Laundry Room Smells Like Natural Gas
Your washing machine s drain line can become clogged up over time.
Laundry room smells like natural gas. If you smell gas even when your dryer is off the problem might be a defective valve. When you place the clothes in the gas dryer the heat will intensify the chemical smell in the fabrics and transfer it to other clothes in the load. We have a lower level laundry room floor pipe that has a horrible sewer gas smell. Both sewer gas and natural gas have an odor that is described to be like a rotten egg smell and can cause some serious health effects if exposed even at low levels over a long period.
We had a guest stay with us and i noticed a foul smell. This is to make sure you can smell it if there s a leak. We moved into a brand new house. This one requires a little elbow grease.
If you ve recently completed a laundry load with clothes soiled with lighter fluid chemicals or solvents it s possible that the washer didn t entirely eliminate the stains and odors. Gas technically has no smell but additives are put in it to give it a skunk like odor. Natural gas is odorless so the utility companies add sulfur which gives it that rotten egg smell so it s detectable when there is a leak. The valve should seal shut when your dryer is off so that gas isn t released.
Your drain doesn t even have to be completely clogged for these smells to become an issue. In the laundry room there is a closet that also has the sump pump and ejector pit. Clogs in the drain line are another common culprit when it comes to sewage smells in the laundry room. However it s possible for the valve to fail over time and emit a small amount of gas into the air whether or not the dryer is operating.
Fixing a rotten egg smell coming from your washing machine. Usually a quick fix from your plumber can solve the problem. If you smell sewer gas when you do laundry you need to get to the bottom of the issue. Our washer and dryer and on the upstairs level so nothing is connected here.