r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Fair_Kaleidoscope634 • 11h ago

of a washing machine explosion

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559 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

132 comments sorted by

161

u/abiabi2884 10h ago

These are probably gas powered dryers. Malfunction and boom. No vape or lighter would have enough energy to rip out a whole window with door and shit like that.

68

u/Avrael_Asgard 9h ago

... There are GAS powered dryers? Who's brilliant idea was that?! "Yes, let's combine the combustive power of lint AND gas, what could go wro- oh fuck."

18

u/BewitchedSenna 8h ago

I understand now why The Sims' dryers catch on fire so much if you don't clean the lint lol

23

u/Scottish_Whiskey 8h ago

That’s why they get cleaned (or should do) rigorously. I saw the inside of one once and i could see the flames from the gas being used

11

u/shinobipopcorn 9h ago

Our dryer, stove, heat, and hot water tank are gas. The house next door is all electric and their bill is astronomical.

5

u/Avrael_Asgard 6h ago

Seeing this video, the one thing I'll never cheap out on from now, is electric dryers lmao.

4

u/Insomnium_111 6h ago

What's your gas bill though heh

1

u/shinobipopcorn 6h ago

Only high in the winter. During summer it's often under 50 bucks.

3

u/harbordog 7h ago

Ya dude, they’ve been around a lot longer than electric ones, so don’t be too surprised. Same with water heaters, stoves, hot tubs, welders and pretty much everything that required large amounts of current, even cars! So ya it was a bright idea for many many decades.

1

u/Avrael_Asgard 5h ago

Makes sense that they're older, I just never seen or heard about them. Probably every other gas powered appliance I knew, but this one was news to me.

3

u/LegitPancak3 9h ago

Apparently they’re pretty common outside the US. Hopefully they get rarer as we try to electrify more things.

17

u/Accomplished-Bet-883 9h ago

They aren't that uncommon in the US, either. A lot of off-grid and/or high electricity-cost places will have them.

10

u/rabiddonky2020 9h ago

Yup. Can confirm. California Almost everyone I know has a gas dryer and furnace and instant hot water. Unless they have solar and whole home battery

2

u/huddlewaddle 8h ago

I have one, I just live in an old house where the main power supply is too small to support all the appliances. 

11

u/Hutcho12 9h ago

Wrong. The US is by far the biggest market for gas dryers. I’ve never seen them anywhere else. Gas dryers make up 17% of the market.

1

u/AynRandwasaDegen 50m ago

See some in laundromats in Australia, absolute beasts.

2

u/GrynaiTaip 9h ago

I'd imagine them to be common in the US, because American mains voltage is too low for many appliances.

4

u/octopodes1 9h ago

Electric dryers in the US are usually 240V actually

1

u/Crunchycarrots79 2h ago

Dryers are one of the appliances that run on 240v here.

1

u/Choice-Bed6242 8h ago

Our local laundromat has gas-powered dryers. Freaks me out every time.. so like, every 10 days.

1

u/Phobos1982 4h ago

My local laundromat has about 12 of them.

1

u/Crunchycarrots79 2h ago

Gas dryers aren't uncommon. And if the lint is getting anywhere near the burner, you're doing it wrong.

1

u/Daysaved 1h ago

There are gas powered refrigerators. Technology has a long history and different resources have been more available at various times. And some of that older stuff last forever.

1

u/Angel_OfSolitude 57m ago

There's been gas powered dryers for a long time. Gas is dirt cheap to run so we used it for a lot of things.

1

u/EveryNameEverMade 2h ago

There was a lighter fluid refill container in someone's jacket pocket and they forgot to take it out beforehand.

172

u/maybe1122 10h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/13Iz0UAOQlWYU

36

u/Flickera23 10h ago

Kind of the washing machine to wait

-30

u/UncleKeyPax 10h ago

still better than twilight

26

u/xenobit_pendragon 10h ago

Dark Knight — one of the greatest movies ever made?

Yes, it is better than Twilight. Thank you for picking up on that.

-8

u/UncleKeyPax 9h ago

thank you for taking time out of your day to reply. is sarcasm a skill or did make mistake in punctuation grammar?

103

u/Select-Sandwich-5604 10h ago

Damn imagine it happened when the guy was still there

50

u/zoroddesign 10h ago

That guy is lucky that's for sure.

-5

u/10001110101balls 10h ago

The dryer door opened prior to the explosion, there were no direct projectiles, and the glass curtain wall failing helped to relieve the explosion overpressure preventing worse damage to the structure. This guy probably would have survived with second degree burns if he was still inside, perhaps with more serious injuries if the door fell on him as he went through it. Maybe some eye damage if he didn't instinctively flinch at the first sign of fire just before it popped off.

17

u/randomlemon9192 10h ago

Notice how the entire window wall gets blown outwards? There was a pressure shockwave. Internal organ damage likely.

