When was the last time your cleaned your dryer vent?

[kdonnel]

My dryer broke today. With the help of YouTube do it yourself videos the $20 heating element is on its way and due to be delivered tomorrow.

While I had it apart I vacuumed out the inside and took off the vent hose. The hose has a serious case of heart disease and needs to get on a statin, stat!

My dryer vents upward and I have access in the attic to take apart the pipe before it exits the roof. I took it apart and shined a flashlight down. It is also close to 80% blocked. I could reach up and out and clean out the roof exit point but will need to visit Home Depot or get a chimney sweep out for the fixed pipe portion. I guess about 20 feet.

Poor ventilation is probably the cause of my heating element giving out.

Not sure how close I came to a dryer fire but I will make sure to get it cleaned before I fire up the fixed dryer.

 

[Deb & Bill]

When we moved into our new house, we found it took a long time to dry the clothes. Then we had a problem with the dryer so called out a company to check it out. It wasn't salvageable. But in the meantime, he also checked the dryer duct and it was almost 100% blocked. Took a photo with a camera and showed me. It was awful. It was worth it to get it cleaned and dryer loads were quick. But then we got a new roof (hurricane took most of the shingles) and we started getting notifications on the dryer that it was blocked 80%. Called the company back to clean it again and found the roofers forgot the duct vent on the roof and had just roofed over it. Called the roofers back, installed the vent, dryer works great.

We moved to an island that has lots of seasonal renters. The house we bought had been a rental house. Our dryer duct goes to the roof, not to the side like it did in our old home.

 

[Floridaman999]

I have mine vacuumed once a year.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My hose is a straight shot to the outside, so it only ever clogs at the exit points in the flaps. Hit that 2-3 times a year. The lint trap is about an every other week cleaning.

 

[iivye]

I clean the vent insert every other load but I've never vacuumed the inside.

 

[lynxstch]

I clean the lint filter after every load. I vacuum out the inside and the hose going outside, and the little flap every other month. I find that this new dryer is much better at containing the lint in the actual filter than our old one was. But since when it died , we had bought it in 2000, it lasted more than it's lifetime!

 

[SpartanMommy]

When we moved into our house I noticed that the dryer took forever and the clothes had a weird smell. My husband took off the hose and it was was almost completely blocked! He replaced it and we clean it out once a year. It goes straight outside, so it’s really easy to clean. I clean out the insert every time I use the dryer.

 

[superme80]

The day after Christmas. Almost started a fire in my dryer and Hubby had to figure out what was wrong. Cleaned it out and it works great. We have great smoke detectors in our house too!!!!

 

[DisneyHardin]

We recently replaced our dryer vent from the flexible pipe to solid piping and that has helped a lot with ours. We don't really have many turns though - it goes straight up out the back of the dryer and then one 90 degree turn to the wall and outside.

 

[SirDuff]

I miss living a country where dryers have vents...and don't take hours to dry your clothes.

 

[Floridaman999]

I miss living a country where dryers have vents...and don't take hours to dry your clothes.

There's a thread for what you're feeling.

 

[tvguy]

Our LG front loader dryer has a light that comes on when it senses a restriction in the vent. We cleaned the vent when we got that dryer 5 years ago. We started getting a warning light, only to discover if the tube from the dryer to vent tube isn't perfectly aligned, it thinks there is a restriction. Paid a guy $75 from a place that cleans vents to clean it the second time, but he put a camera in the vent first and said there was no blockage.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In the nearly 4 1/2 years we've lived here we've cleaned the actual vent 1 time--but it's probably time to take a look.

The actual lint catcher I clean it out after every single load. My dryer does have a CLEAN FILTER sensor but I was taught growing up to do it after every single load. My husband is not so good at cleaning the lint catcher. He'll take his clothes out of the dryer and leave the lint catcher full of stuff. Oh he likes to say he's pretty good at it, and I guess he would be, but he def. forgets way more often than I do.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The day after Christmas. Almost started a fire in my dryer and Hubby had to figure out what was wrong. Cleaned it out and it works great. We have great smoke detectors in our house too!!!!

Glad to hear all is well though! That's some scary stuff. Dryer fires are something I do think about from time to time.

One time our smoke detectors upstairs went off-it's the kind that is dual carbon monoxide and fire and then at least has an audible FIRE FIRE FIRE warning in conjunction with the noise. I was freaking out, had my husband check the attic access, check all over couldn't find any smoke. He took our air compressor and blew out basically dust and whatnot and it hasn't happened since (we've tested the detectors though so we know they work). We chalked it up to a new house still full of construction debris and settling of dust and whatnot.

 

[kdonnel]

Glad to hear all is well though! That's some scary stuff. Dryer fires are something I do think about from time to time.

One time our smoke detectors upstairs went off-it's the kind that is dual carbon monoxide and fire and then at least has an audible FIRE FIRE FIRE warning in conjunction with the noise. I was freaking out, had my husband check the attic access, check all over couldn't find any smoke. He took our air compressor and blew out basically dust and whatnot and it hasn't happened since (we've tested the detectors though so we know they work). We chalked it up to a new house still full of construction debris and settling of dust and whatnot.

One thing to remember is that smoke detectors have a life span of only 8-10 years. That was not something I knew until a few years ago. Of course replacing wired ones is not as straight forward as you might think. Even though I purchased the same brand the mounting plate to the ceiling had changed and the connector to plug into power had changed as well. While not insurmountable it was a bigger undertaking then I had expected.

 

[Christine]

My husband does it about once a year.

 

[dotfurio]

We have a guy come out once a year.

When we first moved in I had no idea we’d have to clear the dryer vent. In the house I grew up in the vent Was really short and I don’t think it ever got cleaned. Then our dryer quit drying clothes as well. When we did a service on it the vent was mostly blocked!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

One thing to remember is that smoke detectors have a life span of only 8-10 years. That was not something I knew until a few years ago. Of course replacing wired ones is not as straight forward as you might think. Even though I purchased the same brand the mounting plate to the ceiling had changed and the connector to plug into power had changed as well. While not insurmountable it was a bigger undertaking then I had expected.

It's something to keep in mind. At most the detectors are not quite 5 years old at this point though they could be older if the builder bought them long before installing them in our house. They were installed prior to us moving into the house about mid-way through the building process.

But now that I'm thinking about it, is there a way to tell just how old one's smoke detectors are? I honestly don't think I've thought about that .

 

[kdonnel]

But now that I'm thinking about it, is there a way to tell just how old one's smoke detectors are? I honestly don't think I've thought about that .

Yes but you have to pull it off the ceiling or wall. There will be a label with a date telling you the manufacture date and expiration date.

I found out because mine started chirping and changing batteries did not help. When I Googled those symptoms I found out they have a useful life before they need to be replaced.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes but you have to pull it off the ceiling or wall. There will be a label with a date telling you the manufacture date and expiration date.

I found out because mine started chirping and changing batteries did not help. When I Googled those symptoms I found out they have a useful life before they need to be replaced.

Well good to know, thanks! I'm thinking we should probably do a checking, just to be aware, here pretty soon.