Do-It-Yourself: Dryer Vent Maintenance

Keep Your Dryer Working Safely and Efficiently

A clothes dryer is a hard-working appliance in your home. You don't think about it, but it dries load after load of laundry, day after day. Ideally, you should have your clothes dryer inspected and serviced by a certified professional once a year. He can make sure that the dryer vent is properly installed. He can also make sure the vent is clean and free from lint. He can also check the actual appliance to ensure that it's operating properly. The remainder of the year, you should do-it-yourself. Here's what you need to know about dryer vent maintenance.

It used to be, that clothes washers and dryers were installed in the basement of a home. The dryer vent only had a short distance to be run outside through the basement wall. Nowadays, however, laundry rooms are usually located on the main floor of a home. The laundry rooms are often located in the middle of the house. This means that the dryer vent needs to be run a longer distance. Oftentimes, there are bends and curves in the vent pipe. The longer distance, along with the
meanders, allows dryer lint to become trapped inside the vent pipe.

The least the built-up lint can do, is to cause your clothes dryer to run longer by reducing the airflow through the vent. Since lint is a highly flammable substance, the worst problem is, that a fire can easily start. This is especially true with a natural gas clothes dryer. And, with a natural gas clothes dryer, a build-up of lint can also prohibit dangerous carbon monoxide from escaping to the outdoors. The carbon monoxide can back up into your home instead. These are the three main reasons why you need to perform dryer vent maintenance on a regular basis.