Do you leave your clothes dryer on while you are away from home?

Sure I run my dryer while I am gone I even run it while we are sleeping sometimes. I don't think dryers are that much of a fire hazard are they? I am more scared of are older furnace catching on fire than the dryer catching on fire.

Hi, Jill. This is a really good question because I've wondered the same thing. We try not to leave our dryer one when we leave the house. Our laundry room is conveniently located right near the door that goes out to the garage, which is the door we always use to leave and get in the house. I'm paranoid about starting a fire, too, so figure it's worth putting a load in the washer and letting it sit soggy for a little while until I return to start the dryer. My suggestion would be if you're going to be gone and must leave the dryer running, make sure you take the filter out and clean it thoroughly first. The dryer could start a fire when you're at home, too, you know! We try to keep our filter cleaned out, otherwise it smells like burning when we use the dryer. If you're pretty good about keeping it cleaned out, you shouldn't have problems. I guess it's the dryer's way to "breathe." If it can't breathe, it might catch fire. I don't know all the mechanics that go into making a dryer, but I'm sure they're making them more and more safe all the time. Depending on how old your dryer is, you'll better be able to determine what works best for you and your family's needs. Good luck!

I won't leave the dryer on while I'm gone from home. According to recent reports, it's a risky thing to do. Seems lint will ignite rather easily and start a fire. I do keep the dryer vent clean of lint but it seems lint can also get caught in the dryer hose and ignite. Our daughter is a firefighter and she also recommends not to leave a dryer running when the homeowner is not home.

I most definitely leave my dryer on when I go out. I'm up half the night doing laundry as it is. If I turned my dryer off when I went out I would never get my laundry done. My mother-in-law, though, turns her dryer off when she goes out. She said, "You never know what could happen." I guess her machine is so old that it could cause a problem but it almost seems equivalent to leaving the furnace on when you go out. LOL!

i hate to admit this but im guilty. i have this bad habit of forgetting my clothes in the washer and dryer..i was used to doing laundry at a 24hours laundrymat and i do it on the evenings and leaving it and going to work then on my lunch time i put in the dryer and take it out when im off to work. so when i moved to an apartment complex with shared washer and dryer, i keep forgetting that i am doing laundry that sometimes i go out and go to the store. i feel embarrassed when the maintenance called and asked for my laundry so what i do now i put an alaram on my phone so i wont forget it...

I know this thread is over a year old, but just wanted to add my 2 cents. It's not the lint trap, but the exhaust hose where the lint catches fire if I'm not mistaken. That's alot harder to clean out every day. Also, it's not that it's more likely to catch fire just because you aren't home; it's that you would most likely catch it alot faster and be able to turn it off or get the fire department there alot quicker then if you were gone. I found this information on Consumer Reports from a link from another website, Vent Check International? The VCI website seems to conflict a little bit from Consumer Reports, so I'll quote from the Consumer Reports article since I know they seem pretty trustworthy. "More than 13,000 fires a year start in laundry rooms in the US, resulting in 10 deaths and $97 million in property damage. Nearly 4,000 of these fires arise from lint buildup that occurs when people fail to clean their dryer vents." If you go to consumerreports.org and search 'dryer fire' there are 2 articles that come up. They give some good information on how to better vent/exhaust your dryer to prevent lint buildup. I actually found your thread because I was looking for the general consensus on whether or not to dry while I'm away from home. I'd prefer to do that if I could, because I have a condo and the dryer vents into my home, raising the temperature quite a bit. I do know I have the flexible plastic vent hose, which the consumer reports website recommends against. My only problem is space, I don't know if there is room enough behind the dryer to use the hoses they recommend. I guess I'll have my dad or one of my brothers help me check it out to see what we can do to make it more fire friendly. I think for now I won't run the dryer while I'm gone. Better safe than sorry, and I'm not sure how it would affect my insurance if a huge fire started in my unit and spread to other units. They could even say the fire was indirectly my fault, so my insurance would have to cover the entire damage, not just mine? I'll start looking for a better way to vent my dryer soon :)

I do have the habit of doing that. I won't leave the washing machine on. Growing up, I remember my Dad always telling my mom not to run the washer or dryer when she was not home. Of course they had a gas dryer right next to a gas water heater so that could be a HUGE explosion if something happened.

We try not too unless we have a lot to do. My mother is extremely worried that it will start a fire, my grandparents don't worry about that aspect as much, because there is usually someone home. So, we do try and use the dryer when we are home because we just want to keep an eye on things while we can.

Geez! I sure hope it won't catch fire! If need be, I always leave the dryer running when I step out of the house. Same reason as yours - save time!

I try not to run it when I'm away from home, but if I'm really short on time, which most days I am then I do.

I am always busy andrushing around like a crazy person.I always leave both my washer and dryer running and dash out to run errands.I never even thought about them starting a fire.Is that common?Does it happen often?Maybe both of us should be more careful from now on.

Well n my household sometimes we do and sometimes we dont. The way the economy is now, i would nt leave it on at all that long, just enough time for my clothes to dry. But for instance if we are in a rush to get somewhere and lets just say our work clothes or my sisters school clothes have been washed and needed drying.....then that would be a situation where we would leave it running.

Yes, absolutely. I will use any timesaving tip or way to kill two birds with one stone - or three birds if possible. I'm not quite sure why some people are so scared to do things like leave a dryer on, xmas lights on at night (that is when they are supposed to be on thank you very much) and I also use a crockpot pretty often, again when I am not home. Until somebody finds a way to cram 26 hours into a day, I will continue to try and make the most of the time I have because I can't afford to waste it.

I dont mind it running if im not there really,if i was to pop to town i wouldnt bother to turn it off at alll.As you say if you are limite as its your day off of work you need to be able to pack as much in as possible.

i usually turn everything off when i go out of the house. we don't really know what would happen. something might overheat and cause a short circuit somewhere that might in turn cause an explosion that would lead to a fire. prevention is better than cure and better be safe than sorry. ^__^

I have not had a clothes dryer in about 7 years, we just hang on the line or in the house - but, when I did use one at home I never liked to leave it on while away. for the same reason as your friend, plus the cost of electricity should the timer fail on it during my absence.

I have when I knew I wasn't going to be gone long. If you keep the lint cleaned out of it and the cords are all good there should not be a fear of it starting a fire. But, by keeping the lint cleaned out, I don't mean just pulling the lint catcher out and cleaning it off, you'd be surprised at how much lint can build up in that area, that does not land on the lint screen.

If I am making a quick trip to the market or picking/droping someone off i might but other wise no. I can't leave it alone in case it finishes and my clothes would wrinkle if i just left them sitting there.

I have heard of people's dryers starting fires but it is usually due to poor ventilation. The tube gets clogged up with lint. Then of course there will be the faulty dryers that could start an electrical fire I suppose. I put my clothes in the dryer and leave all the time. I wouldn't have time to get everything finished if I didn't!

I never leave the dryer on when I'm not at home. I too have fears that it will catch on fire. You hear of it happening and I don't want to take the risk.