topic Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning in Home

Dryer Vent Cleaning

flickerbulb — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 15:58:27 GMT

Well, I had the plumber here this morning and he installed my fancy new toilet! I had to special order it because it is not the standard distance.

I then had the a/c guy here doing a maintenance check on my system. While I had everything pulled out, I thought I would call a vent cleaning company to clean my dryer vent.

It has been taking longer to dry and I can only imagine the junk that will come out of there. I have never had it done before, so it will be scary.

After this, this is one of the last maintenance tasks before I return to work.

At least everything will be done and I can chill!

Anyone else get their vents cleaned? I seem to recall a topic on this not too long ago.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

Mominohio — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:07:25 GMT

We do our own dryer vent as it is just as simple as taking the hose off the dryer, take it outside and clean it out good. the vent cover thing on the house is simple enough to put a brush inside and get out and debris as well.

My mom, on the other hand, has her dryer vent system running under the floor and out the back of the house. She is getting little heat and drying time is slow, with no air coming out the vent to the outside, so I know there is something up there that needs to be addressed. It is such a pain to move her dryer and I'm not sure what we are going to be in for, but we need to get on it, for sure.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

DrKelli — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:09:24 GMT

Yes! A couple of years ago, my dryer was stopping 20 minutes after I started the cycle and I would have to run 2-3 cycles just to get clothes dry. A dryer repair guy came out and cleaned out the vent as best he could--I actually would pull my dryer away from the wall a couple times a year, so I thought it was pretty clean, but then he told me it was about 100% clogged and that I had to get a specialty company to come out. I scheduled that and they verified it was almost completely blocked. He had to clean it from the top down and the first thing he pulled out was a huge bird's nest, along with 8 years of dryer lint. My dryer works A LOT better now. It's time to do it again.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

RedTop — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:21:58 GMT

We pull our dryer out and clean the vent yearly.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

ChynnaBlue — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:23:20 GMT

@DrKelli wrote:
Yes! A couple of years ago, my dryer was stopping 20 minutes after I started the cycle and I would have to run 2-3 cycles just to get clothes dry. A dryer repair guy came out and cleaned out the vent as best he could--I actually would pull my dryer away from the wall a couple times a year, so I thought it was pretty clean, but then he told me it was about 100% clogged and that I had to get a specialty company to come out. I scheduled that and they verified it was almost completely blocked. He had to clean it from the top down and the first thing he pulled out was a huge bird's nest, along with 8 years of dryer lint. My dryer works A LOT better now. It's time to do it again.

Wow, you are so lucky it did not start a fire!

When I moved to my new apartment two years ago, I took my washer and dryer with me. I noticed immediately that the dryer was taking 3 times as long to dry as it did before the move. I had cleaned out the vents in the new place before I moved in, bought a new hose, and cleaned the dryer before the install. I reconnected the dryer a few times to reposition the hose, all to no avail. I checked outside and there were many vents on the outside of the building. I couldn't be 100% sure which one was mine, but I did see that one vent had a bird's nest sticking out. I took a photo and sent it to maintenance and they took care of it. After that, my own dryer worked much better, so either it was my vent or maintenance cleaned out all the vents after that.

The vent is 2 stories up, so I can't really check it, but now I do at least look up at the vents to see if there's anything strange sticking out that needs removing. I also have a new dryer now and it's more effective than my 18 year old dryer was. But I'm really glad the difference was so noticeable that I got someone to check it immediately and that my new apartment didn't burn down because the vent was jammed.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

kelsey17 — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:29:22 GMT

Yes....when we first moved in here we had the dryer vent guy come in an clear out the vent (through the wall to ceiling................he said he got a bunch of lint out...and recommended that it be done every 3 years....

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

Nightowlz — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:38:26 GMT

At least you have all those things done & won't have to worry about them.

DH keeps our dryer vent clean or anything else that needs done. We don't pay people to do things we can do. Never had an AC maintenance check done on our system. DH cleans the unit outside every spring.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

DrKelli — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:38:34 GMT

Absolutely right! My dryer is on the second floor, but the vent is on top of the roof, so it is a long way for lint to travel. That's why I have it on my schedule to do every 2 years.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

SilleeMee — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 17:02:25 GMT

I live alone so there is no way I could clean my vent by myself.

My house is a split-level and the dryer is down at the garden-level basement. The exhaust goes up and out, just below the floor upstairs, and runs about 16 feet before it reaches the outdoor vent.

