r/preppers • u/Kitso_258 • May 30 '21

Advice and Tips Clean out your dryer vents

If your living situation allows you to have your own dedicated washer/dryer within your home-space, clean out your dryer vent. Unscrew the lint trap holder and vaccuum out the stuff stuck to the sides. You can get a lint duct brush and mostly clean the ducts yourself, or if it's bad/out of reach, hire a professional. This is especially important if you've got pets - my dryer was FULL of pet hair.

Why is this important? Several reasons:

1, new appliances are in short supply right now. Take care of the one you've got.
2, new appliances cost money, see above.
3, it'll increase the efficiency of your dryer and use less electricity.

But the most important reason is that this is a HUGE fire risk. Lint = tinder, and all it takes is one spark in the wrong place to cause the lint to combust. And by spark, as everyone else has pointed out, it could just be the dryer heating element doing it's thing.

Little things like this... make our lives just a little bit better and safer.

Edit: Didn't expect this to blow up. If you wish to save the lint for future fire starter, then save away. My household produces SO MUCH of the crap that I don't ever worry about saving it for the long term...

554 Upvotes

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234

u/throwAwayWd73 May 30 '21

Empty the lint trap after EVERY SINGLE LOAD

My wife is bad about that one. The build up after even two loads isn't good.

77

u/tvtb May 30 '21

When I started dating my wife, I learned her parents empty the lint filter like once every 100 loads. It was the thickest, densest mat of felt you’ve ever seen. I had to gently tell them they were doing it wrong without alienating them

19

u/DILGE May 31 '21

I lived in an apartment that had a washer/dryer double stack combo unit and I couldn't find the lint trap so I figured there wasn't one for some reason. (Yes, I was dumb.) I lived there an entire year before I finally found the lint trap inside in the back. When I popped out the panel, the lint practically exploded out it was so densely packed in there. After that, the dryer finally started drying my clothes!

23

u/thebrokenbox May 30 '21

I have to tell my wife all the time to do it because when I help with the laundry I always notice that she’s let it go a few loads without doing it.

10

u/[deleted] May 30 '21

It's weird because my wife is a stickler for other kinds of maintenance, but not dryer lint.

47

u/Graysect May 30 '21

How do the fuckin clothes dry? I do that to mine and the clothes are still damp

16

u/mr_melvinheimer May 30 '21

I clean mine out halfway through for some loads to make sure they dry. I cleaned out the inside of the dryer when it was about 7 years old for the first time and it actually wasn’t that bad. The duct was a little worse because it’s pieced together from different types and has a dozen turns.

16

u/BeneGezzWitch May 30 '21

So I was having this problem and the appliance guy came out and told me to stop using dryer sheets because it was coating the inside of my dryer and the electronic sensors in the drum were not detecting the dampness and calling everything dry and ending the cycle. he wiped it with some solvent to get it all off and I stopped using them and my clothes have been drying better ever since.

17

u/LlamaDrama4YoMama May 30 '21

We use those wool balls about the size of a baseball. Work great and reusable for what seems like forever

3

u/Seguedlife May 30 '21

Love mine! Except when there’s something polyester in there, lots of static. I heard a diaper pin stuck in one can help but I keep forgetting. Do they even still make diaper pins?!

8

u/HarpersGhost May 30 '21

Dryer sheets can clog the lint filter. You can clean it off without a solvent.

To check, put the lint filter under running water. If the water isn't getting through, then the air won't either. Take a scrub brush and scrub the entire lint filter. Check again to see if water starts going through.

It's one of those simple yet satisfying chores.

1

u/Consistent-Trifle834 May 30 '21

The residue will also build up and eventually block the holes in the lint screen

6

u/CannedRoo May 30 '21

  1. Check/clean the duct like OP is saying.

  2. If that doesn’t work, try taking the dryer apart and cleaning it out. There may be a buildup of lint in its internal ductwork that got past the lint trap.

3

u/Graysect May 30 '21

No, how does his wife not do that every load. If I dont then the clothes dont get dry after a cycle.

5

u/RHCopper May 30 '21

I was at a friend's house a couple years ago and when she did laundry I saw her lint trap and gasped. When I cleaned it, it came off in one solid piece like a thick blanket. How it didn't catch on fire I will never know.

5

u/[deleted] May 30 '21

i’ve got my wife trained. she empties the lint trap and keeps the lint in a resealable bag for me to use as tinder. works great with a ferro rod.

2

u/Consistent-Trifle834 May 30 '21

I finally explained to the MIL why it was in a ziplock bit to be thrown away.

-8

u/[deleted] May 30 '21

Weird

11

u/[deleted] May 30 '21

how so? something I picked up when my brother was in boy scouts decades ago. it works great and is in never ending supply.

I’m guessing I’m getting downvoted for saying I trained my wife, but it is just a figure of speech.

1

u/itsallfornaught2 May 30 '21

Don't be crazy. You can't make jokes at the expense of others. It is bad for society or something.

-10

u/Dijohn_Mustard May 30 '21

“I’ve got my wife trained” doesn’t sound a bit weird to you?

I’m sure you aren’t inherently a weird person but the wording wasn’t the best...

11

u/[deleted] May 30 '21

like I said, figure of speech. I asked her to start saving it and she did. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

9

u/TheWoahgie May 30 '21

Don’t worry bro my wife thought it was funny

8

u/[deleted] May 30 '21

so did mine. I didn’t realize everybody here was so touchy.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '21

Mine did too. I trained her to get on a sleep schedule and she chastises me now when I don't follow it lol.

10

u/WoodsColt Prepared for 2+ years May 30 '21

I'm a wife and I thought it was funny too.

3

u/Wandersshadow May 30 '21

I don’t think he actually meant it like that.

-8

u/Dijohn_Mustard May 30 '21

That’s the inherently weird part

1

u/realisticby May 30 '21

I also scrub my lintel trap weekly. Especially if I use dryer sheets