Frequent readers here know I like to hang my laundry outside to dry. But this fall has been one of the consistently coldest I can remember in my town, and between too-cold-to-hang temperatures and a busy schedule, I’ve been using the gas clothes dryer, which necessitates some maintenance.
My dryer is an inexpensive model, but when it recently began taking three or four cycles to dry a load of jeans, I knew something was wrong. Finally, it struck me that I needed to clean out the dryer vent.
After every load, I clean out the lint screen (the panel inside the dryer door that fills with lint — I pull it out, scrape off the lint and discard or compost it). But it had been a long time since I visited my outside dryer vent.
Some exterior vents have a panel that closes to save energy. Others, like ours, have a grid to make sure mice or squirrels don’t squirm inside to nest in the cozy dryer. When I pulled off that grid, it was covered with a layer of lint nearly a centimeter thick!
Needless to say, when I took off the lint, the dryer worked much better. Cleaning out the lint is a good idea for several reasons:
- It allows the dryer to work more efficiently by increasing airflow.
- It saves energy by shortening drying times.
- It reduces the fire hazard of accumulated lint.
- It reduces wear and tear on your clothes (also saving money) by shortening drying time.
While I was at it, I took off the dryer duct and vacuumed it out. Some manufacturers make kits to clean out dryer ducts, but I’ve never tried one. If you look at your own venting and see any problems, a checklist like this one can help resolve them.
Don’t wait all year to clean out the lint, either. I’ve cleaned mine out twice this fall, and after that first startling observation, I resolved to do it frequently — at least every week or two when I do laundry — to be sure we stay safe and as energy-efficient as possible.
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[...] Save Energy by Cleaning Your Dryer Vent – Cheap Like Me. I hadn’t even thought of this. Now how to get my vacuum cleaner outside? [...]
Friday Links – 1/1/09 « Pragmatic Environmentalism added these pithy words on Jan 01 10 at 12:26 pmHuh… For a while I was drawn in by those “As Seen On TV” dryer-lint-cleaning-kits that you find at
Bed, Bathone of those big kitchen-n-bath stores. I had visions of being Mrs. Happy Homemaker singing as I lifted the lint in large swaths from the various dryer orifices, but… well… yeah. It was a brief-lived fantasy.But as usual you make a good point: cleaning out all the lint (not just on the dryer’s lint screen) could lessen the amount of dryer time, and cost, and oh yeah, fire hazard. So okay fine, I’m adding “check outside dryer vent orifice” to my weekend to-do.
BTW, I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one taking refuge in the machine dryer. I’ve been all about the outside line for at least a year, but the retractable line hasn’t seen the light of day even once in the last several months.
L'an added these pithy words on
Dec 18 09 at
9:09 pm
