Last fall my gas dryer started making all of our clothes smell like kerosene. The exhaust had the same smell. My husband checked the dryer and gas lines and all was okay. A few months earlier we had moved our washer and dryer to our basement (to our furnace room), so we thought the problem might be in how we had done the venting. (We thought maybe the problem was more pronounced in the fall because we didn't have windows open then.) We redid the venting - actually, we ended up enlarging the room, moving the washer and dryer, redoing the floors and painting - talk about pulling on a thread!!! Anyway - the room turned out well, and we thought we had solved the problem. All was fine until about three weeks ago, when the awful smell came back! I finally thought to Google the problem. Lo and behold, I found the answer. It was the polyurethane that DH (a talented woodworker) was putting on some beautiful cabinets he was making for me. Evidently "Any time you do a household project with paints, stains, varnishes or chemical solvents, the vapors from the combustible products can ignite from the flame produced by your dryer and produce a kerosene smell." (From eHow, link below.) I thought back to the fall and realized that he had been working on cabinets then, too - until he put that project on hold for us to redo the furnace/laundry room! After which he got busy with other things, and didn't come back to the cabinet project until recently.

The vapors gradually burn off or dissipate or something, because eventually the dryer stops making the clothes smell bad. Just wanting to share in case someone else is having the problem. Would hate for someone to spend money unnecessarily on an appliance repair service call.

Here are the links - I don't want to take credit for this info, just want to share it!

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/gas-kitchen-appliances-dryers-bbqs/22739-gas-dryer-smells-like-kerosene.html#b

http://www.ehow.com/info_12151646_kerosene-smell-coming-gas-dryer.html

http://www.omegaforceservices.com/Site.Tips.do?action=showBlogEntry&id=4

http://www.shopyourway.com/questions/1070108

this one not very well written

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/gas-kitchen-appliances-dryers-bbqs/227058-gas-dryer-smell.html#b

skip down to the end - paragraph beginning “If the odor just began…”

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/gas-kitchen-appliances-dryers-bbqs/59752-gas-smell-dryer.html#b

Note - for me, running the clothes on air fluff didn't help a whole lot. If I spread the clothes out on a table, some of the smell will go away, but not all. You pretty much have to wash the clothes again to get it out completely. (And make sure it has been a few days since DH has been using solvent based chemicals before you put the clothes in the dryer!)