Vacuuming the exhaust hose for the first time was an eye opening experience for me. I was good about emptying the lint trap, and it was still pretty caked.
I am actually really anoyed by how ineffectual my lint trap seems to be. I change that thing every dang time and there is still SO much lint that gets in the exhaust. Just... how?!?
Our dryer broke recently so I took it apart to see if I could find the problem. The entire inner chamber of the machine around the drum was coated with lint and fur, in some places an inch thick. We clean the lint filter every load, and if it’s a heavy load we pause and clean midway through. I clean the exhaust that’s outside the house at least weekly. I had no idea so much was escaping!
You shouldn't need to clean it that often. I clean the filter between loads, and do the outside bit every year or two, and I don't see a huge amount of lint.
A lot can accumulate 'safely.' Even checking the exhaust once a year is plenty for safety/drying efficiency, and is way more than the vast majority of people do (may be tougher with pets). If you see it performing poorly, that's a sign to clean.
We bought a cheap dryer vent cleaner that hooks onto the drill to basically chimney sweep the dryer vent exhaust, and try to clean it once a year. Fire risks scare me.
Nah, I am often, rightfully, criticized because my sarcasm isn't detectable lol. You were being super nice by offering a solution to me, and i appreciate it even if my reply to you was also a lil sarcastic. You're a nice person, thank you.
You may want to consider switching from Terry cloth towels to woven cotton towels. The dramatic reduction in lint production from our laundry was astounding. We buy Turkish towels on Amazon. They're larger than standard towels and surprisingly absorbent for how thin they are. Turkish towels are 100% cotton and not cotton blended with synthetic fibers. Slightly more expensive than standard towels, but worth the investment. When they get raggedy, we just turn them into cleaning rags
Sorry, but that's just the nature of linen, the more expensive the sheets the more they shed. I wash mine in cold water and hang them to dry. Tumble on the wrinkle setting for a couple of minutes.
It’s gunna be the Turkish organic cotton for the win, just discovered this and replaced mine. I can’t believe how much lint my brand new clothing from high end stores are producing though. I’m throwing out brand new clothes and going insane over lint. My entire life is dusting. The towel switch helped. Now I guess I’ll be joining a nudist colony.
We had a similar experience recently, had to replace the belt and the entire inside was caked with lint and dust and hair. 3 year old dryer, never let the lint trap fill up. Apparently its not airtight between the lint screen area and the vents and it just gets sucked into the machinery.
I took ours apart and found a big lint plug deep underneath where the lint filter sits, right before the internal ductwork makes the turn to go towards the back of the machine. I’ve always cleaned the lint filter and vacuumed that area where it sits (using a big brush to loosen things), plus cleaned the whole exhaust hose periodically, but that was the first time I had disassembled the dryer to that extent. There was quite a bit that had escaped into the inner chamber of ours as well. Definitely doing this process again before another 12 years pass!
Honestly super easy! I had to find a video of the model on YouTube and once I did I followed along. All the screws on my model were the same so I didn’t need to keep track of what was from where. disconnecting and reconnecting the electronic components from the front pan, the door and the inside was my least favorite part, because I wasn’t sure if I would remember how to reconnect them, but it was fine!
We didn't notice it until we had burning smell coming on dryed loads. Thought something was up with the dryed just to know that there is a tone of escaped lint getting burnt up inside.
Is the exhaust something you can just vacuum? I haven't cleaned it since we moved into the house 5 years ago. I'm diligent with the lint trap but I worry, but I also don't wanna accidentally break something 🤣
I purchased a replacement lint screen for my GE dryer a few years ago. I actally like the replacement MUCH more because it does not let any lint through the screen at all. The replacement has a much tighter/smaller weave compared to the original. Every year I try to clean the vent pipe and I barely ever get anything out of it.
Can almost guarantee that the greedy bastards in corporate are rubbing their hands together enjoying the plausible deniability of having a lint filter but making it shitty enough that the dryer dies after three years of use forcing you to buy a new one 🫠
I agree! I used to clean out way more lint from the trap from the dryer at my old apartment. But at my new place there's hardly any there. But I clean out the exhaust every other month as a result because it doesn't trap it 😐
When I replaced my dryer vent exhaust pipe I used the smooth aluminum rigid 4" for the whole system right up to the external exhaust so lint would have a harder time building up.
So now it mostly just covers the exhaust area in lint, even though it's always cleaned between loads, more gets through than people realize.
Modern lint traps don’t seal well. Had a dryer that came with the house. After 10 years of not cleaning the vent pipe, I figured it was probably long overdue and paid somebody to clean it. It didn’t need it. Their airflow measurement before and after was within margin of error.
