How To Clean Dryer Vent (Yes You’ve Been Doing It Wrong This Whole Time!)

Your dryer vent is the essential mechanism that helps maintain proper air flow and circulation inside and outside the machine. When your dryer is running, air is drawn inside and heated by the electricity circulating through the machine. This air is pulled through your clothes, out through a fan, and into your dryer vent. The dryer vent then transmits the air outside.

If your dryer did not have a vent, the moisture and hot air being produced by the machine would enter your home. This would certainly cause unpleasant results like mold, rot, and skyrocketing electricity bills.

Well, the very same thing could happen if your dryer vent is not properly maintained and suffers a clog, inhibiting the proper transmission of airflow back outside. Therefore, it is essential to learn how to clean dryer vents thoroughly.

Before you learn how to clean dryer vent, you need to understand how this mechanism works. Your dryer vent is connected to a vent hood, situated at the back of the machine.

Most of the time, the vent tubing is manufactured from aluminum materials. In the past, these tubes were made from vinyl or plastic, but these posed frequent fire hazards and other issues so few homes use them now.

The vent tubing runs from your dryer, beneath the floor in a small cove or in the wall, and to your attic where it releases outside. Tubing elbows made from aluminum and foil tape connect the tubing together.

The vent tubing has a cover at the end of it to inhibit moisture and heat from rising to your roof or deteriorating one of your walls outside. The vent cover also serves to transmit this moisture and heat in multiple directions once it reaches the outdoors.

One of the first issues that will occur if you do not learn how to clean dryer vents is that your dryer will not run efficiently. When the vent is not cleared out regularly, it will begin to clog. The dryer can only process so much lint, so buildup is inevitable.

Lint buildup is guaranteed to inhibit air flow in the vent which will affect the overall performance of your dryer. When air is not circulating properly, your dryer has to work ten times harder to run a cycle. This not only means that your dryer will take much longer to finish a load, but the strenuous performance will greatly reduce the longevity of the machine over time.

If you notice that your clothes are taking too long to dry, such as two or three cycles, it is time to learn how to clean dryer vents. Additionally, if your clothes have taken on an unwelcome burning odor, this is a clear signal that the vent is not transmitting the hot air properly and it is being trapped inside.

Another key sign that you need to learn how to clean dryer vents is if your laundry room is very hot whenever you run the machine. If the dryer vent is clogged, making it impossible for hot air to process effectively, the area around your dryer could start to feel very warm.

If you do not clean your dryer vent and it becomes clogged, this will have a direct effect on your electric bill. For instance, in the summer, extra heat flowing through your house from an overheated dryer will make your air conditioner have to work overtime.

What is more, when your dryer takes multiple cycles to finish a load because the clogged vent is inhibiting its normal function, it will use more electricity in the process. If you want to save money on your utility bills each month, the time to learn how to clean dryer vents is now.

Besides decreased efficiency and the potential for skyrocketing electric bills, a clogged dryer vent poses some distinct hazards to your home. For one thing, when lint builds up in the dryer vent, the risk of a fire starting is very high.

Lint is extremely flammable, so the combination of too much of it and the excess heat buildup caused by the clog creates a perfect storm for a fire to start. Furthermore, if your dryer vent has too much lint buildup, it will trap hazardous carbon monoxide gases.

As a result, the carbon monoxide gathers inside the vent and can quite easily escape into your laundry room and other rooms in your home. Learning how to clean dryer vents the right way is an easy solution to avoid these potential hazards while increasing the efficiency and longevity of your dryer.

The first thing you need to know when learning how to clean dryer vents is how often you should clean them out. This partially depends on how frequently you run the machine and how many loads you typically run.

At a minimum, you should check and clean your dry vent once a year. However, if you have a large family and do significant loads all the time, cleaning the dryer vent several times a year is your best bet.

The easiest way to know when it is time to clean your dryer vent is when your clothes are taking too long to finish drying. For example, if you put in a load of towels and it takes 2 or 3 cycles to dry them completely, the time has come to clean out the vent.

Likewise, if your laundry room is feeling hotter than normal, this is a key sign that heat is building up from a clogged vent. Whenever this happens, disconnect your dryer and clean out the vent immediately.

The first step when learning how to clean dryer vents is to take a look at the vent opening outside and check for any items that could block it. Animals have a tendency to build their nests in the outside vent openings. You want to be sure and clean these out thoroughly so air can flow outside properly when the dryer is running.

If the outside opening to your vent is situated at ground level, you will easily find rodent nests built by small creatures like rats, squirrels, or chipmunks. Outside vent openings sitting higher up are usually a perfect nesting spot for birds.

Once you have inspected and cleared the outside vent opening, the next step in learning how to clean dryer vents is removing lint buildup. You have a few different options to accomplish this.

You can use a brush and wand to clear the lint if you so desire, or an air compressor to blow the lint out of the vent. Another excellent option is to take your vacuum cleaner and brush attachment to suck the lint out.

If you use a vacuum, be sure to check that the hose is long enough to reach inside and clear out the lint from the full length of the vent. Once you have used either your brush and wand, compressor, or vacuum hose, you need to check behind the dryer.

Lint has a tendency to build up in areas behind the dryer like the floor, beneath the machine, and at the rear of the cabinet. The reason for this is simple. When air is transmitting into your dyer, it originates from behind the dryer.

If any of the areas behind the dryer have lint buildup, this will go into the dryer and block your vent even more. So, to be safe, when learning how to clean dryer vents, take an extra few moments and clean behind the dryer too.