Pulled a rusty old screw out of my dryer drum yesterday

Weirdest thing. Found it wedged between the fins. No idea how it got there. Read online that about 3,000 dryer fires happen each year in the US from stuff like this. That stat really stuck with me. Makes me check every pocket now before tossing clothes in. Anyone else find random metal junk in their machine?

2 comments

2 Comments

michael_coleman102d ago

Used to think it was no big deal if a button or a coin got stuck in there... figured it would just get caught in the lint trap or something. Then my buddy's neighbor had a dryer fire that nearly burned down their garage, and that changed everything. That stat about 3,000 fires is what really got me too. Now I do the same thing, checking every single pocket before the load goes in, even for tiny stuff like paperclips. It's weird how one little piece of metal can turn a normal day into a real emergency.

wendyg431d ago

3,000 fires a year is a scary number, but I always wonder how many are actually caused by random junk versus the machines themselves failing. You hear a lot about lint buildup in the vent being a bigger hidden factor. Did your friend's neighbor find out for sure that the screw or something similar caused their fire, or was it more of a lint trap problem that just got blamed on the metal? It's probably a mix of both, but I'd love to know which one to really worry about. I've pulled all kinds of stuff out of mine over the years, a few pennies and even a small nail once. That screw could have been there for a long time just rattling around before you found it.