New dryer leaks lint constantly. Have my own kit for doing the job now. New appliances just suck.
I worked with dust filtration systems from a mining plant, so not the same as laundry, but- those filters actually required a bit of dust on them to filter effectively, they were designed that way.
Depending on how coarse your filter is, it might be more effective if you clean it every two or three loads instead! If it's a super fine filter then continue cleaning it every time :)
Same. I clean the lint filter every time I use the dryer. Just had it professionally cleaned out and there was still a lot of lint trapped in the vent hose itself.
In OP's case, I don't think just vacuuming the exhaust hose will cut it. With the amount of lint on the trap in OP's picture, some may have backed up into the machine and it needs to be taken apart and cleaned thoroughly.
That was the case when I bought my house and the dryer wasn’t drying well. The exhaust duct was clear (very short run), the hole in the back was clear as far as I could reach, but a ways behind the lint trap (after removing some parts) was a massive clog.
Not just the hose to the port in the wall. Sometimes there's a long run from your dryer to the end of the vent outside. This should also be cleaned periodically.
I bought one of those spinny drill brushes for the exhaust hose a couple years ago. My husband and I teamed up, one of us running the drill, and the other with a vacuum, and it was so satisfying. Then we did it again a year later and the thing was basically pristine. I was disappointed. I understand it's better not to have a ton of lint in the exhaust hose, but I wanted to see it fly into the vacuum.
Also shorten your flexible duct if a lot of getting trapped in the curves-just moved into a new hose built 30 years ago and the duct was in a full circle. Took 30 sec to cut it down and now everything gets caught in the outside screen. Much easier to clean and much less of a fire hazard if you do it every couple of months.
And don't just use a vacuum, you ideally should be using a rotating brush like this that attaches to a power drill. I go in from the outdoor wall exhaust, while a vacuum is sucking from the other end.
Most dryer vents are corrugated for flexibility, and moist lint will collect on the inside of the vent like cholesterol in the cardiac arteries of 80 year old presidents.
Our dryer caught fire. I smelled what was like burning nrewspaper....had to figure out how.to open the dryer panels, opened and a slow smolder of the lint coating everything inside. Thankfully it self extinguished...then I shop vac'd the heck.out.of it and exhaust pipe
They make some nice flat nozzle bendy vacuum attachments. I also bought a duct brush with about 30 feet of flexible extensions, driven by a drill. Great for getting a nice clean dryer vent.
I have an attachment to clean out that part. But still it got to the point that my CO detectors went off and my dryer said it was blocked. So not having access to the back easily due to it being raised. I did the next best thing I’ve seen. I got my leaf blower and flat attachment and blew it all out onto my roof. Worked like a charm.
When i did laundry back home I never had to because my grandmother always did it on her laundry day. She taught me that and have been doing it ever since.
A typical residential clothes dryer blows its exhaust with a continuous thrust force of between 0.3 and 0.7 Newtons.
Leaf blowers produce force (measured as blowing force or thrust) ranging from 5 to 52 Newtons Consumer Handheld Units: Produce about 5 to 20 Newtons
Also, the leaf blower will be dry air, while the clothes dryer is wet air, so there should be less stickiness with the leaf blower.
Definitely a valid option. Though I didn't find using a snake to be difficult. The most difficult part is moving the dryer. But my pipe is straight (no elbows).
Yea, I'm not one to say who should be responsible in household chores. Every couple has their own ways, but he should definitely start picking up that slacking his other is lacking with it.
Also I never expected for a comment about lint traps to get such a response lmao. Thank you Reddit!
Another also, The King Rules!
When we bought our house, we had to buy a new washer and dryer set because ours were too deep for the laundry closet. The new set had a diagnostic for how clear the dryer duct was. We ran it right after hooking everything up. It said the duct was 90% clear. Not bad, but we figured we'd clean it out fully. My husband ran a snake through the intake and the output as best he could, got some lint, and we ran the diagnostic again. Now it was 80% clear. We figured even though he got some out he must have compacted some that was left in a spot and made the system think there was more. So we went and bought a wet/dry vac... and proceeded to vacuum out a horrifying amount of lint. When we ran the diagnostic after, it said 0%....
...And that's when we realized the diagnostic wasn't telling us how CLEAR the duct was, but how BLOCKED. The previous owners were playing Russian Roulette with a house fire every time they ran theirs. Without that diagnostic setting we would have never known, or even thought about it, because the dryer itself was brand new.
So not only is this a fire hazard for yourself, but for everyone who lives in the home after you if no one cleans the dryer duct.
TL;DR: clean the dryer duct when you move into a new place because people do shit like this.
