Sunday, January 27, 2008

Adventures in Drying

For the last few months, I have noticed that I have to run the dryer for a full 60 minutes twice to get stuff to dry (even if the load is not huge, this is the case). I figured it had something to do with the voltage or the age of the dryer but when I told my friend K about it the other day, she said I should check the exhaust hose.

Before
I had looked at it in the past and thought it was a bit large for the amount of distance that needed to be covered to reach the outvent but I figured that professionals put it in, so they must know what they are doing, right? Wrong...

After
I finally decided to pull the dryer out and find out if I could fix my issue on my own. Turns out, I could. I took about 3 feet off the hose and also took out a huge clump of lint that was up against the outvent. Now the dryer is drying in one turn of the clock rather than in two. I am sure I will have to clean it out again soon but I am hoping that the purchase of new towels was the main culprit in the fast fill up and that I won't have to clean it out too soon.

Clump O'Lint

9 comments:

Chicken said...

I didn't think that you had to do much drying there.

Haha said...

I bought one of those dryer brushes that you can stick down the vent opening on the dryer and boy was I surprised what came out of there. I clean my vent screen every load, so I was really surprised. That is a fire hazard. Also, check the washer hoses as our friends flooded there house when one broke and they were in town shopping - they had insurance fortunately.

Haha said...

By the way - GOOD JOB! I am so glad you try and fix things yourself before you bring in the Big Guns!!!

... said...

Chicken- I don't do too much drying but I do have to dry anything that is too big, towels, underwear and socks in the winter at least because it is just warm enough to dry the stuff without it mildewing first. In the summer, I can hang dry much more...unfortunately, I still dry towels mostly.

Haha- I don't have any big guns to call in (except the repair people but I figured I better to thoroughly check it out myself first) and fortunately for us, the washer and dryer are in a separate lower part of the house, so if they flooded, we would be okay belonging wise.

Haha said...

That's great! I am glad you did not have to call the repair people!

Mind Sprite said...

Good for you, fixing stuff all by yourself. You go, girl!!

Anonymous said...

i'm a total DIY person

you have to clean that on a regular basis for it is a fire hazard (i got that lecture from my dad about 10 yrs ago)

kilgorsky said...

I'm so useless around the house, I'm sure I would miss the blockage.

Birdie said...

I came across your site through the help section..this dryer thing was enlightening! I feel like checking my hose now *smile*