The Dryer that Dries my Tractor Clothes

Well, many of you may think I am stupid, but I had not cleaned our dryer vent piping since we build the house in 1979. The pipe is 6-7 ft long, steel or aluminum, and one 90 degree bend so I always figured the lint would just blow out. Wrong! And yes, I have heard before one should clean the dryer venting.

This week we also replaced our dryer. I could not believe how much lint had accumulated to the inside circumference of the dryer pipe. The opening was down to about the size of 1-2 garden hoses. I recently had brain surgery up through my sinuses so as to not get any dust in there I had the neighbor clean it. He was amazed also.

So, check you're dryer vent if you haven't for a while.

I reported earlier we bought an LG washer, my wife loves it. (The Maytag Neptune had bearing failure.) Less water, less soap, less time, less noise, clean clothes, more capacity. Well, as luck would have it the dryer started having issues and now that we had a bigger washer the dryer could not handle a full load. Obviouly I can say nothing about reliability other than what Consumer Reports put out. LG products were at the top of the list. Just information.

Paul

Our vent run is only about 4' long (including inside the dryer), and I clean it out once a year.

The damp lint from clothes will stick to the sides of....well, anything, and build from there.

I take a small air compressor and a long air gun. I use a screwdriver to trip the door latch so the dryer will run with door open and, with filter removed, I blow everything loose from inside the dryer to outside. Always end up with a large circle of fuzz in the front yard.

As an experiment,I took some dryer lint the other day,and tossed it on the coals in our wood stove,before I set a piece of firewood in. The lint burst into a large flame instantly. It's more flammable than I thought! Mark.

As an experiment,the other day I took some drier lint,and tossed it on the coals in our woodstove.It burst into a large flame instantly. It's more flammable than I thought! Mark.

Very good advice, time to pull mine again, been a year or so. I try to set the drying cycle so that I use a minimal amount of drying time and that the clothes might be a little moist at the end, then finish up with just a little more run time. Less shrinkage and wear on the clothing and less run time when the heat is the highest.

They do load up with lint and lint makes great fire starter. One can take a sharp knife and draw it along ones denim pants and make tinder to start a fire in a pinch, the dryer makes a lot more than that on the screen !

Once a year I load my dryer up on the back of the pick up and take it to the shop and use the blow gun to give it a good cleaning,I unscrew the rear cove to get into it good,yes a lot of lint accumulates in them,,and red hot coils near it all,,scary stuff that we don't think about..I know this seems like a lot of work,,,but so is rebuilding a house after a fire...

When I worked for slowes had seen many improper dryer vents. One they ran it into the wall, there was lint everywhere in the wall even around the electrical plug. The guy that was working with me plugged the dryer in and it sparked and started the lint burning. luckly I had seen a fire extinguisher and put it out before it went up the wall. Unplugged it and told them to call a electrician.

My dryer vents out the roof, so plenty of opportunity for accumulation in the pipe.

I got curious about it a few years ago, drilled the rivets out of the rain cap and looked inside. It wasn't too bad, but I still took the vent loose inside and gave it a good blow with the leaf blower. There was more hiding in there that I first saw, so now every year I drag out the dryer and blow it out, just for peace of mind.

I also take the back off the dryer and blow it out, especially around the heat elements and the motor. The motor collects more than anything, can't be good for it.

Shows you why lint is very useful for starting campfires.

Dryer probably couldn't dry the bigger load because the vent was plugged.

Nothing was wrong with it !