Dryer Vent Cleaning
Dryer vent cleaning improves the safety and efficiency of your dryer installation. As dryer vents become filled with lint and other debris, drying time increases and can cause the dryer itself to overheat. This increases energy consumption since the dryer has to run longer to dry your clothes and can also cause fires in the dryer or the dryer duct. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports dryer related home fires are on the increase.
Dryer Venting Problems
How do I know when to have my dryer vents cleaned?
Dryer Manufacturers, Fire Departments, Insurance Companies, and The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission agree that annual maintenance is important. Even with new construction, it is important to have the dryer vent system inspected by a professional. The better a dryer vent blows, the less lint builds up in it. Short vents blow better than long ones. Full size dryers blow better than smaller stack dryers or older dryers. Vents with a lot of turns and elbows blow worse and build up more lint. Very short vents attached to full size dryers may never need cleaning! Most vents, however, need cleaning every two to three years, depending on the factors above.
What are the warning signs? These are warning signs to let you know that there may be a potential fire hazard:
Dryer Vent Mistakes
Why Dryer Fires Occur
Lint accumulation and reduced airflow feed on each other to provide conditions ripe for a fire. Lint is a highly combustible material, which, interestingly enough, is one of the ingredients in a recipe for home-made fire starters. A number of dryer vent problems contribute to this.
Traditionally, most clothes dryers were in the basement. However, nowadays many newer homes tend to have dryers located away from an outside wall in bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and hall closets. These new locations mean dryers tend to be vented longer distances and vents are generally installed with sharp turns and bends to accommodate the structure of the home. As a result, dryer vents are harder to reach, and also create more places for lint to gather. The ideal solution is to have short, straight, dryer duct venting. However, a dryer vent booster, while not the ideal approach, can improve your dryer venting in cases where your venting is longer and/or has more bends than it should. In addition to creating a fire hazard, if the venting is too long and/or has two many bends, it will cause your dryer to take much longer than necessary to dry loads.
Your Dryer May be Failing If:
Dryer vent cleaning improves the safety and efficiency of your dryer installation. As dryer vents become filled with lint and other debris, drying time increases and can cause the dryer itself to overheat. This increases energy consumption since the dryer has to run longer to dry your clothes and can also cause fires in the dryer or the dryer duct. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports dryer related home fires are on the increase.
Dryer Venting Problems
- Bird nests
- Too long
- Too many turns
- Plugged screen
- Plugged dryer
- Plugged with lint
- Plastic venting
- Flaps painted shut
- Crushed bind dryer
- Damaged or loose venting
How do I know when to have my dryer vents cleaned?
Dryer Manufacturers, Fire Departments, Insurance Companies, and The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission agree that annual maintenance is important. Even with new construction, it is important to have the dryer vent system inspected by a professional. The better a dryer vent blows, the less lint builds up in it. Short vents blow better than long ones. Full size dryers blow better than smaller stack dryers or older dryers. Vents with a lot of turns and elbows blow worse and build up more lint. Very short vents attached to full size dryers may never need cleaning! Most vents, however, need cleaning every two to three years, depending on the factors above.
What are the warning signs? These are warning signs to let you know that there may be a potential fire hazard:
- Clothes, especially towels or jeans, take a long time to dry.
- If your clothing is still damp at the end of a normal drying cycle or requires longer dryer times, then you may have a fire hazard in and around your clothes dryer.
- Clothes are hotter than usual at the end of the drying cycle.
- The flapper on the vent hood doesn't open when the dryer is on.
Dryer Vent Mistakes
- If the dryer vent has many bends or dryer vents that are too long do not use a duct booster as it would result to lint build-up. Shorter and straighter the duct, better for dryer vents.
- Using flammable, foil duct extenders, and flimsy plastic is wrong. Metal vents are the ones that should be used, most manufacturers specify this. As metal vents resist crushing, it allows lint and air to be carried out of the system. Build-up caused by reduced airflow may be the source of overheating and it wears out the appliance faster.
- Clearance space is inadequate between the wall and the dryer. Most owners tend to put the dryer right against the wall, thus, crushing the venting material. Reduced airflow and the build-up of lint result in the cumulative effect of the dryer to prevent it from drying in a normal speed. Because of this, the safety switch for high temperature limit cycle would go on and off to control the heater. Other high temperature limit safety switches were not designed to go on and off continuously, so they fail over a period of time.
- The failure to clean the dryer duct.
Why Dryer Fires Occur
Lint accumulation and reduced airflow feed on each other to provide conditions ripe for a fire. Lint is a highly combustible material, which, interestingly enough, is one of the ingredients in a recipe for home-made fire starters. A number of dryer vent problems contribute to this.
Traditionally, most clothes dryers were in the basement. However, nowadays many newer homes tend to have dryers located away from an outside wall in bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and hall closets. These new locations mean dryers tend to be vented longer distances and vents are generally installed with sharp turns and bends to accommodate the structure of the home. As a result, dryer vents are harder to reach, and also create more places for lint to gather. The ideal solution is to have short, straight, dryer duct venting. However, a dryer vent booster, while not the ideal approach, can improve your dryer venting in cases where your venting is longer and/or has more bends than it should. In addition to creating a fire hazard, if the venting is too long and/or has two many bends, it will cause your dryer to take much longer than necessary to dry loads.
Your Dryer May be Failing If:
- The clothes are taking an inordinately long period of time to dry, come out hotter than usual or if the vent hood flapper doesn't open. Maintenance is needed in these cases.
- Only You Can Prevent Clothes Dryer Fires
- Proper Installation & Choice of Building Materials
- Make sure the dryer duct is made of solid metallic material. Both vinyl and foil are combustible and spiral-wound surfaces tend to catch lint more readily.
- The dryer duct should vent to the exterior and in no case should it vent to the attic or crawlspace. Avoid the use of inside heat recovery diverter valves or termination boxes, which do not comply with current standards.
- Avoid kinking or crushing the dryer duct to make up for installation in tight quarters -this further restricts airflow. If you really want to save the extra space, the Dryerbox is a new invention that allows the dryer to be safely installed against the wall.
- Minimize the length of the exhaust duct (maximum recommended lengths depend on a number of factors, such as number of bends, and vary by model-check with your manufacturer for their specifications). If this is not possible, you can install a dryer duct booster.
- If at all possible, use 4-inch diameter vent pipe and exterior exhaust hoods that have openings of sixteen square inches or more, which offer the least resistance to air flow.
- Don't use screws to put your vent pipe together - the screw shafts inside the piping collect lint and cause additional friction.
