Pulling and cleaning the lint trap of your dryer can be an amazing (and satisfying) experience. Isn’t it amazing how much lint can collect from a single load of laundry? But just think — your lint trap isn’t even catching all of the lint! Over time, the lint not caught by the first line of defense will make its way into your dryer vent, where it will begin to collect and clog your vent.
One of the first questions you may have is, “How often should I clean my dryer vents?” The quick answer: Once a year.
However, even if it hasn’t been a year since the last time you cleaned the dryer vents in your Lawton, Fort Sill, or Duncan, OK home, there are some other signs to look out for that it is time to make the call to your local duct cleaning service (like Pippin Brothers!)
1. Your Dryer Takes Forever to Work or Is Overheating
In general, a laundry dryer will not be able to tell when your clothes are actually dry. Most homeowners simply turn the dial to the 60 minute mark for a full load, walk away, and hope their clothes are dry when the next episode of “Orange is the New Black” is finished.
But if you have found that your clothes are not fully dry after that time and you are needing a second round of drying to get your laundry fully dry, the buildup in your dryer vent could be to blame.
On the flip side of this symptom, if you notice your dryer (and the clothes in your dryer) are uncharacteristically hot — too hot — it could indicate a severely clogged dryer vent that is forcing your dryer to work overtime without proper ventilation.
2. You’re Smelling a Strange Odor
Have you ever been carrying your hamper in to start a load, and wondered, “Why does the laundry room smell so odd?” If your dryer smells funny, or you are noticing an unfamiliar odor, the combination of heat and moisture in the lint buildup of your dryer vent could be causing a musty or burning smell.
Clearing out the dryer vent will allow those odors to escape, and will reduce the risk of mold growth or even fire. Did you know, it is estimated that 34% of the 17,000 clothes dryer fires in the US are attributed to clogged dryer vents? That's 5,780 fires that could be prevented by scheduling a dryer vent cleaning!
3. You’re Seeing Lint and Debris In Odd Places
As we mentioned, the lint screen trap of your dryer should catch the vast majority of the lint coming from your laundry. So if you begin to see little flurries of lint floating around in odd places in your laundry room, your dryer vent could be clogged enough to send that excess lint back into your living space through other holes, leaks and gaps.
Dryer Vent Cleaning with Pippin
Are you experiencing any of these symptoms, and are looking for “dryer repair near me” or wondering who to call to fix your dryer? The problem may be in your dryer vent pipes. Pippin Brothers offers dryer vent cleaning that is included with our duct cleaning and sanitizing service, so you can rest easy that your dryer is operating at peak performance.