9 January 2014
CLEANING YOUR DRYER VENT
By Ed Schneider
There are many mysteries associated with living in a condobuilding. One of them is; “Where does my dryer vent go and where does it come out?” My dryer vent climbs two floors inside the building walls making numerous 90° turns before it exits onto the sun deck. I know this because after living in my condo for over 30 years, I have, through a trial and error basis, managed to locate my exit vent by running the dryer on a cold day and then feeling just barely warm air exit from one of the vents on the sun deck. I calculated the total length of the ducting to be 24 feet.
Being a conscientious owner and not wanting to burn down the
building, I have on numerous occasions, attempted to clean the dryer duct. I
will have to admit I have never successfully, managed to snake something all
the way through the duct. I have, however, managed to retrieve lint from both
ends of the duct and therefore, was confident that it was fairly clean and not
blocked by lint. Bad assumption.
Soon after we purchased a new dryer last year, the dryer began to
shut itself off midway through the drying cycle. The technician explained that
the new dryer senses the internal temperature and when there is not adequate
ventilation, the temperature raises and then it shuts itself off. He also pointed
out that the dryer is not suitable for installations where the ducting length is
more than 20 feet and there is more than three 90° turns. He also asked if I was
sure that there was nothing blocking the ducting and if it has ever been
professionally cleaned. I said no I never had it professionally cleaned because
I was sure that what I was doing was more than adequate. Bad assumption.
Just to appease the technician, I had the duct cleaned by Andy
from Action Duct. I was pretty sure I was wasting $150 until I saw about 3 cubic
feet of lint blowout the exhaust vent onto the sundeck. I am now a firm believer
in having the dryer ducts in our building cleaned by a professional. What they
do is hook up a large Shop Vac to the dryer vent in your condo. This creates a
minor hurricane blowing through the duct. He then snakes a brush down from the
exit vent to loosen the lint. In my case, he got down 22 feet into the duct.
After he was done and I activated my dryer, I could feel a steady breeze blowing
out of the exit vent, something that I had not been able to feel before.
So if you haven't had your dryer duct cleaned by professional, I
highly recommend that you do it, both from a safety and efficiency standpoint.
It worked for me. My dryer now works perfectly.