Dryer Vent Cleaning

Clean your dryer vent!

3/31/2017

It's finally spring and time to think about all those outdoor clean up and maintenance projects. While your are outside, take a minute to look at the dryer vent outlet cover located somewhere on the side of your house. It needs to look nice and clean with freely moveable vent louvers. You don't want it to look like the pictures below.

Dryer vent clog on outside of house. Vent clogged with lint and debris.

Dirty dryer vent on outside of house. This clog is a fire risk and is decreasing the efficiency of the dryer.

View inside dryer duct showing lint accumulation. This is a fire risk.

View inside a dryer duct with lint accumulation. This is a fire risk and needs to be cleaned out.

Dryer vent clogs like the above have two main implications. The first is that they are a fire risk and a pretty significant one at that. From the FEMA website: "2,900 home clothes dryer fires are reported each year and cause an estimated 5 deaths, 100 injuries, and $35 million in property loss." The second implication is that a clogged dryer vent leads to decreased efficiency of the dryer. If it is harder to get the exhaust out, the dryer has to work harder and clothes will take longer to dry.

The fix for this is pretty simple. Remove the lint accumulation from the outside (you may need to remove the cover from the wall to do this). You can usually just brush and pull the lint from the cover but a vacuum with a brush attachment can come in handy for this task. If you notice a large amount of lint within the duct work, there is a brush on a long cable that can be used to help clean the system.

To check that everything is working correctly, put the cover back on the wall and turn the dryer on inside. The flap or louvers on the dryer vent cover should open freely and allow the dryer exhaust to blow out without restriction.

Taking care of your clothes dryer is important for home fire safety. The leading cause of home clothes dryer fires is failure to clean them. An estimated 2,900 home dryer fires happen every year, causing 5 deaths, 100 injuries, and $35 million in property loss. Visit the U.S. Fire Administration's website at https://www.usfa.fema.gov for a few simple safety tips to help you prevent a clothes dryer fire.

Picture from the FEMA website on clothes dryer fire prevention.

8 Comments

Jeff

4/22/2017 09:48:05

Try a leaf blower too, worked well to clear it out. Great article.

Brian link

5/31/2017 22:44:46

Thanks for reading! Good idea on the leaf blower to get the outside of the vent cleaned off.

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Kara

5/31/2017 09:51:04

It's worth mentioning that even with cleaning out the trap each load, you sometimes need to use a vacuum where the lint trap filter sits.

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