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...

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238

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.

6

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.

-9

u/[deleted] May 30 '21

Weird

10

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.

-9

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)_/¯

8

u/TheWoahgie May 30 '21

Don’t worry bro my wife thought it was funny

7

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