A woman said she was 'lucky to be alive' after a laundry hack set her machine on fire in a viral TikTok video
- A woman said on TikTok that a dryer sheet replacement hack led to her machine catching on fire.
- The hack involves replacing dryer sheets with sponges soaked in fabric softener solution.
A woman said in a viral TikTok video that a laundry hack for replacing dryer sheets with fabric softener-soaked sponges led to her drying machine catching on fire, saying that she and her family were "really lucky to be alive."
The hack, which has circulated online for years and did not originate on TikTok, involves soaking sponges in a mixture of fabric softener and water and using one in lieu of a standard dryer sheet when running a tumble dry cycle, according to PopSugar circa 2014. The trick has been shared on family blogs, media outlets, and influencers on platforms like TikTok.
Cleaning TikToker @haileeclarke87, whose name appears to be Hailee Clarke, cautioned her 20,000 followers and other viewers against trying the hack in a TikTok video that's amassed over 1 million views since it was posted on Monday.
Clarke showed a container full of sponges soaking in fabric softener and water before cutting to a shot of a burnt laundry machine and piles of ruined garments. She said in the video that she woke up to a home filled with smoke the morning after she used the laundry hack.
Clarke told Insider in a message that she "can't say 100%" that the fabric softener "hack" caused the fire, but said that she never had any issues with her dryer prior to the incident. She also told Insider that her dryer was not running throughout the night, but that she suspected it had "caught alight" and burned until her eldest daughter woke up and discovered smoke.
She said that if her daughter hadn't discovered the fire when she did, she suspected her family wouldn't have been able to get out in time given that their smoke detector needed batteries.
"The dryer had been smoking, was on fire on the inside through the night," Clarke said in the video. "I'm not really sure what happened, but it was absolutely terrifying. We're really lucky to be alive, and I just wanted to spread some awareness that, just be careful of the hacks that you try."
It was not immediately clear why the trend resulted in this, but liquid fabric softeners do typically bear warnings that they may increase the flammability of certain fabrics, cautioning against use on children's sleepwear, flame-resistant clothes, and fluffier fabrics.
A spokesperson for the American Cleaning Institute told Insitute that it was "unaware of any reports about such incidents occurring," but that "we strongly advise only using appliances and laundry additives as intended and directed per the manufacturers' instructions."
Clarke posted about the dryer being on fire on Monday, warning people to "be careful what you buy on market place," possibly referencing Facebook's commerce hub where people can resell items, and saying in a comment that she "definitely will not be getting any other electricals from now on" from the marketplace.
Cleaning experts and other TikTok cleaning influencers have cautioned against similar fabric softener-based hacks in the past. Bailey Carson, the head of cleaning for household services app Handy, told Insider in January that a version of the hack using a rag instead of a sponge could cause damage to clothes, leaving residue spots during the drying process and potentially lifting dye from garments. Carson also told Insider that fabric softener can irritate skin conditions such as eczema.