utlitles were un-metered to the residents.

Downstairs neighbbors had a key and would use my W&D (with permission, of course). Wanted to keep them around. I was the top (apt) he was the bottom, believe it or not!

Pretty boy Italian cop, lovely smart petite wife. Well, except for not removing bullets from his uniform.

The walls were so paper thin it was like living in one house..... why even attempt to have boundaries?


Post# 217365 , Reply# 16   6/21/2007 at 17:10 (6,147 days old) by nmaineman36 ()        

I got a good laugh when you said you were the top(apt) and him the bottom...uh huh...and thats all I gotta say.

Post# 217368 , Reply# 17   6/21/2007 at 17:31 (6,147 days old) by laundramatt (Youngstown, Ohio)        

I knew it was a joke from the start Carmine. lol, what's funny is the reaction you got from this sight. I love a trick like that. Good job ^-^

Post# 217375 , Reply# 18   6/21/2007 at 18:07 (6,147 days old) by andrewinorlando ()        

Anyone have statistics on number of dryer fires each year that occur? Apparently pretty substantial, including deaths from it. A few months back, had two here in Central Florida...completely destroyed the homes, killed two little girls.

Any info on whether gas or electric dryers have more of a tendency to flare? Gas dryers usually have the burner under the dryer (except for certain vintage dryers which place them on the top of the machine - Norge, Hamilton) while some electric dryers place the heating elements behind the drum, closer to the drying clothes.


Post# 217532 , Reply# 19   6/22/2007 at 09:48 (6,146 days old) by fa_f3_20 ()        
Dryer fire statistics

I did some searches through the National Fire Protection Association's Web site (nfpa.org) and pulled down some reports. The most complete data is kind of old (it goes through 1998), but I'm guessing that the yearly averages haven't changed a lot since then.

Depending on which set of stats you look at, dryers cause between 14,000 and 18,000 fires in the U.S. and Canada each year, with about 3/4 of these occuring in residences and the other 1/4 in other types of structures. These fires account for between 10 and 25 deaths and $70-80M (U.S.) in property damage per year. However, dryers cause only 3% of all structure fires. (The top three causes of structure fires are listed as cooking equipment, heating equipment, and arson.)

The most common causes of dryer fires is hard to state for certain, because it doesn't appear that the data collected is of very good quality (minor structure fires not resulting in injury are often not investigated in detail). But "lack of maintenance" is listed as the leading cause, accounting for 30% of all dryer fires. I surmise that in this context "lack of maintenance" mainly means failure to keep the machine and exhaust duct free of lint. Interestingly, though, in a table that lists the first items ignited in dryer fires, lint comes in second to clothing in the dryer or in contact with the dryer.

The data kind of goes downhill from there; "unknown mechanical failure" is listed as the second leading cause of fire, "part failure or leak" is third, and "electrical short or ground" is fourth. These three things togther add up to about 30%. "Automatic control failure" was listed in the cause in only 4% of dryer fires. I think that the real number could be either higher or lower, because I'm guessing that many inspectors don't really have the expertise to determine that, especially in the case of electronic controls. "Spontaneous heating", by which I assume they mean heating that occurs when the dryer isn't in use and does not have its controls in an "on" state, accounted for less than 2%.

There are a couple of consistent themes that emerge, though. The most common root cause of dryer fires appears to be restricted airflow caused by lint buildup in the dryer and/or exhaust duct. The second most common is the drying of materials containing flammable oils or solvents; clothese or rags saturated with cooking oils seems to appear a lot in commercial dryer fires. This is significant because these are things that are preventable by the homeowner.


Post# 217672 , Reply# 20   6/22/2007 at 21:45 (6,145 days old) by washer_man ()        

Actually drying items that contain cooking oils is a little more pernicious than fa_f3_20 implies, because this can cause fires even if the item in question has already gone through the washer.

This means that if you mop of some spilled cooking oil with a rag, and then toss this rag into the laundry hamper, you are potentially risking a fire when this same rag goes through the dryer.


Post# 217750 , Reply# 21   6/23/2007 at 09:12 (6,145 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)        

goatfarmer's profile picture
That was funny, Carmine!

Post# 217787 , Reply# 22   6/23/2007 at 17:37 (6,145 days old) by jons1077 (Vancouver, Washington, USA)        
Two funny things here...

jons1077's profile picture
1. I was dying know why someone would do something so dumb (and thank goodness it was just a joke!)

2. Seeing Robert, of all people, tell us to "lighten up"

:-)


Post# 218061 , Reply# 23   6/24/2007 at 22:32 (6,143 days old) by unimatic1140 (Minneapolis)        

unimatic1140's profile picture
Seeing Robert, of all people, tell us to "lighten up"
Well I've never!
Actually the lighten up was not meant for everyone, only the three people who sent me emails about this thread telling me I better check it out (translation: delete it).

:)


Post# 218100 , Reply# 24   6/25/2007 at 02:55 (6,143 days old) by spankomatic (Ukiah,CA)        
Dryer fire story

spankomatic's profile picture
When I was a small boy I lived in a neighborhood that had gas dryers in the garages of the the houses. It was a hot summer day and many left the garage door open. Some pranksters decided to go around and put news papers in the gas dryers,turn them on,and run. 7 garages were on fire on the street. I remember my mother saying thank god we have electric and a laundry room. The fire department closed the entire street and had to send out a strike team to put all of the houses out.

Post# 218197 , Reply# 25   6/25/2007 at 15:50 (6,143 days old) by fa_f3_20 ()        

Wow, Spank, that is some story. Many decades ago, we used to have a Norge Village here. The dryers ran hotter than Hades. They had a big chrome temperature lever across the panel at the top. You dried towels on Medium, cotton shirts on Med/Low, and most other things on Low. You didn't put synthetics in there if you valued them. No one ever, ever in their right minds turned those things up to High.

Of course, every once in a while, someone did. As a result, there were nearly always at least one dryer (out of 20 or so) that was out of service because it had had a fire in it.


Post# 219170 , Reply# 26   6/28/2007 at 15:56 (6,140 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay)        

rp2813's profile picture
Carmine has a sense of humor just like my partner's. After almost 22 years, I still can't always tell when he's joking and he still "punks" me (and NO! I am not a Kutcher--or whatever his name is--fan) a lot of the time.

Post# 219269 , Reply# 27   6/28/2007 at 21:34 (6,139 days old) by cybrvanr ()        

This incident goes to show how innate people are for handling a situation like this. The homeowner upon smelling the odor should have done a few things like cutting power to EVERYTHING in the utility room (or even the whole house), then cutting off the gas line to the house. The thing is, I wonder how many people would even know how to do these simple things in the case of an emergency! While they didn't know where the smoke smell was coming from, disconnecting everything would have helped the situation considerably!

Post# 219349 , Reply# 28   6/29/2007 at 06:01 (6,139 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)        
oooh oooh oooh my turn

toggleswitch's profile picture
My mother's 1984 Sears Kenmore 24" wide DD popped an original hose at 2am-ish recently one early morning.

She has been in the house for 30 years and did not have the sense to shut one of the two sets of valves under the adjacent sink / laundry tubs. [one set kills the hose cocks, the other set both the sink and the hose cocks.] Nor did she think to shut off the incoming main water-service vale.

Thank you lawdy for placing my brother-in-law's residence just a few blocks from her. Well, at least she stuck the running broken hose in the sink 'till he arrived.

Moral of the story: REPLACE YOUR HOSES FREQUENTLY.




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