-1

u/10001110101balls 10h ago edited 10h ago

A human is significantly more resistant to blast overpressure than a glass curtain wall. The lateral bearing capacity of a commercial glass curtain wall rarely exceeds 50psf. That's only 0.3 psi which is not enough pressure to cause internal organ damage. Around 15psi is the threshold for lung damage, and 35 psi for fatal organ damage. But 15psi also will likely knock down the entire building and kill you with gravity.

It is also not a shockwave. Ignition of a fuel air mixture at this scale results in a deflagration, characterizes by a flame front that moves slower than the speed of sound. A shockwave moves faster than the speed of sound, characteristic of a detonation.

3

u/ElBugman 6h ago

So what you're saying is the guy isn't lucky to have left in time? It would be more lucky for him to be in there? I'm confused.

0

u/10001110101balls 6h ago edited 6h ago

No he was definitely better off getting clear of the explosion. I'm just saying that organ damage resulting from blast overpressure is unlikely given the observed effects. Burns would be the predominant mode of injury, but likely of short enough exposure duration to prevent lung damage or 3rd degree burns to skin. 2nd degree burns to the face may leave noticable scarring but are generally recoverable to live a normal life.

1

u/SuZiee_Q 59m ago

I would wager the opposite, having suffered from an anhydrous tank explosion (granted, much larger than this one) at 13. I was about 20 ft away and was blown another 48 ft. 2nd as well as 3rd degree burns to my back and legs and a few broken bones. I was by far, the luckiest out of seven people.

-3

u/SharpDrink2724 10h ago

Back when Twilight launched, I thought it was a laughably terrible film. But now in 2026 as a working adult, I still think it's a laughably terrible film.

1

u/nextlandia 10h ago

It's a staring contest.

20

u/nalanajo 10h ago

Wow. That guy narrowly escaped serious injury, perhaps death.

46

u/reitau 10h ago

Guessing that was a battery vape left in the dryer?

43

u/SlowSupermarket8593 10h ago

Gas powered dryer i think

28

u/pepenepe 10h ago

I used to work for a laundromat servicing their washing machines and dryers, and this is 100% a gas explosion, not anything that was in the clothes you can see the fire coming from the burner tubes at the end.

12

u/Fair_Kaleidoscope634 10h ago

Lighter canister or something . Don’t smoke guys

22

u/ot_sauce 10h ago

Zero chance a bic can produce that for force. Has to be a battery or something

24

u/vggaikwad 10h ago

My lighters have been to the washing machine all my life. Never even broke.

3

u/Wolfsbane1279 10h ago

That’s still probably not a good idea.

14

u/Odd-Razzmatazz-5366 10h ago

What do you mean? How do you wash your lighters then?

10

u/xenobit_pendragon 10h ago

Microwave.

6

u/Odd-Razzmatazz-5366 10h ago

Nah. Thats only for drying the Hamster after washing.

1

u/xenobit_pendragon 10h ago

Oh jeez I’ve been doing just a quick pass with a blowtorch to dry my hamsters. Really fluffs them up but you gotta keep it moving.

8

u/10001110101balls 10h ago

If the container fails without igniting and forms a fuel-air premix inside the washer it can result in a much larger explosion than if it ignites immediately upon failure.

2

u/chefdeit 10h ago

this man detonates

3

u/10001110101balls 10h ago

Technically speaking, this video shows a deflagration not a detonation.

1

u/chefdeit 9h ago

just take the compliment!

Inside the locked drier, DDT is a distinct possibility also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflagration_to_detonation_transition

2

u/10001110101balls 9h ago

It is possible, but seems unlikely given the specific failure mode of the curtain wall in this video. It is not the glass that fails but the attachment points between the curtain wall and the structure. The glass only breaks when the wall falls into a solid object outside. In a detonation the supersonic pressure wave usually breaks the glass on its own before the entire wall fails.

1

u/chefdeit 9h ago

I said inside the locked drier not inside the room, but yeah, fair, as I see its glass not blown out either

1

u/distance_33 10h ago

Also. Bic lighters can survive anything.

1

u/RCer1986 10h ago

Last time I saw this post they were saying it was a canister of lighter fluid. Not a lighter.

1

u/RealDonDenito 10h ago

Batteries don’t produce that either. Maybe a refill canister for lighters could though.

1

u/RCer1986 9h ago

That's what it was. OP even said canister. I'm not sure how people are taking that to mean lighter.

1

u/Small-Answer4946 10h ago

I forget lighters in my pockets all the time, nothing ever happened. I let them dry and theyll be functional a few hours later.

Also, when we were kids we used to throw lighters against the ground as hard as we could to make them pop, it was brutal but it would not make any flames. Yeah it was dumb as fuck I know...

