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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u/Taildragr May 30 '21

Who the hell uses a clothes dryer in 2021?

Try line drying your clothes for a change. It'll make them last longer, better for the environment, easier on the wallet, less wasteful, no expensive machine to break down and YOU DON'T FORCE YOUR NEIGHBORS TO BREATHE YOUR SHITTY DRYER SHEET PERFUME!

4

u/bignicky222 May 30 '21

Everyone in a major city. Dont be that guy that thinks they're better. Hanging my clothes outside would make them smell.

2

u/Taildragr May 30 '21

When I lived in an apartment in mid-city L.A. I used a clothes drying rack from Ikea in my apartment combined with a fan. I didn't want to be that guy who likes to inflict his lifestyle (and odors) on others.

2

u/newyearnewunderwear May 31 '21

I also line dry in Los Angeles. I mean we have a dryer and I use it but when I have time and mental bandwidth I love hanging clothes out. We have a collapsible wall-mount drying rack installed on the side wall of our house.