Dryer not leaving clothes smelling fresh.

[Juslookin]

We have an LG electric dryer. It is fairly new, maybe two years old. For the past year we noticed that clothes would come out of the washer smelling fragrant like laundry detergent but when they come out of the dryer they were a little musty smelling.

We have since moved the dryer and built a laundry room in the basement. DH suspected the clothes were not drying fast enough because of the long run of the dryer vent, so now the run is only about eight feet long. He thought the long run was making the clothes take longer to dry and therefore they were growing a little moldy.

So fast forward to now, the clothes do not smell musty but they smell like nothing. If I hang them on the line out of the washer I get that "April fresh" smell I am looking for. If I put them in the dryer the nice scent is getting sucked out of them and they come out of the dryer smelling like nothing.

I can't line dry everything, we live in the snow belt.  Any ideas on the problem?

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

The problem is that the clothes smell like...nothing?

[ShortInSeattle]

The problem is that the clothes smell like...nothing?

If you like detergent smell you might need a more fragrant detergent. I suspect some brands have cut back on fragrance due to allergies and concerns about chemicals. It's normal for clothes to smell like nothing when they are clean.

The "fresh laundry" smell that comes out of a machine is chemical in nature - not due to cleanliness.

[shusherstache]

We run baking soda and vinegar with all of our washes instead of fabric softener. Kills any mustiness for sure. It's a pretty cheap solution to try, so can't hurt.

[Sibley]

First, is OP a troll?

As someone with allergies and asthma, I really appreciate it when items are scent free. And if you're coming to my house, no perfumes allowed. Just walking down the cleaning/laundry aisle right now would probably land me in the ER with the damn asthma.

Also, can you imagine what we smell like? Seriously, everything has a scent, and they're not the same scents. We're all nose blind, but to someone who's not used to it I'm fairly sure we all stink horribly. Laundry that smells like nothing would be the ideal for me.

[Juslookin]

Nope, not a troll.  And my apologies to those with allergies....I'm not trying to offend. 

They don't smell clean and fresh.  I'm not looking for heavily perfumed smell, but they don't smell clean, and ever so slightly on the edge of musty still.  Not trying to start a debate, trying to figure out if anyone else has experienced this. 

I have tried vinegar in the washer, I have tried scented detergent, non scented detergent, dryer sheets, no dryer sheets.  The clothes smell fresh when they come out of the washer but when they come out of the dryer they smell like nothing.....or even a smidge musty I guess, it's hard to explain.

I'm wondering if the dryer is too hot? Or maybe I have a little mold in the clothing that isn't coming out and is getting cooked in the dryer.  I called service and they looked at me like you all are.  I'm not crazy or trolling......I'm really starting to hate this dryer.  Never had this problem before.

[Juslookin]

We run baking soda and vinegar with all of our washes instead of fabric softener. Kills any mustiness for sure. It's a pretty cheap solution to try, so can't hurt.

I have not tried baking soda.  I will give this a shot.  I have nothing to lose.

[Sibley]

Why not just air dry?

Some things to try:
1. Clean the dryer. They can get fuzz everywhere and clog up.
2. Clean the washer. Excess detergent can build up, or you could end up with mold somewhere.
3. Try a different detergent. Maybe the one you're using changed somehow.

When I say clean, that involves dis-assembly and reassembly. You need to get at the inner workings.

[jaye_p]

Why not line dry your clothes in the basement?  I live in Ohio, so we definitely have months of the year that outdoors line-drying is out of the question.  My solution was to screw some eyehooks into the crossbeams in our basement and run clothesline through them.  Five lines spanning about 15 feet each will hold a full washer load of clothes, and they dry within about 12 hours.

[Trudie]

We run baking soda and vinegar with all of our washes instead of fabric softener. Kills any mustiness for sure. It's a pretty cheap solution to try, so can't hurt.

This was the solution I was going to suggest.

I also use ECOS detergent, which I buy pretty cheaply at Costco.  It's a nice clean scent; not overly perfumed.

[serpentstooth]

Why not line dry your clothes in the basement?  I live in Ohio, so we definitely have months of the year that outdoors line-drying is out of the question.  My solution was to screw some eyehooks into the crossbeams in our basement and run clothesline through them.  Five lines spanning about 15 feet each will hold a full washer load of clothes, and they dry within about 12 hours.

We have not outdoor space, and I've moved to line-drying everything. I use this rack, plus two shower curtain rods over the tub and the combo can hold two double loaders worth of clothes at once.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40244831/

[Meowmalade]

They don't smell clean and fresh.  I'm not looking for heavily perfumed smell, but they don't smell clean, and ever so slightly on the edge of musty still.  Not trying to start a debate, trying to figure out if anyone else has experienced this. 

Have you tried putting in a sheet of fabric softener like Bounce?  My parents used to use it and our laundry always had that "fresh out of the laundry" smell.  Now I use a "natural" fabric softener that's mildly lavender-scented, mostly for anti-static, and our clothes smell like nothing.  That's the way I like it  :)

[eyePod]

Our clothes smell musty if we leave them in the washer too long. If we forget them in the washer, we end up having to dry them and then re-wash them. This has happened several more times since the baby has come!

[Chranstronaut]

I once washed a bunch of bathmats, but forgot to remove them promptly from the dryer.  They were still a little damp and smelled very musty when I finally remembered them.  I re-washed and re-dried them expecting everything to be well -- nope.  They made all my laundry afterward smell a little musty/mildewy for WEEKS afterward.  I was peeved.

I wiped the inner dryer walls with a cloth lightly dampened with vinegar.  I then ran a short drying cycle with a clean dish towel lightly moistened with 20/80 vinegar to water ratio.  I left the dryer door open overnight and once the vinegar smell dissipated, it smelled like nothing!  Yay!  Now all the laundry comes out neutral.  I keep both washer and dryer doors open when not in use - I've heard the gasket on the front loaders can develop an insufferable smell otherwise.

[jeromedawg]

We have an LG electric dryer. It is fairly new, maybe two years old. For the past year we noticed that clothes would come out of the washer smelling fragrant like laundry detergent but when they come out of the dryer they were a little musty smelling.

We have since moved the dryer and built a laundry room in the basement. DH suspected the clothes were not drying fast enough because of the long run of the dryer vent, so now the run is only about eight feet long. He thought the long run was making the clothes take longer to dry and therefore they were growing a little moldy.

So fast forward to now, the clothes do not smell musty but they smell like nothing. If I hang them on the line out of the washer I get that "April fresh" smell I am looking for. If I put them in the dryer the nice scent is getting sucked out of them and they come out of the dryer smelling like nothing.

I can't line dry everything, we live in the snow belt.  Any ideas on the problem?

Are you sure there's no blockage or build-up of lint in the dryer vent/duct as well as within the dryer itself? If you haven't done so already, it's probably a good idea to remove the duct from the back of the dryer and take a peek in side the vent as well as the dryer exhaust and remove any lint that's in there. You should also be able to remove the lint trap holder on the inside and remove/vacuum out any lint that got stuck in there that made it past the lint trap.

If your clothes are coming out of the dryer not fully dry and also not warm/very warm upon immediately finishing, then something is not right. This could be because of potential lint build-up somewhere but if not, there's a possibility something is not right with the dryer itself.

I concur with the advice on using dryer sheets as well - they help.