Monday, October 5, 2009

Dryer Vent Cleaning

Dryer Vent Cleaning Prevents House Fires

Technology can be your omnipotent servant but it can literally put your house on fire if you don’t know how to use it. Statistics tell us that there are more than 15 thousand cases of fires, over 300 injuries and about 30 casualties – dryer vent being the culprit behind and to be more specific negligence in cleaning dryer vents! This is the reason why dryer safety measures should be the priority of every house owner while planning the maintenance activities of home appliances and systems.

A dryer vent can burn your house into ashes can be believed by understanding how a dryer works. Drying clothes is a two step process; heat is applied to the air inside the dryer and then air circulated through the clothes. The clothes drying process produces heat, moisture and also lint – a highly combustible material. Of course there are lint filters and traps in the dryer but unfortunately they can’t trap all the lint and it keeps accumulating into the dryer not only in the pipe but also the heating device inside the dryer. This accumulated lint blocks the venting and is responsible for lowering the airflow into the vent. It leads to rise of temperature manifolds inside the dryer and lint catches fire by friction of heated air inside the dryer.

Traditional dryer units with long paths and many bends make the situation more complicated as they provide many corners for the lint to accumulate and hence block the passage. A regular dryer vent cleaning is the solution to this serious problem. Vent cleaning saves you and your device by removing the accumulated lint. Also it increases the efficiency and life span of the system.

When your system is taking more than usual time to dry the clothes or the dried clothes are hot or not dried well or your electricity bill is soaring every month, perhaps it is the indication that you should immediately schedule a dryer vent cleaning process. Usually a cleaning session every six months to a year is what is recommended for a safety reasons. Many apartments and townhome associations are required to clean their dryer vents annually.

You can take the help of a professional also to clean your venting pipes and can also do it on your own with the help of tools easily available at the hardware and maintenance store in the market. However, it is advisable to hire a professional duct cleaning company if you are overdue and need to have dryer vent cleaning done at your home. Here are three duct cleaning websites where you can learn more about dryer vent fires and how to prevent it from happening at your home: Dryer Vent Cleaning Tips, Twin Cities Dryer Vent Cleaning & Minneapolis Dryer Vent Cleaning.