All clothing dryers have various filter styles to capture the lint created when laundry tumbles inside the dryer but the filters can’t catch all the lint. A certain amount of lint inevitably goes into the ductwork leading to the outside vents, so proper dryer vent cleaning is important.
Not taking care of your dryer poses some issues, beginning with longer drying periods, which may contribute to shrunken clothes and fabrics that are ruined by the sun. It may also drive up the utility bills, as the dryer is one of the home’s most energy-intensive devices.
Does your washing take longer to air out? Will you be running the same load twice? After each use is the top of your dryer hot to the touch? The perpetrator may be clogged ductwork, rather than a defective dryer.
The removable dryer lint filter catches most of the lint as it traverses a laundry load. But, along the dryer duct, pieces of lint can sneak past the filter and get stuck in cracks. Airflow becomes hampered when there is an accumulation of lint, which can contribute to overheating. If the air inside the duct becomes too hot, it may spark the lint and start a dryer fire.
Another sign of poor dryer maintenance: automated cycles of your dryer may begin to be less reliable, resulting in a laundry that is either damp or dried to a crisp. In your dryer, the discarded lint trap certainly can not absorb all the lint that is extracted from clothing.
To properly clean the airflow system of your dryer, you will first learn where it is, and where it ends. A thin 4-inch diameter exhaust sits in the back of most dryer systems. This exhaust attaches through an aluminum elbow or another tubing to designated ductwork inside the wall. Hot air travels along these metal pipes and inevitably emerges through an opening on your house’s exterior wall.
Unplug the dryer’s power cord, and shut off the Dryer’s gas valve (for air dryers). Disconnect the duct joint next to the dryer, and then gently detach the dryer from the wall. Existing exposed portions of the dryer duct are hidden. Clicking in the lines will remove the tape and erase it. This should happen whenever you’re using the dryer. Not every week, or so often — every time. If you allow too much lint to build upon the screen, heated dryer air will not move freely through the machine.
Homeowners using dryers running on natural gas must be more careful. Be sure that you will not interrupt the gas line of the dryer too much as you decide to reposition the unit.
Even if you’re vigilant in emptying the lint pad, tiny fibers get into your dryer vent through the mesh. Left unchecked, this lint could gradually accumulate, to the point where an errant spark may contribute to a serious conflagration within the dryer vent. That is why dryer vent cleaning is vital every few months or so is important, based on how often you use the dryer and the types of laundry.
Insert the vent brush into the ductwork and spin it in the counter-clockwise direction while pushing the brush down the dryer ducts as far as possible. To enter the other end of the pipe, attach another section from your brush package if you need more space. The brush will remove lint which has been trapped alongside the ductwork.
If you do not have a dryer vent brush kit, a long-handled scrub brush may be used to clean short sections of the narrow duct. Although the brush has a limited reach, you can scrub from both ends to clean every portion of the duct.
The amount of junk that littered the floor of the laundry room brought my vacuum upright to its knees. A flexible, fixed, 90-degree elbow at the dryer’s intake end is better used. When the dryer is forced back into place, versatile ducts may kink, allowing exhaust flow to become a significant obstacle.
Page BreakTurn on the gas valve (for gas dryers), and plug in the dryer once the ductwork is in good shape. Move the dryer back into its normal position, making sure that this behavior does not kink any of the ductwork or distort it. Verify that the lint panel is in place. Push the dryer, and ensure it’s full venting.
You may easily vent inside an electric dryer but it can contribute to too much humidity in location and mold. But, because of carbon monoxide build-up and the same issues with electric dryer with dust, you should never vent a gas dryer indoors.
If the dryer is not vented outside the home, then all that moisture is added inside. This can encourage the growth of mold and mildew and allow the accumulation of condensation on your walls. In extreme cases, excess moisture may cause rotting of the wood in your home.
Consider using a soft foil-style vent that attaches to the wall pipe while hooking your dryer back up, as these are a recognized fire hazard. Some building codes ban these and other flexible plastic cylinders. Go instead with an adjustable, stiff, 90-degree elbow at the dryer’s exhaust end.
Conclusion and Final Check
No doubt it does. Dryer vent cleaning is surely a hectic yet dirty job. If you don’t clean your lint filter and dryer vent regularly, a lack of routine maintenance could put your home at risk for a fire.