blue ink stains in dryer!

[Irenelg3]

PLEASE help!!! I must have inadvertently left a blue pen in my pants when washing them - I put them in the dryer and now my entire dryer is stained with blue ink...even the rubber rims. Everything I've put in the dryer since has blue stians on them, as well - Please help!
Thanks so much!

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Scroll down to read the responses in the thread entitled "Biro on lino" in this forum. Try using the solvents named there to remove the ink from your dryer tumbler. Be careful using acetone (or nail polish remover) on any plastic parts (like the clothes lifters) inside your dryer drum.

[swelec]

Don't put any more items in the drier

[Irenelg3]

what if the ink is dried into the enamel but continues to come off whenever I turn on the dryer and it emits heat? Thank you SO much.

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Irene:

Normally, the tumbler inside a dryer won't be "painted", it'll be powder coated. Powder coating is where they electrostatically spray paint the tumbler with a mixture of powdered plastic and tiny colored particles (called "pigments"), and then bake the result in an oven. During the baking process, the plastic melts and bonds to the underlying metal, encasing the coloured pigments in that clear plastic much like raisins are encased in the bread in raisin bread. Powder coatings are usually very impermeable, and so it's not likely the ink will actually penetrate in to "stain" the coating of that tumbler, so you should be able to get the ink off completely with an appropriate solvent.

I don't think the heat from the dryer will make the ink any harder to get off. Inks are made to dry fast, and dryers don't get very hot, so there isn't going to be much change in the situation as a result of leaving the dryer off or using it now, several days after the ink stained the dryer.

You might want to throw some old clothes in that dryer and let them tumble when hot to see if any ink comes off on them. If push comes to shove, it's not hard to replace the entire tumbler in an US made electric dryer, but I don't know how much a new tumbler for a dryer costs. Try dissolving the glue with some solvents or nail polish remover first, tho.

[JohnD]

Alcohol may wipe it off.

[ratm]

You don't say if it was a biro of permanent marker pen but it doesn't really matter. If you have trouble getting any of the previously mentioned chemicals you can try a few guerrilla cleaning products. Toothpaste is good for removing biro and marker from other surfaces and it's relatively harmless if a bit messy. Also hairspray but be careful with it in an enclosed space. You could also try cellulose thinners which will tackle almost anything but it's very heavy duty.

[yingphong]

Hey, that was great advice.....the nail polish remover worked wonders on my dryer!!! Now to get the smell out of my dryer. Thanks!