I usually hire a local person from Groupon which usually costs me around $50 to clean.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

flickerbulb — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 20:05:15 GMT

Well, it is a good thing I had the dryer vent cleaned. The vent is on the roof and there is no way I am climbing on the roof to inspect the vent.

He checked the wind speed and temperature before and after and there was a significant improvement.

I cleaned out the dryer myself one year ago and replaced the hose. He opened up the dryer and it was literally full of lint!

There was a big hunk of lint right on or near the heating element with burn marks!

He took off the hose I used which is a flexible dryer hose from HD. He replaced it with a solid metal hose and attachment that looks nothing like what I have seen for sale in the stores. It is made to contain fire unlike the one I had.

It is nice and hot and clean! I cleaned the ****** that was under the dryer from soap or fabric softener.

He said I should have it done in two years. That is OK with me! I am glad I had this done. He used a drill attachment thing that made all of the lint in the length of the vent fly all over the roof. Wow!

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

flickerbulb — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 20:03:44 GMT

I have a new a/c system and it came with a maintenance agreement.

The a/c units in S FL take a beating and really need to be looked at professionally to keep them running properly.

They get so clogged up from removing the humidity all the time that they need to get the pipes flushed out. It gets really gunky and the system will shut down,

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

giddy up — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:10:18 GMT

My vent to the outside is about 10 feet long. It runs from the dryer in the basement up the basement wall then out. So on the outside it is about 7 feet off the ground...not too bad. Anyhow I bought a gizmo from Amazon that is sort of like a roto-rooter thing that attaches to my battery operated drill. It has about 12 feet of attachment which is all I need. I turn the dryer on air then clean with the gizmo from the outside. I also clean underneath the cabinet, removing a panel so I can clean around the squirrel cage fan and nearby parts. Luckily there is a lower access panel on the bottom front of my dryer which helps with that too. So basically I do this 2 or 3 times a year. My dryer runs full force with this relatively easy maintenance.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

SilleeMee — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:24:54 GMT

@giddy up,

I'm really glad to have read your post. I'm really interested in this gizmo you wrote about. It's on amazon...what is it called and how much does it cost?

Thanks

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

giddy up — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:32:59 GMT

@SilleeMee wrote:
@giddy up,
I'm really glad to have read your post. I'm really interested in this gizmo you wrote about. It's on amazon...what is it called and how much does it cost?
Thanks

It's the Gardus RLE202 LintEater 10 piece rotary vent cleaning system. It cost about $30.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

flickerbulb — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:47:41 GMT

BEWARE:

If you buy the kit from Amazon, you MUST use a leaf blower or something similar to blow the lint out. If you use the device, you loosen up the lint but don't remove it.

Just using the drill attachment brush is not enough. Read some of the reviews on Amazon.

The guy I hired had those type of attachments and he then blew the lint out through the roof vent.

He then checked the air going though with a measurement device to make sure it was all clear.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

SilleeMee — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:56:22 GMT

@giddy up, Thank you!

@flickerbulb,

I thought about that problem, too. Seems the lint would just get loose and not get removed unless it was forced out by some kind of blasted air.

I think I will stick with paying my guy $50 to do the job every couple of years. It's just me here so my dryer really doesn't get used very much.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

flickerbulb — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 01:00:19 GMT

@SilleeMee

That is a bargain! This guy charges around $150 to clean the vents!

He told me to do it every two years because I have dogs.

He said one person with no pets can have it done every three years.

Sometimes, paying someone to do the dirty work is more than worth it!

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

giddy up — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 01:07:21 GMT

@SilleeMee wrote:
@giddy up, Thank you!

@flickerbulb,
I thought about that problem, too. Seems the lint would just get loose and not get removed unless it was forced out by some kind of blasted air.

I think I will stick with paying my guy $50 to do the job every couple of years. It's just me here so my dryer really doesn't get used very much.

I turn the dryer ON, set to no heat, then do the rotary brush from the outside. It blows out whatever I stir up, which isn't much usually since I do it frequently enough. I haven't needed to do the leaf blower thing.

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

HiLo — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 17:40:10 GMT

What type of repairman do I use for this work?

Re: Dryer Vent Cleaning

flickerbulb — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 18:43:17 GMT

@HiLo

I Googled "Dryer Vent cleaning" in my area and two or three listings showed up.

It seems to be a specialty as these guys only do dryer vent cleaning.

The guy I called took the dryer apart and vacuumed inside and replaced the hose.