Said It Here

How to clean diaper gel and urine smell from dryer

Superabsorbent diaper gel spreads throughout the machine interior, turning a routine load of laundry into an overwhelming cleanup nightmare. Standard scrubbing often fails to remove the lingering urine odor, leaving people unsure if the dryer is even salvageable.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    rinsing clothes outside with a hose
  2. 2
    taking items to a laundromat and rewashing a couple times
  3. 3
    Caulking the base of the toilet while leaving a gap in the back to monitor for leaks.
  4. 4
    Putting target stickers or decals in the toilet bowl to improve aim.
  5. 5
    Making young boys sit down to pee at home.
  6. 6
    Using shaving cream and enzymatic urine destroyers around the base.

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/HomeMaintenance1 person · October 2026

“And sometimes no matter how I clean/scrub I just can't get rid of the urine smell.”source ↗

zoie07 · r/HomeMaintenance · 6 upvotes

“But it's hard to clean under the toilet without removing the toilet itself.”source ↗

zoie07 · r/HomeMaintenance · 1 upvotes
r/CleaningTips1 person · October 2026

“Is this salvageable? How the heck do I clean all the gel up and get the smell out? This is a nightmare 😭”source ↗

smileykylie1013 · r/CleaningTips

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised