"RoseGarden" - - - - - - - from - nscave

Despite the high cost of electricity, most of us still find the occasion to use a clothes dryer from time to time. When did you clean yours last? No, not the inside, or the top, the vent pipe?

I knew they should be checked once in awhile, but never paid much attention really. The one in the picture probably wasn't cleaned in nearly twenty years. A little research on the net will tell you every dryer should be taken apart and cleaned twice a year. I thought once a year or even every couple of years was good enough. But it is one of those jobs you never seem to get to.

Take a look at the pictures. Not only can it ruin the dryer by shortening its life span from over heating, just imagine how close this would be to causing a fire. That stuff would burn explosively.

Here is the back channel taken off the dryer. The top opening is the intake from the dryer's drum area where the air passes after it has gone past the lint filter.

The bottom hole is where the fan in the next picture sucks the hot air through the channel and expels it out the vent pipe. You can see the lower area is completely plugged except for a small section at the top.

The fan is pretty well gunked up as well. It had to be scraped off to get it clean, and then washed very thoroughly.

It took a lot of effort to turn the fan there was so much stuff around it. After cleaning it rotated very smoothly. It is a wonder the fan didn't seize up entirely.  Finally the vent pipe which was about eight feet long that went from the basement floor to the ceiling where it connected with the outside outlet.

You can tell there wasn't much air flow through the pipe and that the fire hazard was extreme. That is my reason for posting this, check yours. It might prevent a disaster at your place. I am lucky I got mine in time.

There are various comments around the internet that  advise using those fancy dryer sheets that make you clothes soft and smell good are not a good idea. Apparently they leave a residue that clogs the filter and prevents proper air flow. A way to test it is to pour water on the filter, which is a screen. If you have been using those sheet, it will hold water just like a bucket. Takes a good washing to get it clean again.

So do me a favour, check your dryer. It's a pain in the butt, but is pretty easy to take apart and assemble again. So do it - today!

-=One Day At A Time=-

This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License