Clean Your Dryer Ducts to Avoid Fire

People look at a dryer and they only see an appliance. Though, there is a rather complex world hidden behind what's visible at first glance. You might even look at the dryer vent and if it's in good condition, you might consider it pointless to spend another second in the laundry room. Well, things are not as simple as they look and they are certainly not innocent at all. With tens of deaths, hundreds of injuries and thousands of fires every year in the United States alone, you can understand that nothing is innocent when it comes to dryers. Before you rush to conclusions or get up to go and get a new appliance and change the vent, remember that dryer vent replacement or even the replacement of the dryer won't do much to you if you don't change some habits.

Time to look inside the dryer vents

You might make all the changes you want (and it might be for the best too), but if you don't start cleaning the dryer vent often you will still be in trouble. What makes the difference between you being safe or not is how frequently you clean the vents. It's not what you see that causes the problem; it's actually what you don't see. In order to dry the clothes, the dryer follows a certain pattern and this pattern includes increasing air temperatures. Air circulates and dries wet clothes, but must have a way out. In a different case, it will be trapped and the appliance won't work efficiently. With that said, consider what happens when air is trapped:

*   Clothes hardly dry. They are extremely hot when you take them out of the dryer but still damp

*   The cycle takes longer to dry the clothes and still the results are not satisfactory

*   Humidity in the laundry room is increased and there is a nasty odor

*   With the air trapped, the dryer gets overheated

These are actually the signs telling you it's time for dryer duct cleaning. What really happens is lint building up. Produced by drying clothes, lint keeps occupying space inside the ducts and so the air cannot circulate well, and certainly cannot escape. In other words, the vents are clogged and if the lint is not removed soon, fire is a high possibility. That's why some dryers have lint traps, which are easy to clean every time the dryer is used. Whether your appliance has lint traps or not, dryer vent air system cleaning is a must. Lint always ends up inside the ducts and so it's best to have them cleaned at both sides (external and internal).

It's also important to be sure the vents are in good condition so that you won't lose energy and that's why it's smart to check the ducts occasionally. Instead of struggling with dryer vent repairs, it's best to replace the ducts if they are damaged and especially if they are too long in size. Ask Air Duct Cleaning in Torrance about new materials and prefer solid and not flexible ones since the latter might get squeezed behind the dryer and with the air squeezed as well, the chances of fire will still be high.