Having laundry in the house is one of the great little luxuries of modern times. It’s wonderful to be able to throw dirty clothes and linens into two magic cubes and get clean, dry items back in a moment. It’s so magical that most of us take our hard-working washing machines for granted. As long as they’re doing their job, we don’t think about them too much.

But your washer and dryer need maintenance, especially if you notice anything strange. Dryers may seem pretty harmless: They dry your clothes using only heat and air circulation. You may think that you’re fine as long as you clean your dryer vent occasionally to keep lint under control. But dryers are supposed to be self-contained systems that pull moisture from your clothes and expel it outside. If you notice that your house is filled with the smell of dryer sheets every time you dry a load of laundry, you should immediately inspect your vent hose or duct, because a dryer with an air leak can cause a lot of problems.

The signs of an air leak are subtle and yet very obvious once you notice them:

Smell. As mentioned, if you can tell from the smell in the air that someone is drying their clothes, you probably have an air leak.