Oh, god, this is terrible.

July 28, 2009 9:25 PM

My 3 year old son tossed a diaper into the washer while we were doing laundry. The diaper made it to the dryer, where it shredded and gunked up everything. How the hell do I clean this up? The drum and the lint trap are cleaned, but I'm worried about the gel starting a fire.
posted by boo_radley to home & garden (5 comments total)

Actually they have used the gel from diapers as a fire retardant, so fire isn't the issue as much as an ugly sticky mess.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 9:56 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]

This has happened twice to us with no ill effects outside of the mess.
posted by deanj at 10:13 PM on July 28

So if it's not a fire hazard I wonder if I can run the dryer a few times to desiccate the gel.
posted by boo_radley at 10:22 PM on July 28

Did you check inside the part that vents the dryer to the outside? If it's coated inside with gel, you can usually replace it easily enough.
posted by x46 at 12:27 AM on July 29

This has happened to me several times. UGH! But basically, all my clothes just had little paper balls all over them. I shook out the clothes over the trash can, cleaned out the lint trap and the dryer and washer of diaper junk, and then just rewashed and dried the clothes. It got about 99% of the diaper crap out of the clothes. There was no ill effect to my washer or dryer it seems. I don't think you have to worry about fire, the stuff is supposed to be flame retardant. If you are worried, you could redry the clothes on a warm or cool cycle.
posted by Bueller at 9:47 AM on July 29