Rosemarie S, you didn't say if your dryer has a gas or electric heating source. As MamaPinky0 brings up, dryers (gas in particular) can "burn" vapors from painting, staining, and the like, causing a noxious odor.

My best guess is the polyester gym shorts. Polyester is, essentially, plastic. Both are petrochemical products. Those type garments, in our house, get 5-10 minutes dryer time on LOW heat, then are hung on a rack to finish drying.

Sorry, didn't mention that because it wasn't a factor. We havent painted or done anything around that entire room. And yes it's electric.

My partner opened up the dryer to see the state of the coils and they seem fine. Again, he has had no issue with a burnt smell and I normally dont.

Looking at the coils though and him showing me how hot they get (I mean past cherry red or dark orange, and into that glowing yellow-orange, almost white hot range) and how much heat they emit, I think it is both factors.

I know polyesters are the worst culprits for stinky "gym clothes." I also use plenty of body lotion and cocoa butter because it's dry where I live.

I think sweat, body oil, lotion, etc, all which are hard to COMPLETELY get out of polyesters, combined with the intense heat, is what is doing it.

I'm just very surprised there are no articles about this. Again they often treat smelly gym clothes and polyester not doing well with heat as separate issues. However most gym clothes (and likely what give them that rep) are poly or poly blends, most will have sweat and body oil. I cant really find anything that directly says the dryer (and basically cooking in the smell) would make things worse in terms of odor.

Ah, you "use plenty of body lotion and cocoa butter", that could be the culprit. What temp do you wash in? Cold won't do anything with oils, lotion. You need at least warm to very warm, hot would even be better and a detergent with lipase enzyme and a long wash cycle or soak if you machine will let you.

Hey Mama and Pat!!

I have had great results with ammonia to remove oils and odors. This works even in cold water. I had an old sweatshirt that had cooking oil on it, and it came right out in cold. If you think that is the culprit, I would try what beagle suggested first, then resort to ammonia. 1/2 a cup for a full load should work. I fully dry all of my polyester and synthetic blend articles and have no issues. Keep us posted!

Rose if you think the scent is from soils building up in polys which is possible. Many of the workout clothing is all synthetic fabrics which can be a bear to clean but they can be cleaned. Poly resists water...the best way to deal with this is don't over load the washer..the poly needs plenty of room to move freely in the water. Use hot water as it will help relax and open the fibers allowing the solution to get in and flush out the soils. Remembering that hot wa ter is fine as long as you are able to cool the water down before going into a spin.

Never use fabric softener on poly. It actually traps soils.

Doreys advice to use ammonia is spot on. Try it. Remember your dealing with a water resistant fabric that is soiled with body oils, sweat and body lotions ect so pull out the big guns.

Hey, bea. How's the weather in your beautiful state? Today is our first warmish day.

@Rosemarie S Hi Rose! Thanks for sharing your experience.

I washed my clothes in mix load with cotton and synthetic mix load and and it auto dried to maximum heat (coubord dry mode).

My clothes now smells like burnt plastic so much so that it has given me headache. I tried washing them again with cold water and heatless drying but the smell of that plastic is not moving anywhere. Should I just throw dozens of nice clothes away or do what? 😂

Any suggestion

Cottons and synthetics shouldn't be dried as a mixed load. Synthetics dry quicker than cottons so mixing them will lead to overdrying of those items. Sounds like your dryer is a condensor model? Those tend to get hotter than exhausted units.

Borax helps with odors. Perhaps try rewashing the items with borax added, although it may not have an effect in this case.

@dadoes :( I did the mistake of washing mix load all together