Ask Me Help Desk - Gas/sewer smell when using electric clothes dryer

Quote:

Originally Posted by camaro1968

contact me at [email protected] and i,ll give you some ideals,i have same problem

We live in a condo and are on the lower level on a slab. A few years ago, we noticed bubbling in our ceiling above our bathroom that was just on the other side of our laundry room. The neighbor above had replaced her toilet and they installed the wax ring improperly and it leaked and they did not know until we noticed the bubbling in the ceiling. They replaced the drywall just in our ceiling, but I do not think they cleaned the area above with whatever was coming out of her toilet when she used the rest room and flushed it. The dryer vent goes through a cavity just between our ceiling and the cavity where her toilet leaked. We recently cleaned out our dryer vent after 9 years of living here and got a 5 gallon shop vac full of lint. After that we had a horrible smell of urine or something when we ran our dryer about 15 or 20 minutes after it started.
We investigated for months and borrowed a camera with a cable and opened the casing where the bathroom fan was and put the camera up into the ceiling and looked up into the cavity up under the neighbors floor where the dryer vent went through. We seen black stuff and you could see where the floor was saturated and dried up. I don't think it was ever cleaned. Now that the dryer vent has been cleaned the air flow increased and it is not insulated by the lint and air is able to escape into that space heating up the old urine and feces in there with warm moist air and the crystalized urine has come to life again and the smell, is being forced back into our laundry room where there are cracks from where the vent goes through the wall to go into the dryer. It is nasty... I couldn't sleep last night. Now we don't know who to call and who is responsible for fixing the mess, especially since we are just renting... We had a restoration company come out along with our property manager and showed them the tape and the restoration company believes it is black mold and old urine in the space along with other nasty stinky stuff. Now what to do? This is just my investigation and I hope that it is true and the end is near to getting it fixed so that we do not have to smell this horrid smell throgh the winter with the windows closed.
Just wanted to share my story.
Thanks for listening..

You need a fresh air supply into that room. I have seen this same problem with tightly-sealed homes we have today and always the problem is cured by running a 6" inch flex duct line from attic or eaves into a ceiling vent. You can get all of the parts for about $25 at an HVAC supply house. Another way to do it is to just cut through wall to outside and install a boot in wall connecting to a cover on outside wall to get fresh air in. It should be at least 6" in diameter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drtom4444

You need a fresh air supply into that room. I have seen this same problem with tightly-sealed homes we have today and always the problem is cured by running a 6" inch flex duct line from attic or eaves into a ceiling vent. You can get all of the parts for about $25 at an HVAC supply house. Another way to do it is to just cut through wall to outside and install a boot in wall connecting to a cover on outside wall to get fresh air in. It should be at least 6" in diameter.

I explained the area in the cavity where the dryer vent is running through. If I could send you a video of what we seen in this cavity and what your thoughts are to your email? Not sure if this is allowed?

Thanks

That would be okay with me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drtom4444

That would be okay with me.

Okay, I sent the video to your email, did you get it with a link to the video?

It looks pretty bad there. I would clean it all out and replace the Sheetrock in that ceiling, but you still need a vent to keep from drawing moisture in that room. When you exhaust as much air as a dryer does the air has to come from somewhere and if you have a furnace in the house it will draw the air from the flue and kill everyone in the house.

We have the same problem, only when all the doors and windows are shut. So try cracking a window that is closest to the drier, it worked for us, but that is the problem the drier is pulling air from a non-vented trap somewhere in the house or the vent pipe has come apart and is not continuous to the roof.

It is very possible that this one is a case of the pipe coming apart. That is very dangerous.

Using a dryer puts negative pressure in the room. I don't think it's the dryer but you are pulling air in from somewhere, crawl space? Check the drain plumbing again and look for a disconnected drain or vent.

The answers are all good ones, you are pulling air (sewer gas) into the room when the dryer is sucking air into it from outside. You need to seal the drain pipe and be sure that the door on the washer is closed , it will help, but the air / smell can also be drawn in through the washer itself. As for the drain pipe use rags or a sponge , You may be able able to find a rubber plug with you hose size in it a box store to solve the problem. If you can add outside air to the dryer that will solve the problem as well as save you money for have to cool the cold outside. Some dryer vents have and out air hose availabel but probably hard to find in the USA , in Eurpoe they are more common. If you are handy you can craft on yourself. Good luck.