Dryer Duct Cleaning

[mrb627]

As I was walking my pups last night, we rounded the back corner of the house as a little bird flew out of my dryer vent and away. I decided that the first thing I would do this evening was clean out the ductwork and replace the vent guard on the exterior of the house.

Here is a photo report of what I found.

Malcolm

 

[mrb627]

Birds Nest

As I pulled the length of duct out of the attic space for cleaning, the first thing to pop out was the birds nest. And a pretty good one at that. Must have been a family of beaver birds damning up the air flow.

Malcolm

 

[mrb627]

Garden Hose

Second, I took the garden hose and began running a jet stream of water through the 4" tube. Here is the resulting lint blob.

Malcolm

 

[mrb627]

Dryer to Attic

Finally, I had to clean the section of duct from the wall behind the dryer up to the 90 degree elbow in the attic. I turned the dryer on air fluff. Then I got up in the attic with a 8 foot piece of brick moulding and rooted around the depth of the duct while loosened lint blew out and circled my head.

Here is the resulting mess in the attic.

Malcolm

 

[wayupnorth]

Ouch

Malcolm, that looks like it could have turned out bad. Good thing you got to it before it got serious. There have been alot of dryer fires lately around here due to that type buildup, but a birds nest, that is unusual. I dont vent my dryer permently outside. I know I should upgrade to a metal hose but never leave the house when it is running. Shorthly after I bought these Maytags I had done a load and was throwing it in the ouside vented dryer when the phone rang. I shut the door and forgot to hit the start button but remembered in the morning and did. I heard this real bad banging, opened the door and because it was below zero the night before, that load froze solid. Now I have built an easy to install, take out board that fits in the window when I am using the dryer and vac everything out once a year. I know this is impractical for those that do mega laundry but never realized how much cold can come back through that vent from the outside but its good you dont have to worry about extreme cold where you are like I do, thankfully its finally spring here and will use the clothesline from now on.

 

[pulltostart]

Malcolm,

I think you earned yourself a Merit Badge today!  Your house isn't that old is it?  When, if ever, did you last clean that ductwork?

 

Lawrence

 

[yogitunes]

Your exact on time for cleaning....I say closer to 2 times a year....or at least check the venting to see if it needs done.......

I have been busy the past month cleaning out and replacing/repairing vents for people......it started with one, to which the lady thought it was time for a new dryer....talked her into letting me look at it first, dryers inside was packed with lint, vent hose was also packed, and the dryer was pushed against the wall and crushed it even more.........all taken care of now, and her dryer runs fine, new one not needed.......

then word of mouth thru her neighbors landed me several jobs, and their relatives.....some haven't been cleaned in years......

this is a great thread Malcolm......should be placed as a reminder for Spring/Fall cleaning of vent lines......for Fire Safety Alone!

 

[sudsmaster]

I use a 4" round dryer duct brush, that comes with about 10" of helical wire lead. It's not long enough to reach from the dryer location to the vent on the outer building wall, so I use a fish tape (like electricians use) to catch a string attached to the brush so I can pull it through.

It is important to have some sort of cap on the outer end of the duct work, so that mice and birds or whatever won't try to use it to make a home or maker your home their home. I use a plastic louvered type: it shows the strength of the dryer flow at a glance.

Be careful of the 90 degree bends. The dryer brush collected a nice clot of lint as far as the final bend in the duct work. But I didn't know it. So I pulled the brush out with some lint and thought the job was done. I fired up the dryer (on air fluff) and noticed the louvers were not opening properly. Sure enough, the bend had allowed the lint clot to escape the pull of the duct brush. I was able to pull the louvers out, and just reach in and grab the lint clot and it kind of blew out with some force. No problem since then!

 

[whirlcool]

You didn't say if you were using a gas or electric dryer.
This definitely was a safety hazard. A number of years ago we lost a really good friend. He was taking a bath and had turned on his gas bathroom heater in which some birds had made a nest in the exhaust pipe. He didn't survive it.

So be careful and inspect your exhaust systems periodically.

 

[blackstone]

Wintertime Problem...

We once went on a service call for a dryer not drying. The dryer was in an unheated basement (in the dead of winter). The length of the vent pipe within the cellar had been completely blocked by ice. That is, the moisture that was supposed to have gone outside never made that far before freezing.

 

[mrb627]

Answers

I use an electric dryer. I had started to notice a longer than usual drying cycle so the thought was in the back of my head that it was time for cleaning.

