Dryer Vent Cleaning in Burlington, VT
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Cold vents give lint somewhere to stick
Your dryer pushes out warm, damp air, and that air has to travel through a vent that sits in cold space most of the year. Winter nights here average 12°F from December through February, so the vent walls are cold most of the time the dryer runs. Warm air cools fast against that metal, and the moisture in it beads up. Lint sticks to a damp wall far more than it sticks to a dry one.
Over a winter that runs September through May, that buildup narrows the vent a little at a time. A narrow vent means the dryer has to push harder to move the same air, and the lint that collects behind the restriction is the kind that burns.
- 12°F
- the average winter night, and cold vents catch damp lint
- 9 months
- September through May, the vent stays cold
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should a dryer vent be cleaned?
- Once a year is the standard, more often if you dry a load almost every day. Lint builds up along the length of the vent, not just in the trap, and a full year of drying packs a lot of it in there. Homes with long vent runs or a lot of turns in the duct should lean toward the shorter end of that.
- Can I clean my dryer vent myself?
- You can clean the part you can reach, but that is not the same as cleaning the vent. Pulling the dryer out and vacuuming the first few feet of duct and the trap opening helps, and it is worth doing between full cleanings. The lint that actually blocks airflow tends to sit further down the duct or right at the vent hood outside, past where a homeowner's brush or vacuum hose reaches. A contractor runs a rod or a cable the full length of the vent and clears it at the hood too, which is the part that matters most for a dryer that is taking too long to dry a load.
- What are the signs of a clogged dryer vent?
- The clearest sign is a load that takes longer to dry than it used to, or comes out still damp at the end of a cycle. Other signs are the outside of the dryer feeling hot to the touch, a burnt smell during a cycle, or the flap at the vent hood outside barely moving when the dryer runs. Lint building up around the lint trap door or the outside vent opening is worth checking too. Any one of these means air is not moving through the vent the way it should, and that's worth having looked at before it gets worse.