How To Get Crayon Out Of A Dryer
Oops! You didn’t notice that red crayon in your kid’s pant pocket when you tossed the laundry into the dryer. Now, you have melted crayon stuck to the inside of your dryer (not to mention on your clothes). Learn how to get crayon out of a dryer before you assume your dryer is doomed.
Use a credit card to scrape as much crayon from the dryer drum as possible. Run your dryer to heat it up and melt the crayon (or use a hair dryer). Then use a dryer sheet to remove the crayon from the lint trap and drum. Follow up with warm water and dish soap to rinse the dryer.
After doing laundry, it’s undoubtedly no fun to discover you have some extra work to do, thanks to a forgotten crayon. But luckily, this dilemma is one you can resolve relatively easily without too much headache.
7 Simple Tips To Get Crayon Out Of A Dryer
1. Scrape As Much Crayon Off The Dryer As Possible
Use a credit card to scrape off as much crayon as you can from your dryer drum. Alternatively, you can use a plastic spatula, but it can be a bit more cumbersome to use.
No matter what you decide to scrape with, make sure it isn’t metal. You don’t want to damage your dryer. Don’t forget about the lint trap. Remove it and inspect it and its slot for any crayon residue.
2. Remelt The Crayon Wax
After removing as much of the crayon as possible, remelt the remaining wax to make things easier. The easiest way to do this is to rerun the dryer for about 15 minutes to heat it up. You can also use a hair dryer to heat crayon spots; hold the dryer about six inches from the wax.
3. Wipe Away Melted Crayon Using Dryer Sheets
You don’t necessarily need to use dryer sheets when you dry your clothes. However, you might want to keep a few on hand for this hack.
Grab a regular dryer sheet and use it to remove the melted crayon. Wipe down the inside of the drum, lint trap, and lint trap cavity. The dryer sheet will pick up most of the melted crayon.
Note that this won’t work with regular cloths or paper towels; it needs to be a dryer sheet. Turn or fold over the dryer sheet as you work to avoid smearing crayon back onto the dryer. If there’s a lot of wax, use a couple of sheets.
4. Turn The Dryer Drum
Rotate the dryer drum to look for any possible crayon spots you might have missed. If you find some, repeat steps one through three as necessary to remove the wax.
5. Wipe Down The Dryer With Warm, Soapy Water
Use dish soap and warm water to wipe down and rinse the inside of the dryer. Make sure to remove all the soap residue. You can also rinse off the lint trap with warm water, but let it dry thoroughly before replacing it in the dryer.
6. Try WD-40 On Stubborn Spots
The first five steps should solve your crayon problem. However, if you have some extra stubborn spots, you can apply a tiny amount of WD40 to a rag or sponge and use it to scrub away the remaining wax.
Never apply WD-40 directly to your dryer. Removing all traces of WD-40 before using your dryer is also essential. Heating your dryer with WD-40 present could potentially cause a fire.
If you decide to use WD40 to remove any of the crayon wax, make sure to repeat step five. Keep rinsing until you remove all traces of the product.
7. Perform The Towel Test To Check For Remaining Crayon
After you’re certain you removed all the crayon, grab an old white towel. Wet the towel, toss it in the dryer, and run a cycle. Make sure it’s a towel you don’t love, just in case there’s still crayon lurking in your dryer.
If you remove the towel and there’s no crayon, congratulations! If you see colorful marks on the towel, inspect the dryer drum and lint trap again; you missed a few spots.
Don’t Forget To Get The Crayon Out Of Clothes
As eager as you are to get the crayon out of your dryer, don’t wait to inspect the laundry in the ill-fated load. You likely have crayon on the sheets, towels, clothes, or whatever else you were washing. Check all of the items and look for any crayon marks.
It’s essential to try and act as quickly as possible, as the longer the crayon sits, the harder it will be to remove. It’s difficult to get crayon stains out of many fabrics, but there’s a chance if you act fast and put in some effort.
- Soak the crayon-covered clothes in hot water for about ten minutes to loosen the wax.Â
- Add two tablespoons of Dawn dish soap and a small amount of white vinegar, and let the garment soak for several hours.
- Rinse the garment to remove the dish soap.
- Wash the garment on a heavy soil setting using your regular laundry detergent.Â
- Keep repeating this process until you remove all the crayon.
Use An Iron To Remove Crayon From Clothes
If a piece of clothing only has one or two crayon spots, you can try using a brown bag, towel, and iron. Place a brown bag on top of the affected area. Cover the bag with a towel and iron it. As the heat from the iron melts the crayon, the brown bag should absorb the melted wax.
Fixing Your Dryer’s Crayon Conundrum
By now, you’ve probably resolved to always check every inch of each pocket and fold before you do the laundry. However, accidents happen, so don’t despair when you realize you have crayon stuck to your dryer.
Scrape as much of the crayon away using a credit card. Then heat up the remaining wax by running the dryer or using a hair dryer.
Once the wax melts, wipe the dryer drum and lint trap down with a dryer sheet. Toss an old, wet white towel in the dryer and run a normal cycle to test that you removed all of the crayon.
Don’t forget to check all of the clothes from the doomed load of laundry to remove crayon from the fabric. After ridding your dryer of crayon gunk, you’ll be back to doing laundry in no time. Lucky you!
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Stacy Randall is a wife, mother, and freelance writer from NOLA that has always had a love for DIY projects, home organization, and making spaces beautiful. Together with her husband, she has been spending the last several years lovingly renovating her grandparent's former home, making it their own and learning a lot about life along the way.
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