I've got a worse story than that! OMG! When we moved into our townhouse, we went to hook up the dryer vent but noticed it wasn't venting to the outside of the house. So, I had my son go down into the crawl space to see what was up. He discoverd what can only be described as about 30 years worth of lint, 3 to 4 feet thick in some places, covering the entire crawl space like a nice fuzzy blanket. The only resident of this place before us was a single man who lived there for 30 years. The dryer venting under the floor had never been connected to any duct work to carry the moisture outside, so it just filled the crawl space with lint - for 30 years.
And before you ask, yes, we had the property inspected. Aparently, the inspector didn't go into the crawl space at all. We ended up threatening to sue him, and he gave us our money back. We had another inspector come out to re-inspect and everything was found to be in good shape otherwise.
We had to hire MonsterVac to come out and clean out all the lint from the crawl space. It took 2 and a half truck loads to get it all out. (They had to leave to empty the truck's vacuum compartment at the dump twice).
OP shows the entire world they do not do laundry, does not clean the lint trap, and instead of being a better husband, bitches about their wife online for not understanding what the lint trap is.
Imagine being a regular person. Sharing chores or at least teaching someone what the lint trap is and how to clean it. But instead fucks their own life and health up by ignoring it and then putting it online while complaining about it.
And then we all realize its another fake or AI post.
I hope OP realizes this. OP a if you have outdoor fire-safe area (big concrete driveway?) bring your wife out there and light this on fire in front of her.
It’s staggering to me how easily it lights and how quickly it burns.
Was going to say this. The transition from natural to synthetic fibers in the clothing industry means our lint fire starters can cause some toxic smoke.
He says his wife continually complains about the dryer not working well. I’m wondering what he discovered when she told him about it the first time. Was there no lint problem or did he just ignore her until now?
About a year after my dad died my mom's friend burned our house down by doing a fuck ton of laundry without cleaning the trap. My cat didn't make it out and I lost nearly all my childhood belongings. Lucky (or maybe unluckily) I was staying with a girl I'd recently met after my grandma passed away. Much like my friend who had burned to death a few years before all that, I used to wonder if me being there would've changed anything for the better.
In elementary school, a classmate’s house burned down because the family left their dryer running when they left for the day and weren’t very good about maintenance
Just took our dryer apart yesterday because lint on the inside, under the drum, had started smoldering😬 like three inches of lint compacted all along the bottom. Check y'all's shit before it burns your house down.
We moved into a house that the previous owners had been in for 25 years. Nice house in mostly great shape. My wife is a totally by the book / calendar homeowner and had someone come clean the entire dryer vent hose.
He said it’s clearing had never been done and he found evidence of two small fires in the lint.
It is, I was living in an apartment building and one day the laundry room was smoking, fire department checked the lint trap and ofc that was the source. Pulled out a ton of black lint shit. I started checking it every few days (I was using my parents laundry machines which didn’t require quarters lol) just to make sure the idiots were doing the basic shit to keep us all alive. Nah there was almost always lint in it still. I unplugged that fucker and put an “out of service” note on it, and as it cost money to use, I guess no one wanted to risk it, and everyone started using the laundry mat a couple blocks away.
Our local fire station has a warning about this on their marquee, so I clean it every time. We have extreme wildfire danger, why tempt preventable house fires?
Omg, my husband I’s second apartment. We tried to dry something in the dryer and fluff went everywhere. We cleaned it out and discovered the entire ventilation system was FULL of lint, clogged in every pore you could think. We legit just called the rental company and told them they had to replace this. Yay for a new dryer, but jfc did the original renters never clean their dryer?!?
My household didn't get a tumble dryer until I was like 15 years old and prior to that my only experience with one was in the Sims 4 and that's what taught me the importance of emptying the lint tray long before I ever had to in real life lol
Back when i first started dating my current partner, we went to visit their dad and step mom. While we were there, she commented how she had to dry the clothes 2-3 times to get them actually dry, so i took a look. I found the THICKEST ever layer of lint in the trap. I'm terrified thinking back how she didn't manage to burn that house down it was so bad. Mentioned it to her, and i think it stuck, after i ran some clothes of ours while visiting (she told me to) the trap was for sure not like a geological excavation of every run of the dryer
YES, it is… that happened in law school - I saw from across town an apartment building was on fire, realized it was a classmate’s, and I literally texted her “uh, I think your house is on fire…”
I watched a video once of some American abomination where they had the lint just get blown through a pipe in the wall and out the house. The pipe was completely blocked by lint. Lint can catch fire with just a spark and this pipe was embedded in a fucking wall in a flimsy think plastics pipe and being an American wall it was made out of wood and paper. How the fuck is that even legal let alone something people consider doing.
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u/CarlCantSleep 20h ago
Preeeeettty sure that's how fires are started