The clothes dryer in your home is a great labor- and time-saving device, making it easy to complete a load of laundry in a short span. The dryer does have some important maintenance needs, however, and ignoring them will endanger not only the appliance’s energy efficiency and your laundry… it can also endanger your home. The most important maintenance job your clothes dryer needs is for its duct to receive regular cleaning to remove the lint built up inside it.
Why dryer duct cleaning is so important
A duct, usually made of flexible material, runs from the dryer to a vent where it exhaust the heat and moisture removed from the clothes. But lint from the clothes also travels along this duct and can become trapped along it. Over time, this fabric build-up will start to reduce the space in the ducts, which will make it harder for the dryer to do its job. You may notice that it takes longer and longer to run a load before it gets dry, and your energy bills will start to rise.
But the principle reason you want to avoid a clogged dryer duct is because it presents a significant fire hazard. Lint is highly flammable, which is why hikers carry it on camping trips to help ignite campfires. The high temperatures inside the duct can cause the lint to catch on fire, leading to a conflagration that will spread quickly through a house. Clogged dryer ducts are a leading cause of house fires and can inflict $15 million in damages each year.
But cleaning a dryer duct is a simple job for a professional. You can have the dryer’s duct cleaned as part of a regular duct cleaning job, or you can schedule it separately. But make sure you do schedule it, for the sake of your home and family.
Hall’s Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration offers dryer duct cleaning services in Shreveport, LA.
