What Issues We’ve Seen From Dryer Vents This Year

Easy Breezy Ducts has been doing a lot of dryer vent cleanings this year. Cleaning dryer vents is an important chore if you want to avoid fire hazards. As we’ve taken on these jobs, we’ve been seeing a few particular issues that we want to inform you all about. Let’s take a look at some of the dryer vent jobs we’ve done.

1. Poorly Installed Dryer Vents

A common issue we run into is drier vents being set up poorly. In one particular case, we were called about a job where the dryer vent hadn’t been cleaned in over 8 years. Obviously, this was a fire hazard, but that’s nothing we haven’t talked about before. In this case, the dryer vent was installed to run vertically up through the roof. This was a bad move. Forcing your dryer to vent air against gravity is making it do extra work to get rid of the lint. The combination of a long time without cleaning and the poor installation made it impossible to properly clean through our methods. It became necessary to call in an HVAC specialist to remove and replace the vents.

2. Overly Extended Dryer Vents

This issue we found in an apartment complex for handicapped residents. The apartment was running a long vent from the driers to a single exterior point. This left them with very long vents that created problems.

The longer the vent is, the harder the drier has to blow to eject the lint and hot air. If a drier vent is too long (over 25 feet), it may even be necessary to add an additional booster fan just to function. The problem with booster fans is that they can potentially make fire hazards greater. While they will help blow lint and hot air out of long vents, they also can make any fires that do happen spread faster. In this case, keeping your dryer vents clean becomes even more important. Booster fans themselves will also require cleaning.

Generally, however, the best advice is to keep your dryer vents short. If you find yourself extending your vents a long distance from your dryer, it might be best to move your laundry room to a different area of the house. The less distance the hot air has to blow, the more efficient the vent will be.

3. Laundromats Need More Cleaning

The final issue we’ve run into is a large number of laundromats asking for vent cleaning. While this is nothing to be surprised about, we’ve found that laundromats may need more vent cleaning than normal. Laundromats use industrial dryers, which have stronger internal fans, but they see a lot of use throughout the day. The drier in someone’s home may run a few times a week, but laundromats will run their dryers all day every day. The increased traffic means the dryer vents will need cleaning more frequently, possibly as much as every 3 months.

In these cases, it would be best to arrange for a cleaning schedule. That way, you won’t have to remember to check in and we can simply come in regularly to check on your vents and keep them in good condition.

Dryer Vent Cleaning is Quick and Easy

While we’ve gotten increased requests for dryer vent cleaning, fortunately the process is fast and easy to do. We’ve found that, unless we’re having an extremely busy week, we can usually manage to squeeze in a dryer vent cleaning within a day of being called. It’s easy to slot them in between bigger jobs.

If you’ve neglected cleaning your dryer and you want to prevent it from becoming a fire hazard, then give us a call today. We should be able to make some time for you and have the job done quickly. If you’re already having us clean in your regular air ducts, then you can even ask us to add a dryer vent cleaning to the process. You’ll be glad you did, as not only will you reduce the fire risk, you’ll see your drier working faster and more effectively than before.