Public Service Announcement: Bag o'lint

This Old House stuff here today.

A few posts back, I wrote about replacing my clothes dryer, because the old one just wasn't drying the clothes on the automatic sensor cycle anymore. I got a new (to me) used dryer on Dallas Craigslist only to discover it had the same problem....

Hmmmmmmmm...

I don't believe in coincidences, and neither does Kath, who's living with me. So today, Kath went up on the roof to check out the condition of the dryer vent pipe. On my house, that pipe is about 4" in diameter and maybe 15' feet long. That's right, 15 feet, and Kath found that pipe stuffed, chock-a-block full, with at least 23 years worth of lint. I know it's at least 23 years worth, because that's how long I've lived in this house, and although I've been up on the roof a number of times over the years to attend to various home maintenance chores, I've never cleaned the dryer vent pipe, nor have I ever hired anyone to do it. Kath pointed out there was probably lint from Mike and Chris' baby blankets in that pipe, and Mike and Chris are now 21...

At the very least, a blocked ventpipe will cost you money, because it'll cause your dryer to run longer, by reducing the airflow through the vent. This is what was happening with my new, used dryer, and may well have been the problem with the dryer I replaced. But blocked ventpipes can do things much worse than causing a dryer to become inefficient. With natural gas clothes dryers, the build-up of lint can keep carbon monoxide from escaping, causing it to back up inside your house instead, and that can be fatal. Also, blocked ventpipes can, and do, cause dryer fires.

Your eyes may be glazing over by now, but bear with me. There are now more clothes dryer fires each year than chimney fires. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that in 1998 (the most recent year for which I was able to find stats on this rather grim topic) clothes dryers were involved in over 15,000 fires that resulted in 20 deaths and almost 400 injuries.

On the roof, Kath poked a long metal rod into the pipe to loosen the lint, pulling out as much as she could. Then, back in the house, she reattached the dryer vent hose to the pipe, turned on the dryer, and blew out as much lint as possible. She repeated this process until she could see the bottom of the pipe from the roof. The bag full of lint in the photo is just a small part of what was in the pipe.

Soooooooo...go clean your dryer vent pipes, or hire someone to do it. Housefires are things best avoided (this I know, from firsthand experience). And oh yeah...for what it's worth...my new, used dryer now works BEAUTIFULLY.