# Gas Dryer Issue



## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

I'm getting totally frustrated with my new dryer. When I hooked up the last one a couple decades ago everything went perfectly but this time I seem to have the tiniest of gas leaks that cannot seem to be cured. It is so small it can only be smelled if everything is shut up for a while. I was beginning to think it was just me, the wife cannot smell it, until last evening when a friend indicated he thought he smelled a bit of gas. 

Twice, after the original connection, I have pulled it away from the wall and disconnected all the fittings, re-taped them and each time carefully applying more Teflon tape than the last. Then I have tightening each joint as hard as possible to a point where I am afraid I will break something. After that I soap the fittings, let them sit for a few minutes and have yet to see any bubbles. Is it possible that the new connector hose might have a defective line or heaven forbid, the leak might be somewhere inside the dryer? If it is either of these things does anybody have any ideas on how they can be easily checked? FM


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## rollin stone (Dec 31, 2011)

you could disconnect the dryer and plug the connector that hooks directly to the dryer with flare plug. Then check the gas line for leaks thoroughly. There's no leaks it must be the dryer.


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## hommer23 (Nov 20, 2012)

Call your gas company and have them come out with a sniffer and test the all the gas lines in the area. The last thing you want is a gas leak around a gas dryer, when the dryer has a big open flame under it to act as a pilot light.


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## Biggbear (Aug 14, 2001)

One thing to consider is that Teflon Tape is not for gas leakes. There is a tape that is made for gas, I believe the plastic roll it comes in is yellow instead of white. For gas line connections I use Green Stuff. It brushes on and you let it set up. My understanding is that Teflon tape will allow just what you are experiencing.


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## N M Mechanical (Feb 7, 2008)

Do you have the right fittings? Make sure you don't have a flare fitting hooked to a regular pipe fitting


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## Ralph Smith (Apr 1, 2003)

As mentioned above, Teflon tape is for water, not gas. You should only have one fitting on dryer that needs some pipe dope (you can get a Teflon base) but it goes on as a paste with fingers or brush in can. ONLY put on the fitting coming from dryer that your connecting the brass nipple to. From the brass fitting that you put on dryer to the brass fitting coming from gas cock out of wall or floor, you don't need anything but a flexible gas line that has flares already on it. If you put a brass fitting into the gas cock at wall, you'll need some there also. If one is already there, take it out, clean it and re-coat it. I've installed 1000's of washers and dryers commercially when younger in apt. complexes and colleges, and after tightening fittings, we would use a lighter to check for leaks. I'm not telling you to do this, but that's how we did it. If there was a leak, you get a small flame like from a stove. You can't blow up with pressurized gas from a line unless the whole room is full of it. No different than turning the gas on a stove or bbq grill and lighting with a lighter. Just make sure you have or no where the shut off is (behind dryer or beneath floor etc.) if there is a leak.


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

hommer23 said:


> Call your gas company and have them come out with a sniffer and test the all the gas lines in the area. The last thing you want is a gas leak around a gas dryer, when the dryer has a big open flame under it to act as a pilot light.


I would call them if changing the Teflon tape out does not fix the leak. 

On Labor Day the boss and I were out side working down wind of the gas meter. She kept saying she was smelling gas. I could not until I got down and stuck my head right by the meter as my sniffer got screwed up working in chemical plants.

She went in and called the gas company. The man was here with in the hour. He started sniffing inside the house and then went to the meter. It took him a while to find that a small plug was leaking. 

After that was fixed he actually went down the feed line from the street and both ways down the road driving a rod down in the ground and sniffing the hole checking the lines for possible under ground leaks.

First class service.


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

I called the gas company on Monday. It took more time to answer all the questions the lady asked than it did for the technician to arrive after I hung up.

The guy used his " gas sniffer" on every fitting, the new hose, inside the dryer vent and everywhere else you can think of along with all the fittings on my furnace and water heater located in the basement. He even checked outside at the meter. No matter where he checked the reading was always ".00". 

The odd part was that he too thought he could smell something. After all the checking with the sniffer was done he smelled around the back of the dryer and decided that the very faint smell was coming from inside the back of the dryer, that's what I had thought previously. Neither of us are dryer experts but we both speculated that it is likely some type of plastic smell or maybe some lubricant of sorts. It is getting less and less noticeable over time and it doesn't get worse when the dryer is in use so I am not going to worry about it. 

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. FM


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

How far from the dryer is your hot water heater? If the exhaust vent for the water heater isn't aligned properly, it can put some exhaust into the surrounding air.


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## JohnBischoff (Oct 11, 2012)

We just had to have dte out cause ours smelled funny. Turns out it was something with me painting decoys in another room in the house. Something about paint condensing on gas lines my wife told me the guy said.


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## Forest Meister (Mar 7, 2010)

Fishndude said:


> How far from the dryer is your hot water heater? If the exhaust vent for the water heater isn't aligned properly, it can put some exhaust into the surrounding air.


Definitely not that. Dryer is in mud room on north end of house and water heater is in basement under south end. The mud room sits on a cement slab so no connection under the house. 

Maybe it is just a "new" smell, 'cuz it is going away. Hey, new cars smell different! FM


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