My dryer vent was setup to go thru the wall, up 2 stories, to my roof..... I have a major problem with this type of setup, as every couple of months, my dryer starts taking forever to dry. When I open the dryer door, I see lots of moisture on it. We then have to take off the duct from the wall connection and we find lots of wet lint that needs to be taken out. We run a blower thru the vent, from the bottom, hoping it will dry/clear out whatever is in the vent between the bottom floor and the roof. I'm thinking that with heavy rain, water must be getting in somehow from the roof vent. I can only imagine what's in there... I don't have access to the roof, as it is 2 stories up (I live in a townhouse). My question here is.. does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this problem? I have lived here over 20 years and am so fed up with this... I'm getting ready to just leave the duct behind the dryer with a panty hose on it, but have read this is not recommended. I live in Florida and already have lots of humidity. I appreciate any suggestions!
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If a service from your townhouse runs beyond the bounds of your townhouse, there should be some sort of owners association or site maintenance that you can work through to get the part beyond "your" section of building serviced. i.e. if you pay any "maintenance fee" where does that go? Who would fix the roof if it leaked? Follow the money.– EcnerwalNov 30, 2014 at 21:50
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Thanks for responding!The roof has huge tiles, which I'm told, easily crack if stepped on the wrong way. I wouldn't dare to even try walking on them, even if I could get up there. The roof, unfortunately, is now considered the home owner's responsibility.– ReallyFedUpDec 1, 2014 at 2:48
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The dryer at our house runs multiple times a day. I have kids playing sports, we do outdoor stuff, we dry blankets all the time and I never see any lint in our dryer venting. We also don't have the best dryer in the world but it does have a lint trap that we keep cleaned regularly. If you are having issues with lint in your venting you need to start with why isn't your dryer stopping the lint from hitting the vent. I just did my bi-yearly vent cleaning... I got two cotton ball sized pieces.– DMooreDec 1, 2014 at 17:50
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Wow! What model dryer do you have? I do at least 2 loads per day, and clean out the lint trap before turning the dryer on each time. My dryer is a Kenmore, only 2 years old. The heating element failed on it this past month, and when I opened it up to replace the part, there was a carpet of lint over EVERYTHING inside. The lint on the bottom was even stuck to the metal, like it had been wet and dried there - making me wonder if the water from the duct was going into the dryer itself... What a mess!– ReallyFedUpDec 1, 2014 at 21:58
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2 Answers
As a general rule, dryer vents should be cleaned out with a brush (attached to a long chain or rope or flexible rod so they can be run through the duct) every 6 months or so. If the arrangement of the vents in your townhouse community is such that you cannot easily do this yourself, you should take it up with whatever owners association or management company there is overseeing the site, since lint clogged dryer vents can be a source of fires, which should be a concern far beyond the impact on your dryer's performance.
If you applied something like a leaf blower to the bottom of the duct, you may have blown the cap on the top right off it, which would add to your problems.
answered Nov 30, 2014 at 22:12
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Thanks for responding! Yes, we use something like a leaf blower to blow, from the bottom up. I'm not even sure it helps any, to be honest. But when we undo the silver duct from the wall connection, there is lots of wet lint there. Clearing this out and blowing for a few hours gets the dryer working properly again, at least for another couple of months. I'm just tired of having to keep doing this, and am considering leaving the duct off and just covered with a panty hose. Dec 1, 2014 at 2:58
Since my dryer vent was very long too, I bought this kit from Amazon, along with extra rods.
Please note the following:
- Use the set screw to attach the brush to the first rod.
- Use a pair of pliers to tighten the connection and duct tape to hold the joints in the rods in place
- Turn on the dryer in air-dry mode to get some air flow going.
- Remove the louvers carefully from the vent cover.
- Rotate clockwise only, otherwise the rods will loosen. Add each rod to the system gradually.
I ended up using 7 rods for a total length of 21 feet. I got so much lint out of the vent that it could fill up two buckets.
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This would be if you can access the outside end of the vent, (since you mention turning the dryer on to blow air) correct?– EcnerwalNov 30, 2014 at 22:22
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Ecnerwal: yes, but you can also go the other way by disconnecting the dryer from the vent. You can read the user manual at lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/rewilliams/linteaterusermanual.pdf .– wswNov 30, 2014 at 22:27
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Thank you for this suggestion! The outside end of the vent is on the roof, 2 stories up - not accessible for me at all. Would need to go from bottom up and I don't know how many turns there are from the bottom floor to the roof vent. Dec 1, 2014 at 3:05
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ReallyFedUp: I think using a circular brush to get the lint out should work much better than using a blower, as the lint sticks very well to the vent and is often compacted. Assuming laminar flow, the air velocity at the inner surface of the vent is almost zero.– wswDec 1, 2014 at 3:22
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ReallyFedUp: Since the kit is inexpensive, you can always see if using the brush with 4 rods (for a total length of 12 feet) will make a difference.– wswDec 1, 2014 at 3:25