Will Dried Ink in Dryer Get on Clothes?

Did you have some pens burst in your dryer? Find out if dried ink in your dryer will transfer to clothes and how to remove the ink stains from your dryer drum.

Question

Four pens burst open all over the interior of my dryer. How can I get it clean to do laundry again?

Answer

How unfortunate! If you still have the Use and Care Guide for your dryer, check it out to see what the manufacturer recommends for cleaning the inside of the dryer. In general, a dryer drum can only be cleaned with a non-flammable household cleaner. This is important for your safety, even for a very small ink stain! This makes for a very problematic stain to remove because ink really benefits from using certain solvents to break up the ink. But these solvents are flammable, so they are not appropriate for a dryer because it is a heat source (and a pretty hot one at that).

Fortunately there are other cleaning products that are non-flammable, like Clorox^® Scentiva^® Disinfecting Multi-Surface Cleaner, so you could try that. Outside of the dryer, spray a little Scentiva^® onto a soft cloth and then use it to wipe the inside of the dryer. When finished, wipe the dryer drum thoroughly with a damp cloth before tumble drying a load of clean towels to dry the drum.