Clean your dryer vent!!!

[Meenah]

I recently had a service call for my washing machine, and the service guy told me that the dryer vent hose on my dryer was too long and a fire hazard. I took it off tonight to shorten it, and the lumen was approximately 75% occluded with lint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Michele]

I love it! You used "lumen" and "occluded!"

[Momo]

I was thinking the same thing as Michele

Luckily my cleaning gal checks mine every so often!

[Meenah]

LOL, I guess that is what happens when you are a nurse practitioner and your collaborating physician is a critical care/intensivist and you are married to him.

[SuzySunshine]

Yes, yes - we checked ours this summer and it was BAD!

[MissCrabette]

OK, it's been long established that I'm clueless when it comes to some of the most basic practical issues. How do people who live in apartment buildings do this? Do those dryer vent cleaning kits work? Do you just snake it down the dryer vent and is that it? I've long been eying this (http://flylady.net/pages/FlyShop_dryer.asp), but I wasn't sure if it would be a waste of money given the fact that I actually have no clue where the vent ends and I probably don't have access to it anyway.

[weeniegeniewife]

I love it! You used "lumen" and "occluded!"

That was my first thought, too!

[Meenah]

Look behind your dryer. There is a "tube" going from your dryer to the wall. This is where the dryer vents to the outside.

http://www.ehow.com/dryer-vent-cleaning/

[Deebs]

We had someone come clean ours up a couple of months ago. It's completely disconnected and the lint is flowing into our sub-floor (we have a second floor laundry)! My kitchen ceiling is going to be ripped out to fix the problem, and the contractor assures me this isn't a big deal to do. We'll see.

I am glad we found the problem - just imagine the fire hazard!

[PrincessFiona]

That is scary, Luanne. I'm glad you cleaned it out!

Kris

I love it! You used "lumen" and "occluded!"

LOL love it!

But I can't reach the hose and connectors of ours..we have a small stack-able that is in a small closet...how do you do that?

[DCJenn]

Mine vents to a 12 foot deep hole beneath my house. No one knows why there's a 12 foot deep hole there but it's underneath the solid cement room that is now my bathroom. (we're figuring gun-running or booze-running esp. during prohibition- the house down the street had cases of empty bottles in their attic so it would figure that the whole street would have been in on it)

Definitely clean them, though- and the lint catcher- in and around the lint catchers, too. I think dryers are the #2 source of inside house fires (after space heaters)

J.

[HouseofWool]

Didn't GMW have an issue with this last year? A bit to do because of the building? Or am I completely losing my mind...