Dryer Smells Like Burning? What to Do in Beaverton

• If you smell gas, do not light anything and do not touch a switch. Leave the home and call your gas utility or 911 from outside.
• If you see smoke or flame, leave the room, close the door if you can and call 911.
• Unplug the dryer, or switch off its breakers, before you check the lint screen housing or move it to reach the vent.
• Do not run the dryer while you are asleep or away from home, as the fire service advises.
• Do not remove the back panel or the top to look for lint inside. That part of the cleaning is a service job.

Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue is the fire district that serves Beaverton. Its communications officer has called dryer fires very common and frequently preventable, and the district’s advice has been plain: clean the lint trap and the area around the dryer after every load, never run a dryer while away or asleep, and treat clothes that take much longer to dry or come out hotter than usual as a sign of a blocked vent.

The U.S. Fire Administration finds failure to clean the leading cause of dryer fires, and adds that a large share of lint never reaches the trap: it collects inside the dryer, even on the heating element.

Expected for the first runs, as manufacturing oils and dust on the heater burn off. A smell that lasts beyond a few cycles is not break-in and needs a look.

A smell of hot plastic or wiring, rather than of scorched lint, points to the cord, the terminal block where it connects, the motor or the controls. Leave the dryer off and unplugged until it has been checked.

A gas smell is not a dryer repair question first. Follow the gas rule above, then have the dryer and its connection checked.

• Lint inside the cabinet, around the burner or the heating element: the most common cause.
• A blocked or crushed vent: the dryer overheats and the safety thermostats trip.
• Drive belt slipping on a seized pulley: a burnt rubber smell.
• Drive motor overheating: a hot electrical smell, often with the drum slowing.
• Cord, terminal block or wiring: scorch marks and a smell at the back.

• Any smoke, or a smell that comes back after the lint screen and the vent are clean.
• Scorch marks on the cord, the plug or the outlet.
• Clothes much hotter than usual, or drying taking much longer.
• A burnt rubber smell with a squeal.
• The dryer shuts off partway through the cycle.

Dryer repair

Book a dryer repair

• Book online: choose the appliance, describe the problem and pick up to three times that suit you.
• We confirm one of your times by phone or text. You are not booked until we do.
• We come to your home, test the dryer and find the cause.
• You get the price before any repair begins. We repair it with your approval; if a part has to be ordered, we come back to fit it.

The diagnostic visit costs $89. If you go ahead with the repair, the $89 is applied toward it; if you decide not to repair, the $89 covers the diagnosis.

Our work and the parts we install carry a 90-day warranty. The terms are printed on your invoice.

What appliance repair costs

We repair dryers at home in Beaverton and across the Portland metro area. Enter your ZIP code when you book and the form checks it right away.

All the cities we serve

• Dryer not heating
• Dryer making noise
• Dryer won't start

More guides for Beaverton

• Dryer won't start

All repair guides

The facts on this page come from these sources, checked when the page was written.

• GE Appliances: Dryer - Odor
• Whirlpool Product Help: Removing Odors or Smells - Dryer
• U.S. Fire Administration: Clothes Dryer Fire Safety
• Historic Oregon Newspapers (University of Oregon): Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue dryer fire advice (01/05/2011)