Dryer Vent Cleaning in Warrensburg, MO
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It takes about a minute.
Step 1 of 3: Equipment
Cold air turns dryer lint into a wall of buildup
Warm, damp air leaves your dryer and hits the cold walls of the vent. On a night near 24 degrees, that air cools fast, and the moisture in it gives the lint somewhere to stick instead of blowing outside. Layer by layer, the vent narrows.
A vent that cannot push air out backs up into the dryer itself. Clothes take longer to dry, the dryer runs hotter than it should, and the lint that cannot escape sits there as fuel.
- 24°F
- the average winter night, and cold vents catch damp lint
- 7 months
- October through April, the vent stays cold
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NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should a dryer vent be cleaned?
- Once a year is the standard most contractors work from. A household that runs the dryer every day will fill the duct with lint faster than one that runs it less, so the right interval depends on how much the machine gets used. If clothes are taking longer to dry than they used to, that is a better signal than the calendar.
- Can I clean my dryer vent myself?
- You can clean the lint trap and the short section right behind the dryer yourself, and it is worth doing often. The rest of the duct, especially where it runs through a wall or up to a roof or side vent hood, is harder to reach and a household vacuum will not pull lint out of it. A contractor uses a brush and vacuum built for the full length of the run, which gets at what a home vacuum cannot.
- What are the signs of a clogged dryer vent?
- Clothes needing more than one cycle to dry is the sign most people notice first. Others are a dryer that runs hot to the touch, a burning smell during the cycle, the outside vent hood flap barely moving when the dryer is on, and lint collecting around the door seal. Any one of these means air is not moving through the duct the way it should, and the vent is worth having checked.