The first minute
The safety block printed at the front of every gas dryer manual reads almost the same from one maker to the next, and it is the plan to follow. GE and Speed Queen both say not to light any appliance, not to touch any electrical switch or use any phone in the building, to clear everyone out, and to call the gas supplier from a neighbor's phone, with the fire department as the fallback.
That includes the dryer itself. Pressing its buttons, opening its door to pull the laundry out or yanking its plug from the wall can all make a small spark at the wrong moment.
- Do not turn lights on or off, ring a doorbell or start a car in an attached garage.
- Do not use a lighter or match, even to see behind the dryer.
- Take everyone with you, including anyone asleep in another room.
- Do not go back in for pets' carriers, phones or the laundry.
Source: GE Appliances — Dryer Owner's Manual and Installation Instructions (49-3000386) — What to do if you smell gas; leak test with a non-ammonia soap solution, never an open flame; never reuse old connectors; Alliance Laundry Systems (Speed Queen) — Installation Instructions for Dryers, D516902 — What to do if you smell gas; installation and service by a qualified installer, service agency or the gas supplier
Calling from outside
Once everyone is a safe distance from the house, call the gas utility's emergency line and 911. Con Edison asks callers not to assume someone else has already reported it, and utilities treat these calls as emergencies around the clock.
Tell them the smell is near a gas clothes dryer and whether the dryer was running. Then wait outside until the utility or the fire department says the house is clear, and follow what they tell you about the appliance.
It helps to know a few details before the crew arrives: roughly when the smell started, whether it was strongest at the back of the dryer or elsewhere in the room, and whether anyone had moved the dryer, cleaned behind it or had it installed recently. A connector disturbed in the last few days is one of the first things a crew will want to know about.
Source: Con Edison — Home gas safety — Leave even if the odor is weak, do not assume someone called; odor fade; connectors grow brittle; call a professional to move a gas dryer
When the nose is not sure
A gas dryer smell is not always strong, and a weak one is not a reason to wait. The odorant can fade, and people who have been in the room for a while stop noticing it.
Why the smell can be weak
Con Edison lists odor fatigue, a reduced sense of smell and competing odors among the reasons a person may miss the odorant, and says new piping can absorb some of it. Other signs of a leak on the utility pages are a hissing or whistling sound near a pipe or connector.
Smells that are not gas
A hot, dusty smell in the first minutes of a cycle is lint or dust on the burner, and a scorched one points to lint in the cabinet or duct; that is a fire question, covered in its own guide. A sulfur smell from a floor drain can be a dry trap in a basement laundry. None of those should be ruled out by guessing: if the smell is anything like rotten eggs, leave.
Carbon monoxide has no smell at all
A gas burner needs air to burn cleanly. Washington Gas warns that a dryer shut in a closet or small room without the openings code requires can burn incompletely and form carbon monoxide. A CO alarm near the laundry room covers what the nose cannot.
Source: Con Edison — Home gas safety — Leave even if the odor is weak, do not assume someone called; odor fade; connectors grow brittle; call a professional to move a gas dryer; Washington Gas — Natural gas safety — Mercaptan gives gas its rotten-egg smell; a dryer enclosed without air openings can produce carbon monoxide
The connector behind the dryer
Most gas dryers are joined to the house pipe by a short, flexible corrugated connector, and it is the part that moves every time the dryer does. Nicor Gas, citing CPSC, warns that older uncoated brass connectors can separate at their end fittings and should be replaced by a professional. It also says not to slide the dryer out to look at one, because moving it can be what breaks it.
Con Edison adds that connectors become brittle and crack with age, and asks owners not to step, lean or set objects on them, and to call a professional to move or replace a gas-fired dryer.
Source: Con Edison — Home gas safety — Leave even if the odor is weak, do not assume someone called; odor fade; connectors grow brittle; call a professional to move a gas dryer; Nicor Gas — Appliance connectors — Uncoated brass connectors can fail and should be replaced by a professional; do not move the appliance to check
Before it runs again
If the utility shuts off gas to the dryer or tags it, that decision stands until a qualified person has corrected the cause. The dryer's own manual asks for installation and service by a qualified installer, service agency or the gas supplier.
A smell that appeared only while the dryer was heating, and never with it idle, still counts as a gas smell until someone with the right gauges has shown otherwise. Once the utility has made the house safe, our diagnostic visit covers the dryer's own gas valve, igniter and burner; restoring gas service to the house stays with the utility.
- Connector old, kinked, uncoated brass or reused from a previous dryer: replaced.
- Bubbles at a fitting under test: tightened or replaced and tested again.
- Smell from inside the cabinet: the dryer's gas valve and burner assembly are inspected.
What gets checked
The technician looks at the shutoff valve, the connector and its fittings, and the gas valve and burner inside the dryer, then tests the joints. GE's instructions call for a soap solution without ammonia and never an open flame, and a new connector if the old one has been disturbed.
Source: GE Appliances — Dryer Owner's Manual and Installation Instructions (49-3000386) — What to do if you smell gas; leak test with a non-ammonia soap solution, never an open flame; never reuse old connectors; Alliance Laundry Systems (Speed Queen) — Installation Instructions for Dryers, D516902 — What to do if you smell gas; installation and service by a qualified installer, service agency or the gas supplier
