Dryer fire

[jonlisha]

So yesterday my frigidaire gallery series which is less than five years old decided to burst into flames in an attempt to burn its way back to hell, almost took my house and dog with it and managed to destroy my favorite shirts and all my work clothes, pretty much $200 in clothes gone. The fire crew said it was not an electrical fire nor lent build up, the liability group for frigidaire is supposed to call me back tomorrow and send someone to look at it.

Anyone else ever dealt with anything like this? Fun pictures to follow

[KahrMan]

Damn! Hope everybody is ok.

[Guest pfries]

Glad every one is ok, I cannot say as I have had that problem and I hope the company make a good faith effort even if you choose to follow other options.

[Erik88]

That's a great reason to keep a fire extinguisher handy. Thank God you were home when it happened.

[Rightwinger]

Wow, the wife just told me 15 minutes ago that she had to turn ours off today as it filled the kitchen area with smoke. It's a over under model with the dryer on top for smaller spaces. That's scary that you post this and what occured today. She is afraid to put anything in there and walk away now. We have also owned it for about 5 years.

Please let me know what the liability folks say! If I need to get this thing out of the house. I just thought some lint had gotten back on the coils.

[strickj]

managed to destroy my favorite shirts and all my work clothes,

[

Are you a stripper? I see a lot of pink frilly stuff in there

[jonlisha]

Lol that's my girlfriends, a lot of her stuff burned as well, I lost all my dickies work clothes though and my favorite shirt, you know how you spend years breaking in a shirt? Yeah mine burned up.

[Paladin132]

That sucks. Had something similar happen to me because of a small throw blanket that sheds like mad. I was stopping it periodically to clean out the lint trap and it went about fifteen minutes (five longer than I had been doing) and the lint trap caught fire. I have since learned to be even more careful about that particular thing and to figure out what lints more.

Your story makes me glad I have a fire extinguisher, and we never leave it unattended. We would never get ours out of our little apartment. Glad everyone is ok, although I feel you on your favorite shirt. I just had to retire my favorite ones after it has disintegrated.

[Farman]

Glad you were home. NEVER go out and leave appliances on. If the drum stops turning the clothes stay next to the heating element or the thermostat malfunctioned and let the element over heat. My guesses. I know the Cleveland guys took good care of you.

[laktrash]

We clean or filters after every cycle you would be amazed how much lint and (I'm ashamed to say) dog hair is on the filter. I think there is a lot of heat blowing thru the exhaust. The delivery guy that brought our last set told how dangerous this was. I think they even make a brush to clean the hose. Glad everyone is ok

Edited June 27, 2011 by laktrash

[Lumber_Jack]

Glad you were home. NEVER go out and leave appliances on. If the drum stops turning the clothes stay next to the heating element or the thermostat malfunctioned and let the element over heat. My guesses. I know the Cleveland guys took good care of you.

+1000

Couldn't agree more. NEVER leave your appliances running, very dangerous.

Hope all works out with frigidaire

[BLACKVANDRIVER]

Sucks that happened. But at least the only loss was your clothes and dryer. Back in the 80's we had something happen due to a gas soaked rag shoved in the back pocket of some of my grandfathers yard work pants. On another note were just handed down a dryer from the inlaws. We took it apart, vac'd out all there lint and dust bunny build up. So if you every get a used dryer make sure to take the back off and clean up all the prev owners crud!

I hope the manufacture gets you a brand new one and pays you 5x the amount you lost just for pain and suffering!

[Guest db99wj]

Hope everything turns out ok. Glad you are all safe and no one was hurt.

Seems like with the technology of the day, this would be an issue. It wasn't because of lint it wasn't because of electrical, then it is a defect somewhere in the unit. You "should" be able to turn it on and leave it. Makes me nervous.

[DocZombie]

Haven't had this problem but I am a fanatic about cleaning the filter and we never leave them on when we leave - and ours are just about a year old. Plus: Never, EVER put matches in with your unmentionables!

[G27]

Glad everything is OK!

I know this wasn't your issue, but I literally just cleaned out our dryer and vent system on Saturday to try to insure we wouldn't have an eventual lent fire...

[Guest UberDuper]

The house I'm renting never had the vent hole cut through the siding on the house. 10 years of people running the dryer 3+ times to dry a load of clothes. Surprised it never caught fire.

[jonlisha]

Thanks for the well wishes guys, the cleveland fire dept did great got here in under 5 minutes (seriously even for inner city that's great), they put out the fire and even set up fans to air out the house.

I will give updates on what the liability company says