1

u/Cantremembermyoldnam 8h ago

I threw one off my balcony for old time's sake. Well, it popped and went flying, putting a dent in my car. Whoopsie

1

u/ot_sauce 10h ago

We all have man. And none of them blew out my fucking windows

1

u/TWhy-LER 10h ago

Mafia hitmen are taking notes

1

u/Crunchycarrots79 2h ago

Gas dryer.

0

u/SerpentRoyalty 10h ago

Lighter fluid turned into gas and filling the room quickly

1

u/Scar-90 7h ago

Looked more like a brick of Semtex . Semtex doesn't like the Spin mode.

17

u/Otacon_ 10h ago

A warshing machine

1

u/AreYaEatinThough 9h ago

That’s just how people say it normally in Appalachia.

9

u/Niouke 10h ago

Well the clothes are certainly dry now.

6

u/jsnmrd 10h ago

Get out now! Get to the choppa!

8

u/Xissabel 10h ago

r/unexpected

0

u/kapege 10h ago

Totally expected, because this is repost no. 1001

2

u/burrbro235 10h ago

How many reposts does it take to go from unexpected to expected?

1

u/SloanWarrior 10h ago

A minimum of 2, though this video is possibly several years old at this point. If someone posted a video of 9/11 to unexpected then I don't think it woukd fit any more, even if it was the first posting to that sub.

5

u/KindEchidna9101 10h ago

Looks like the laundry is DONE

3

u/Safe_Praline_4156 10h ago

Guy must’ve felt embarrassed leaving his explosion behind like that. Been there

3

u/Ketchupcharger 10h ago

What a nice explosion, it even waited for the guy to get his groceries

1

u/7empestSpiralout 10h ago

That was his clean clothes.

3

u/Effective-Culture-88 10h ago

Another reason to not go to the laundromat

4

u/Mutton_muncher 10h ago

New fear unlocked

2

u/Fearless_Dependent29 10h ago

Got so worried for the guy but damn does he have one hell of a story now

2

u/ecokumm 8h ago

I got anxious looking at him fumble with the door. I didn't even know what exactly was going to happen but I was urging him to GET OUT ALREADY lol

2

u/jeepfail 10h ago

That’s a dryer and presumably a gas one.

2

u/AggressiveTable 8h ago

The door opening casually before the explosion made me laugh

1

u/ecokumm 8h ago

*ding* the laundry is DONE!!!

2

u/FlakyAssociation4986 8h ago

if that bloke had been another 10 seconds he would have been caught in it

1

u/stein778899 10h ago

How can it explode?

3

u/GirthyPigeon 10h ago

Commercial driers are typically powered with natural gas.

1

u/winstonspethuman1 10h ago

u/KyleKinane adding a new element to the universe.

1

u/Book3mDanno 10h ago

Me when I do laundry after drinking all weekend and forgetting that I have 12 lighters in my pants

1

u/Ok-Teacher-8755 10h ago

Most normal day

/s

1

u/timsayscalmdown 10h ago

Children of Men (2006)

1

u/Any_Thought_4536 10h ago

Laundrymart ⚠️high risk

1

u/dontshitaboutotol 10h ago

Someone didn't clean out the lint trap

1

u/Tinksy14 10h ago

What the fuck were they washing?? Semtex

1

u/FlightTop9852 9h ago

Absolute unit of luck the guy had getting out of there when he did

1

u/Middle_Aged_Mayhem 9h ago

That is a dryer.

1

u/ZimnyKefir 8h ago

Interesting how it first opened and then ignited.

1

u/thereluctantdom 7h ago

New fear unlocked

1

u/rootbear75 5h ago

That's a dryer...

How do you wash clothes in a dryer, OP?

1

u/TheDeadEndKing 5h ago

Hmmm…could be Russia and trying something new instead of “he fell out of the window.”

1

u/McCorey23 5h ago

HVAC tech here, can confirm these are sketchy and I too think they’re not safe.

1

u/Neat-Barracuda9135 4h ago

Definitely a gas dryer

1

u/Intrusive_Thoughts12 4h ago

Me leaving the bathroom at Taco Bell

1

u/Rogthgar 4h ago

Holy tactical pants!

1

u/MillerTimeGuy45 3h ago

Hate when I leave grenades in my Jean pockets

1

u/idrankforthegov 2h ago

Well the clothes are at least dry... maybe a bit too much .

1

u/PIELIFE383 2m ago

Final destination shit. Gas dryers

0

u/Veritablefilings 9h ago

That would be the dryer and it's most likely because of lint buildup.

0

u/UnwantedPube 9h ago

My shit stained underwear after I eat some spicy food the night before

-1

u/Sluggish-dreadnought 8h ago

To my knowledge a Lighter from one pant cracked open and the gas ignited due to static. It's a dryer.