ApplianceMaintenance.center (844) 879-5178Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm Book a visit
The closed gas shutoff valve behind a range, seen close.

Lint fires, gas at the burners, hoses and wiring

Fire, gas and water safety
guides.

The hazards that routine upkeep exists to prevent: lint packed into an exhaust run, a gas smell at a cooking appliance, carbon monoxide, a supply hose that bursts, and the burning smell or tripping breaker that means stop.

(844) 879-5178

Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • Three guides
  • Read before you book
  • Says where to stop

Book a visit

Three short steps, about a minute.

or call (844) 879-5178

Fire, gas and water safety,
guide by guide.

Three hazards live inside ordinary home appliances: heat and lint in the laundry exhaust path, gas and carbon monoxide at the burners, and water under constant pressure in every supply hose. This section covers the upkeep that keeps each one rare, and the first moves to make when one of them turns up anyway.

All 18 guides
A home laundry room with a clothes dryer pulled a foot away from the wall, a technician seen from behind feeding a long vent cleaning brush into the round metal exhaust duct at the back of the clothes dryer, gray lint pulled from the exhaust duct lying on a drop cloth, indoors, seasonless.
5-minute read

Lint, exhaust runs and fire risk behind the laundry closet

The screen catches most of the lint and the duct collects the rest. How long a run may be, what it should be made of, and how to tell it is choking before it overheats.

A home laundry room with a front-load laundry machine pulled slightly forward, a technician's hands seen from the shoulders down threading a new braided fill hose onto the hot water valve behind the laundry machine while the old fill hose lies coiled on a towel on the floor, indoors, seasonless.
5-minute read

Supply hoses and slow leaks: the lines that feed four appliances

A fill hose gives no warning when it lets go, but it usually shows wear for months first. What to look at, when to replace it, and what to do the day one drips.

A well-kept home kitchen with a gas cooktop set into a stone counter, every burner switched off and cool, a technician's hands seen from the shoulders down lifting a burner cap off one gas cooktop burner to show its clean, open ports, the other gas cooktop burners with their caps seated flat, indoors, seasonless.
5-minute read

Gas burners and carbon monoxide: flame, air and the alarm

A clean, well-adjusted burner makes little carbon monoxide and a neglected one makes more. The flame colors to know, the alarms to install and the jobs an owner leaves alone.

Lint fires, gas at the burners, hoses and wiring.

The order of moves comes before any talk of maintenance. A hot lint smell means stopping the cycle, unplugging the machine and leaving it off until the exhaust is cleared. A gas odor means turning off the burners, lighting nothing, touching no switches, opening windows, leaving, and calling the gas utility or 911 from outside. A leaking hose means closing its valve, staying clear of wet outlets and cutting the circuit from a dry panel.

The guidance draws on the US Fire Administration, NFPA, CPSC, CDC and EPA, and on the installation and care manuals the makers publish. Each guide links its sources beside the claims they support, so a reader can check a duct length, a flame color or a hose interval against the original page.

Every guide in this section also marks the owner's limit. An owner may close a valve in an emergency, clean a lint screen or clear burner ports; an owner does not open a gas fitting, reroute a duct through a wall, work inside a cabinet over live wiring or relight a system after a leak. Those belong to a technician or the gas utility.

Not sure where to start?

The short answerLint, exhaust runs and fire risk behind the laundry closet

Dryer vent fire risk rises when lint narrows the exhaust run: airflow falls, heat builds and the fluff can ignite.

The short answerSupply hoses and slow leaks: the lines that feed four appliances

Appliance water supply hoses feed the laundry machine, the dish care machine and any refrigerator or ice maker with a water line, and all of them stay under house pressure around the clock.

The short answerGas burners and carbon monoxide: flame, air and the alarm

Gas appliances and carbon monoxide go together because burning gas makes some CO, and EPA measures more of it near poorly adjusted stoves than near well-adjusted ones.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in these guides did not settle it, the visit picks up from there, stop by stop.

What services cost
  1. 01A walk around the house first
  2. 02Cleaned, checked and adjusted
  3. 03Wear parts before they fail
  4. 04A service record for the house

The problems
these answer.

Each has a page of its own, with the causes in the order worth checking.

All 17 problems
A quiet home laundry room with a front-loading vented machine standing still, its door closed and its display dark, a faint thin haze of pale smoke hanging near the round metal exhaust collar on the wall behind it, a crushed silver foil duct visible at the back, the power cord unplugged and lying on the floor, seen from the doorway. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Hot or Burning Lint Smell in the Laundry Room: Stop the Cycle

6 causes, cheapest first

 A home laundry room with a front-loading vented machine standing open after a finished cycle, a pile of towels in a basket in front of it visibly still damp and heavy, a lint screen held out of its slot and covered with a thick gray layer resting on the machine's top, soft daylight. Problem

Laundry Taking Two Cycles to Dry: The Lint Path Is Usually Why

6 causes, cheapest first

 A home kitchen counter in soft daylight with a small plain white plug-in energy meter with a blank dark screen plugged into a wall outlet beside a stainless refrigerator, the refrigerator's kick plate at the bottom visibly furred with dust. Problem

Appliance Energy Use Creeping Up With Nothing Else Changed

6 causes, cheapest first

 Low view behind a front-loading washer pulled slightly away from the wall in a home laundry room, a black rubber fill hose with a visible swollen bulge near its fitting and a thin stream of water spraying from it onto a tile floor, a spreading puddle, the hot and cold wall valves above. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Supply Hose Leaking or Bulging Behind an Appliance: Shut the Water Off

6 causes, cheapest first
A family sharing breakfast in a bright, well-kept home kitchen.
For the heart of your home.

Questions about
fire, gas and water safety.

What should every household know before anything goes wrong?
Where each appliance's water and gas shutoffs are, which breaker feeds which appliance, and that a gas odor is dealt with by leaving the house, not by searching for the source.
Are carbon monoxide alarms part of appliance upkeep?
Yes. CPSC recommends alarms on every level and outside sleeping areas, and they are the only warning of a burner or vent problem that has no smell.
Is a lint smell an emergency or a maintenance reminder?
Treat a hot or burning lint smell as an emergency: stop the cycle and unplug the machine. Slow drying without any smell is the maintenance reminder, and the time to book the exhaust cleaning.
When is water damage from an appliance more than a mop job?
When water has run under flooring or into a cabinet. EPA advises drying soaked areas within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold, and a leak from inside the appliance needs a technician.

The other
sections.

Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns.

All guides
A refrigerator's dusty condenser coils seen close behind its kick plate.
What slow wear looks like before it becomes a breakdown

Signs an appliance is due

A finger on the control panel of a washer, the display dark.
Ten-minute tasks with the appliance unplugged

Checks between visits

A soft brush lifting lint from a dryer's lint screen, seen close.
What is due when, across the whole house

Routines and schedules

An older and a newer refrigerator side by side in a garage workshop.
A yearly plan, a visit when due, or a new appliance

Plans, visits and replacement

A braided stainless supply hose and its shutoff valve behind a washer.
Clearances, shutoffs and leveling that make service easy

Set up for easy upkeep

Not sure which section?

Start from your question

The four questions most visits start with, each with the guide that answers it.

18 guidesWhere to start Where to start

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your home appliance working again.

Three short steps online, or one call. Tell us what you are seeing and pick a window that works.

Schedule maintenance Call (844) 879-5178
(844) 879-5178 Schedule maintenance