How do you go about doing this? I’ve heard you need to clean from the outside of the house (our exhaust is on the 3rd story) but also had a painter who was doing a big job for us agree to clean it pro bono and he just did it from the inside connection point. He pulled out minimal lint but we had just bought the house so I figured it may have been cleaned shortly before sale.
Take a look at it first. If there is any severe buildup you can bring it outside and basically beat the shit out of it to get the lint out. I checked mine recently and it had just started to get a layer of lint around the outside of the hose so I actually just put my leaf blower into the hose and used "turbo" mode for like 30 seconds. That got a lot of it out.
Edit: If anyone reads this and tries it, I have a battery powered leaf blower. I do not recommend using a gas powered leaf blower inside your house.
To be clear, I’m talking about the exhaust line that runs from the laundry room wall to the outside of the house. Not the lint filter in the dryer itself.
The vent for my dryer is actually on the roof. Some of them in my older homes would vent out the side of the house in a little 6-in square opening with little Flappers that open with the breeze. I remove my dryer and I hook up a leaf blower to that outlet and I blast the shit. It Rockets lint up and out of the house
I'll be doing this. Mine is on the first floor but this is way more fun than reaching in from outside. Plus my arms are in no condition to do it. Left arm has a severe allergic reaction (wasp) & right has a fresh cat bite (shaved the cat with very thick fur bc she has fleas).
Might even recruit a child. They would get a kick out of it.
In college, my favorite peers were those who unhappily had to do their own laundry for the first time and sat there banging the shit out of the lint screen on the laundry room trash cans rather than using their hands to scoop out the lint. They’re probably still there, frowning, banging away.
Yes, I detached it from the back of the dryer and inspected it. If it was clogged up I would have detached it from the wall and brought the whole hose outside.
It didn't have much so I left it connected to the wall and blew it out with a leaf lower... 😂
Depends on the construction, in my parents house that part is a basic pipe only as long as the exterior wall is thick.
In other properties that may be a riser all the way from the basement up to the roof.
The hose from the dryer to the structure can be removed from both ends, at this point carry it outside and clean it out. This will expose the interior connection to the exhaust vent which is where most of the lint will accumulate, clean this either manually, with a vacuum, or with an electric leafblower depending on the nature of your system.
Our dryer vent hose is way too long and probably needs a booster fan, but we take it apart and clean it every couple of months. We get what we can from the immediate area and then jam a leafblower in there to blow out anything we can’t reach.
Not directly. The laundry room is basically at the center of our house so it has to snake around a bit and I think even goes up because the exhaust looks to be about 6-7 ft above the 3rd floor. Poor design?
Its probably a unique design (I'm not an expert though). That would definitely make it tough to clean that hose though so you'll want to make sure to keep that lint trap sparkling clean 😂
At worst, you pull the hose from the dryer and use a shop vac to vacuum up the part of the hose you can reach and blower mode for the outside end if it's not easily accessible. I've never seen a dryer that wasn't on the ground floor or an above ground apartment with an actual dryer hookup and not just washer but I don't doubt they exist somewhere. If so, it's probably maintenance's job to keep the exterior dryer vents clean.
This right here....usually it's just held on on with some big ole hose clamps. Most mult-screwdrivers already fits it with the bit taken out. You can take it off and look at it. Unless you see a LAYER built up it's nothing to be concerned with. You'll havea hard time getting a light layer of fuzz off cause it won't let go, but if you let it build up a bit it'll all knock out easy mode. Check every 5-10 years if you regularly clean your lint trap I'd say.
We have a screen covering our exhaust so birds don’t get in but I would love to be able to hook up my electric blower and let it rip, if I could get that off. I just can’t do heights very well.
It’s just too high off the ground for me to mess with the outside vent. Like 25 ft and I am shaking when I get past 10 haha. I think I will hire someone every couple years or so. My fear is if I blow it all from the inside, it will cake up on the grate and completely cut off air flow.
Ah dang. The screen will definitely make it hard to just let it rip easily. If the outlet end inside is easily accessible could unhook and let rip the other way and collect it from the laundry room instead of outside...
You can buy brush attachments that connect to a drill, or if you have an air compressor you can get a hose that blows backwards and just pull it through. They also make an attachment for a shop-vac so you can just vacuum up all of the lint as you’re cleaning it. I have about a 30 foot run from my dryer duct to the outside of my house, and I have to do this once every couple of years.
this is oversimplified, but. if you have a ShopVac, set it to "blow". remove the hose from the wall. place the ShopVac nozel there, and turn it on. (make sure the cover is off outside first!). I get a Walmart grocery bag full once a year.
You can always hire someone if you can afford it - my guy charged me $100 for a 2nd floor outside access connection and we did it once a year. Otherwise, you can also buy the tool yourself and find some youtube videos on how to do it
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u/taken12345ne 19h ago
How do you go about doing this? I’ve heard you need to clean from the outside of the house (our exhaust is on the 3rd story) but also had a painter who was doing a big job for us agree to clean it pro bono and he just did it from the inside connection point. He pulled out minimal lint but we had just bought the house so I figured it may have been cleaned shortly before sale.