I do agree, twice a year is best. I have often thought of adding a booster fan in the line to minimize lint collection.

I had a louvered vent cover on the outside of the house. It is 10 feet above ground so it is easy to overlook it. One of the louvers was broken off, not sure how, but I had purchased a replacement for it last summer. Just been too lazy to get out and change it.

My house will be 14 years old next October.

I have two friends that are firemen. They report that 1 out of 2 house fires is due to a clothes dryer lint issue yet the news media doesn't report it much.

I would like to add this cleaning to my daylight savings time routines. But that list is already so long... LOL!

Malcolm

 

[yogitunes]

this reminds me of a fire in town here about a year ago......dryer and vent caught fire......fire dept put it out......the guy plugged it back in when they left, and another fire broke out......then the fire dept took the machine outside and took the axe to it.......this guy just didn't understand, time for a new dryer!....I didn't want to mention he was not from this country.....people are scary!.....

 

[wayupnorth]

You guys are absolutely right about keeping the dryer and vent system cleaned out. My next door neighbor is the fire inspector for the city 9 miles from here. He has told me about some of the horror stories he has seen, some have turned deadly just because some people are either too lazy or stupid to do this very necessary maintance. He actually shut one motel down last year during a routine inspection because of the lint buildup coming right out of the industrial gas dryers bottom and back. He said it was a miracle that whole place was not destroyed.

 

[supersuds]

Thanks for posting this Malcolm! 

 

My mom had been complaining her dryer wasn't working right, but I just chalked it up to the age of the unit.

 

After reading this thread the nickel dropped. It turns out the dryer outlet was almost half-clogged with lint. I haven't even cleaned out the entire Rube Goldberg ductwork and airflow is clearly much better and the dryer is finishing much faster.

 

[whirlcool]

If you don't want to mess with the duct cleaning on your own, or have a very long duct, call a chimney sweep. They have all kinds of mops and things that will run the whole length of the duct work to get it all spotlessly clean! That's what we did.

 

[mistereric]

Funny, I've been working on dryer vents too lately. 

 

First was installation of one for a friends mom who needed replacement machines after flooding.  Then I was having dinner at another friends place and while getting a tour of the basement, I noticed the dryer was on an odd angle and there was a plume of lint on the wall behind it.  The 90° had fallen off the dryer, and the white plastic (ack!) vent was crushed. All new hard stovepipe there.   And then I decided to clean my own line, which was pretty hairy.  

 

[sudsmaster]

There was a 70's GE electric dryer (with matching Filter Flo in Harvest) in this place when I bought it. It was slow, but I attributed that to the fact that it was electric and not gas. I replaced it with a gas dryer (White Westinghouse) that I had brought with me. I started to notice, however, that it seemed slow as well. And the cabinet was heating up.

Around that time I decided to go full frontal and got a Neptune 7500 wahser/dryer set. The first thing the Maytag dryer did was to blow a huge clot of lint out of the dryer duct! Stuff that the weaker GE and WW dryer blowers had failed to eject. Of course after that I got myself a nice dryer brush and have been keeping the duct relatively clean.

Unfortunately along the way I got rid of the GE dryer (thinking it was defective) but I kept the Filter Flo washer.

 

[mrb627]

And then I decided to clean my own line, which was pretty ha

I hate having to clean out my own line! :^P

( Somebody had to say it!!! )

Malcolm

 

[yogitunes]

Malcolm......

ROFLMFAO............

that one was killing me........I just could not go there....and keep a straight face, even while typing.....just walk away!

 

[supersuds]

Chimney sweeps

I called some chimney sweeps today and asked how much it would be to clean a dryer vent.

They wanted $150!

At that price it's gonna be a DIY job.

 

[sudsmaster]

I'd shop around, call some other outfits. Maybe an appliance service center as well.

Last time I had my chimneys inspected swept, it cost $100 for two.

That was about 10 years ago, but still...

 

[whirlcool]

Our chimney sweep cleaned the dryer vent for $25.00 more. He was here cleaning the fireplace and asked about our dryer vent. The total cost for chimney and dryer vent was $125.00.

 

[yogitunes]

Prices vary, and you can save by combining services.....not a bad idea to have all the vents and chimneys serviced, stove hood vents, bathroom vents, powerfans as well....

but I have noticed, if the vent is clogged, or built up.....make sure their taking the dryer apart as well, you know that has to be packed!.....