Strange Clothes Dryer Smell
I have an ancient gas clothes dryer that came with the house I just bought and for the past week or so the clothes and the air coming out of the vent outside smell, for lack of a better term, kind of exhaust-y. I've done a very cursory flashlight check of the vent ducting to see if there's a big piece of lint in there and I didn't find anything clogging it. Also, plenty of air seems to be coming out of the vent outside. I also clean the lint filter religiously. So I'm wondering (not knowing how gas dryers work) if perhaps the gas isn't being burned completely and as a result the fumes are accumulating in the drum during drying (?) and making the clothes smell the way they do...
Answer:
Time for a service call. It sounds like the heat exchanger has a hole in it, and may be rusted out. This is not a safe situation. If you feel handy, you might try servicing it yourself, though with gas appliances I almost always suggest a professional visit. A possibility is that the dryer is burning volatile fumes. If you have used paint, stain, paint thinner, spray paint etc anywhere near the dryer the fumes will be sucked in with the fresh air and burned along with the gas. It smells a bit like auto exhaust. The smell of the buring may be much more noticable than that from the culprit material. I have a Frigidaire gas dryer, while drying if I open the door, the interior smells.. once the cycle is done, the smell is gone. The outside vent also has the same smell when running. I believe this is a normal effect of a gas dryer.