Dryer vent fires are now the number 1 cause of all home fires in the United States, surpassing chimney fires. Clothes dryer vents are among those out of sight, out of mind things that you can’t manage to disregard. When you recognize that the lint trap on a dryer (even a brand-new one), just removes or stops 80% of the lint – you can see the significance of cleaning your vent system at least once a year.
Dryer lint is extremely flammable and under the best conditions can cause a clothes dryer fire, frequently spreading through the vent system which in turn spreads the fire quickly throughout your home. As a clothes dryer does its job, about 1/5 a gallon of water is eliminated, lint is trapped by your lint trap, and air is forced through your clothes dryer exhaust system. Throughout time, this excess lint backs up in your clothes dryer and the exhaust or venting system. Air flow is limited, your clothes dryer works harder and the motor gets too hot. With excess lint accumulation, your clothes dryer is now a ripe prospect for a dryer fire.
Clothes Dryer Safety and Inspection Tips
- Make certain your lint trap has no rips and you clean it before each drying cycle. If the lint is wet on your lint trap, it could indicate that it is time to clean your clothes dryer vents. Also, the lint screen must be gently scrubbed each week and cleaned with light dish cleaning soap.
- Visually check your outside vent hood on the side of your house when the clothes dryer is running. Are the flaps moving, can you feel any air flow? If not, it is time to get your dryer exhaust system cleaned up and your dryer inspected.
- Examine around your clothes dryer for lint on the floor. This is an alerting indication that your clothes dryer exhaust system needs to be cleaned.
- If your clothes are taking more than one cycle to dry, this could be an indication that your clothes dryer exhaust system needs to be cleaned immediately.
- Never dry any clothes or rags that have actually been soaked with any flammables. It can trigger an explosive circumstance in your dryer.
Dryer Vent Cleaning Recommendations
There are some items available online that you can utilize to clean your vents such as brushes with rods that can be connected to a high powered drill. The majority of these products are inferior and do a less than satisfying task for dryer vent runs over 10′. It is very important for you to call an expert when doing dryer vent cleaning because of the various scenarios that can and will be come across. Some of these conditions are wrong vent types, loose or detached vents, or vents with too many angles and bends. A dryer vent cleaning professional usually has different kinds of cleaning equipment depending on the circumstance. It is necessary for you to ask the dryer vent expert if they will do on site repairs or upgrades as approximately 50% of the tasks experienced will need something of this nature.
Dryer Vent Repairs
Some of the repair work that may be needed might include: rerunning or altering out the dryer vent exhaust duct, including or changing a vent hood that exits the website of the building, entering into the attic or crawl space to do repair work, cleaning from the top of the roofing system beginning with where the duct exits towards the clothes dryer, and even tearing into the wall or ceiling to fix a vent that has actually come loose. If you aren’t an useful individual that can do all the previously pointed out repair work items, leave it to a dryer vent expert.
Keep in mind, to prevent dryer vent fires in your house, get your clothes dryer exhaust system cleaned up once a year. If you reside in a condominium complex make certain your property supervisor understands the importance of dryer vent upkeep. Apartment owners should also make dryer vent cleaning in their units a top priority.