Help! Why is my tumble dryer making my clothes stink?!

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Clothes come out of the washing machine smelling great, then a couple of hours in the dryer and they reek - it's like a sour, stale smell. I've cleaned every removable part and filter, and it's still happening. I don't understand and it's driving me nuts!

Has anyone experienced this? How did you fix it?

This used to happen to us too. I found that putting less in it really helped with that stale smell, as well as running a shorter drying cycle

It's also possible that the smell is coming from washing (mouldy seal? left in the machine while wet? detergent not great?) but is only noticeable once everything's hot from the dryer.

I expect it's not the drier. Add a laundry cleanser to the washing machine and see if that helps. If you have a lot of sports wear and anti fungal washing detergent such as Halo could also help. Also deep clean your machine on 90c wash

Right, going to have a look at all those things, thank you. We have cleaned the washing machine too, and we already use laundry sanitiser, but the anti-fungal detergent, putting less of a load in, and checking the seals are definitely things we'll do. Thank you!

Hope this isn't too obvious but have you cleaned out the filter? Needs cleaning every couple of dries.

Do you have a cat? Could it be a dead mouse? Roast mouse is awful, it happened to me.

Have you definitely narrowed it down to the dryer, do line or hanger dried items smell the same?

I don't use laundry liquid or pods anymore as they made my washing machine absolutely stink.
Use biological powder if you can with a couple of tablespoons of soda crystals in every wash and put the machine when empty on the hottest wash with 1/4 of a bag of the soda crystals to clean the machine once a month

Mine does this when it comes out now perfectly dry so if I put too much in or for not quite long enough it stinks, like yours kinda stale. I just make sure I do smaller loads and that helps

Our tumble dryer has 2 filters...the obvious one and one that needs cleaned less frequently...is it that?

Try line drying and seeing if same.

Use powder not pods or liquid.

It's definitely the dryer, and we've cleaned out both filters and anything accessible or removable. I'm making a list of things to try from here and we'll work through them, thank you!

Reeeeeeeally hoping it's not a dead mouse

More likely fabric softener residue on clothes and the washing machine.

Maybe a cloth soaked in disinfectant then tumbled?