What is the best way to clean a dryer vent?

Question

I posted this questions 6 months ago..

Why does it take my dryer 3 hours to dry a load of clothes?

I checked the cycling thermostat and thermal fuse. They are operational. I have seen different ways professionals clean dryer vent ductwork. Coit services used a portable compressor to blow air into the vent the push out lint. There was a good amount that came out. But I have seen another method where they used a rod with rotating brush that push out lint. I am thinking of hiring someone to do it this way. Is this a better way than what Coit did?

My tenant last said the timning of drying has improved form 3 hours down to 2 hours. I'm not sure how long of dryer vent ductwork she had at her previous residence. I can understand if she had a dryer close to an exterior wall with a 1 foot of dryer vent. I may have to ask her that. Everything is relative. If there is a longer run of duct it should take longer to dry no? Any feedback would be appreciated. We really want to take care of this tenant because they are nice people.

Answer 1

I use a dryer vent brush like this one at Wal Mart:

Answer 2

I just did this this weekend. I imagine the answer really depends on the particulars of your duct work. Does it have a lot of bends? What's it made of? How long is it? Etc.

In our case, we had smooth vent pipe, but they used 2' pieces to span about 14'. So we had all these tiny pieces with joints which, on top of that, they 'sealed' with duct tape. Needless to say, all of these poorly connected joints were creating spots where lint was collecting and eventually clogging.

I took it all apart and began using the lint brush as shown in another answer, and it worked OK, but much of the lint was caked on to the point I had to scrape it off with a hard tool (screwdriver).

In the end, I went out and purchased a brand new 10' section instead, and then put it all back together with proper metallic tape. Dryer works much better now. I figure with an annual check I should be able to keep it fairly clean.

Answer 3

While cleaning out the duct work is a great idea, lint clogging the vent shouldn't be a frequent problem. Once every year or two ought to be overkill.

I would inspect the dryer's lint filter for holes and the lint frame for defects. Definitely educate the tenant on the importance of the lint filter's proper use, including cleaning before every load. If they are resistant or hard to educate, pay for a professional say once per year. If the vent needs cleaning more often than that, charge it to the tenants: they have control over how much lint is going into the vent.

Also, you might want to observe usage of the dryer. If it is filled full, then poor performance is to be expected—I would not be surprised by three hours in that case. There needs to be room for air to flow through the dryer during operation. If a "full" load were split into two loads, I bet both "half" loads can be completed in 1.5 hours total, if not faster.