Dryer Maintenance Tips | Cleaning Your Dryer
The most important thing to do to keep your dryer operating properly is to make sure you clean the lint filter after each and every load of clothes you dry. Aside from that there are a few things you can to do at least once a month to help avoid a potential fire hazard and also ensure your dryer runs efficiently.
Kill the power to the dryer at the breaker or unplug the dryer from the wall outlet and pull the dryer out far enough so that you can get behind it. Remove the dryer vent hose from the dryer and from the vent on your home and clean it out good, making sure it’s not stopped up.
Once the dryer vent hose is clean, also clean out the dryer vent on the back of the dryer and remove any built up lint. Sweep up the area behind the dryer and also remove any trash or articles of clothing that may have fell behind the dryer.
When hooking the dryer back up make sure the dryer vent hose does not get pinched. If it does that will cause an air flow issue and the dryer will not dry the clothes properly.
Once a month or so you need to soak the dryer lint screen in some hot water or spray it down with some type of cleaner and remove all the build up. Let the screen dry completely before inserting it back in the dryer.
Finally never overload the dryer, stuffing the dryer with too many clothes will cause needless strain on the drive system which over time will cause the dryer to have costly repair problems, such as a failed motor, drive belt and drum support rollers replacement. These dryer maintenance tips will keep your dryer running for years to come.
Dryer Vent Cleaning
Once a year you need to have the dryer vent on your home cleaned out. There is a tool called a dryer duct cleaning kit and it attaches to a drill and will clean the vent out good. I recommend that or having a professional company come out and do it for you. The dryer vent cleaning kit can be purchased from the link below.
There are a lot of problems a stopped up dryer vent hose or dryer vent can cause to a dryer. All dryers have a blower wheel that forces the hot air to circulate in the dryer and if that air flow is disrupted in any way the hot air backs up in the dryer and causes several problems. This can happen if the exhaust vent of the dryer is clogged with lint or the vent is kinked or pinched. It can also be that the vent duct on your home is clogged with lint, in some cases where vents go up through the roof it could be that a bird has built a nest where the vent exits the roof.
The first problem it causes is that the dryer will take forever to dry the clothes properly because its causing the heating cycle to go off and on so fast that the heat is not being supplied in the unit for long enough periods of time this is called “short cycling” when this happens the dryer can overheat.
When the dryer gets to hot it trips a “safety fuse” called a thermal cut-off fuse, this is a safety feature built into the dryer to keep it from over heating, they usually have a operating temperature of around 300 degrees Fahrenheit, once the temperature goes above that the fuse will trip. Once the fuse has tripped it is not re-settable and has to be replaced before the dryer will run again.
So as you can see even if you have to pay a company to come out and clean your vent it’s actually gonna save you money in the long run by preventing damage to your dryer.
