This page contains the following solutions.
We have now joined the ranks of people with the dreaded problem of removing melted crayon from the clothes dryer. After my brief crying spell, we were able to devise a removal plan based on other people's suggestions on ThriftyFun.
Here are the steps we used to remove the crayon:
I have included some before and after pictures of my dryer...to give you the hope and encouragement you might need to tackle your disaster! Good Luck!
Laurel and Lewis from Port Orchard
Okay I've just experienced the crayon in the dryer and tried a few of the ones mentioned, but I remembered we just brought a product called Spray Nine. It is for cleaning marina items (environmentally friendly) and does a great job. Well, it did one heck of job cleaning the inside of dryer without having to worry about the enamel being ruined or anything else. Terrific :) Remove all the crayon and even marks that were there from something else.
By Geri from Jax Beach, FL
Crayons can leave a very hard thing to clean up, unless, you have WD-40 on hand. All you have to do is spray a little on and it melts the crayon so all you have to do is wipe off! It also works well on your childs artwork on walls or anything eles.
By teresa from Lynnwood, WA
Soft Scrub works well. Just a bit on a sponge scrubs it off easily. Rinse and sponge periodically and reapply more soft scrub until initial coat is up.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
How do you remove crayon from clothes and the inside of a dryer?
By Mother of 9 from Pensacola, FL
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
My daughter left crayons in her coat pockets and it was run through the dryer. Needless to say, it made a horrible mess inside the dryer, but also in two new winter coats. What is the best thing to use to remove crayon from inside the dryer and from the coats?
By Bobby from Salem, VA
I don't know how many times my kids (ages 12-27) have done this to me over the years, but my son just did it again last week with a wax fire starter he made for Boy Scouts! The dryer is pretty easy, scrape chinks off walls, then I just run it for a bit, wipe out what I can with paper towels while it's warm, then run a couple of my towel rags through on high to get rid of any excess residue.
The clothes are harder. A lot of times the color from the crayon will set into the fabric like a dye if it goes through the dryer. I have been able to get it off clothes about 98% of the time with Simple Green and a lot of work (Simple green is a cleaner/degreaser in the cleaning or automotive section). First, I use straight Simple Green on the spots and scrub them in with a toothbrush, let it sit approximately 20 min, then wash clothes in warm water with extra laundry soap and a cup of Simple Green. Check for spots, (but let air dry even if it looks like spots are gone, just in case). If spots remain, rub with more Simple Green, let sit. Then I fill the washer, again, with warm water, extra soap, 1-2C Simple Green and let the clothes agitate a bit, then turn the machine off and let it sit all day or overnight.
If you remember, let it agitate again a few times during this waiting time (I have also pulled some of the clothing out of the water to check the spots and rubbed them again with the toothbrush dipped in the soapy water). In the AM, run the washer through it's longest cycle. If it looks like the spots are gone, I run the washer through another cycle with 1/2 the amount of laundry soap and an extra rinse to be sure I get all the Simple Green out. (02/02/2010)
The same thing happened to me 20+ years ago. What a mess! I also used Simple Green to remove the mess in the dryer, and it worked! (02/03/2010)
Thanks so much for your suggestion. I hope that it never happens again, but if it does, I'll try Simple Green. I wound up using WD-40 which did a nice job. After washing two times, most all the smell is gone! (02/06/2010)
By Bobby
I have just gone through this in the last two days! WD-40 removes the crayon from the fabric. Spray the WD-40 on the crayon marks and let soak in. Then launder. My problem was after that I could not remove the smell of the WD-40.
After much research, it was determined that since WD-40 is an oil based product, it would take another oil to remove it. So, I filled the washer with hot water, put about 1/4-1/2 cup baby oil in the water, agitated it, then added the clothes. I let it agitate again, then let them soak for an hour. Then I agitated a bit longer, then let the water out through the rinse cycle. Then I washed with a powder based soap and the smell is finally gone. Good luck! (02/16/2010)
By Laura Butler
We have dried a crayon in the dryer and are at our wits end trying to get it all out of the dryer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Laundry is piling up.
Momholla
Try WD 40, I was browsing the website the other day and they have a list of 2000 uses for this stuff and I remember seeing this. This stuff is really pretty amazing. Check it out wd40.com (06/30/2004)
By Ginger
Thank you to all for the great suggestions. I had red crayon all over the inside of my dryer. Being 8 1/2 months pregnant, I didn't want use WD40 in my dryer or on my clothes. I ran my dryer on high for about 5 minutes and used Aquafresh Extreme Whitening toothpaste and a soft (gentle) scrub sponge; it worked with almost no effort.
Good luck. (11/29/2006)
By Jessica
Just had this happen to me. I came and viewed all the suggestions and was going to try the toothpaste one when I remembered having Krud Kutter in my house. I sprayed it on and let it sit for a minute or two it wiped right off without any trouble. My husband and I looked the bottle over thoroughly and did not see flammable, or any ingredients that are flammable, listed. This also works on counter tops, range hoods, etc. to get that greasy/tacky feeling off. Great stuff. (03/16/2008)
By Hannel98
Tip for taking dried crayon or ink out of a washing machine or drier. I have experienced both and rubbing compound worked both times. The ink was quite a bit of work, but it came completely out. I used 3M rubbing compound for light oxidation. It will remove the crayon or ink without harming the appliance finish at all. Just apply as described on the bottle. It can be found in car care area of WalMart.
By Ken Eason from Stedman, NC
To remove crayon from the dryer drum I used denatured alcohol on an old towel. While the fumes are indeed poisonous, and flammable they evaporate quickly.
A whole bunch of crayons melted in my HE Dryer. I tried the soft scrubber Magic Eraser, and it's not working. Also, it melted on my son's jackets
How do I get the crayon marks out of my dryer drum?
I dried an orange crayon in the dryer and ruined some clothes. any ideas on how to get the stains out?
I opened the dryer to find an entire load was washed with guess what, crayons in a pocket! So far, I have not had any luck getting the crayons off the clothes or the dryer drum.
What do you do for the dryer itself which has the crayon melted inside somewhere, ready to destroy another load of laundry?
