Cleaning your dryer vent seems like a form of punishment, right? Unfortunately, never doing so is actually a bit of a fire hazard (okay, it’s a huge fire hazard). Dryer vents can easily get clogged up with lint from your dryer; when the dryer is running, it releases a ton of hot air that, if you’re not careful, can potentially cause a fire. “Cleaning regularly helps prevent lint fire hazards and will also keep your dryer running most efficiently,” says Laura Johnson, a consumer analyst at LG Electronics. The good news is that every homeowner is more than capable of cleaning the vents (take this from a not-so-handy non-homeowner). So how exactly do you clean your dryer vent? Read on.
Step One
First things first: clean the lint trap (you should be doing this after every load of laundry, but if it’s been a few cycles, now’s as good a time as any to take care of this). “Cleaning the lint filter after every load is an important first step in keeping your dryer functioning properly, and preventing lint build-up in ducts,” says Johnson. Remove the dryer lint trap altogether, and use a vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment to clean in and around the dryer lint trap. Next, pull the dryer out from the wall, unplug it, and disconnect the duct (the long, windy aluminum tube that’s also connected to the wall).
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