The need to clean the dryer vent with a leaf blower begins when it is clogged with wool or lint. It usually requires a one-time cleaning after every six months if you wash clothes daily. The real purpose behind having a vent for the dryer is to emit air and moisture from the machine.
Who would like to have a clogged dryer anyway?
By this process, the air is sent to the vent with a fan, in this way the clothes become dry as well. This air is forced down through the vent pipe where it can blow outside of the house. The vent pipe starts from the backside of any dryer and ends at the wall from where air should vent out.
How to clean dryer vent with a leaf blower – Steps to Do it Correctly
Although, a vent is a very simple-looking opening, due to this our house becomes safe from molds and dirt.
Yes, that little vent is so useful!
It is covered with aluminum material for safety purposes and for maintaining the living etiquettes. The aluminum foil ducts are commonly used as they can be 8 feet long.
Consequently, due to the absence of a dryer vent, many houses can suffer from unseen health hazards.
Really?
Dust, mold and air ventilation can be hidden dangers for your family’s health. But, then again, with the proper maintenance of the drying duct one can easily avoid all these difficulties. Regular checking and cleaning is a must after at least a year to preserve the drying vent.
Why Dryer Vent Becomes Dirty and Clogged
Before going towards the cleaning process first we need to look into the causes of a clogged dryer vent. The clothes we are washing always leave some sort of small lint in the machine, and then it transfers into the dryer. On the other hand, the fabric of the clothes also makes a difference.
- As fluffy clothes lose more minute stuff than any other material so they are another reason for the congested vent.
- Whereas, any sort of tissue paper left in a jeans pocket also becomes a big reason for blocking vent as well.
- Paper, billing receipt or any piece of damaged clothing also jams the air vent.
It all starts, while water is still there in the machine and the lint sticks to the damp clothes. But when drying starts these tiny particles are sucked outside the vent pipe where they usually clog it. It is often ignored and never gets much attention because it doesn’t bother the machine primarily.
Then again, with the passage of time, it affects the machine’s working and power consumption. Though it happens inside every dryer in every house yet from time to time it becomes a big ball of wool inside the vent duct. For this reason, we are unable to figure out the real cause behind it.
Reasons Behind Cleaning Dryer Vent Regularly With Proper Techniques
Why is it important to keep an eye on the dryer vent?
The core reasons for cleaning the dryer vent once a year or six months have multiple aspects.
To Preserve Living Protocols
Firstly, it includes the living protocols, and codes of the settlement, as previously it is evident that clogged vent causes much damage to the house. Though washing rooms are separate from the actual house, they are associated with the air ventilation inside the entire house.
Of course, your health is as important!
The dryer’s vent helps the machine to get rid of the dirt from clothes and send it outside the house. Where it can be collected as garbage or escape out in the form of wool balls. Whereas, if the vent is not present, this lint would stay, roaming around the house in the air.
Health – Staying Safe is Important
The biggest threat is a health hazard due to the ooze, which can affect asthma patients and can be dangerous for infants. Whereas, if the vent is not properly cleaned, then it can cause moisture inside the house, directly giving birth to molds.
These molds and moisture imbalance inside the house can also make your family hypersensitive to drastic allergic reactions. It all happens when the dryer vent is clogged and is unable to send dry air outside giving a real threat to respiratory conditions as well.
Stay safe, stay clean!
Fire Alert
At this point, we cannot ignore the safety measures of our house which can severely be affected by the malfunction of the dryer vent. The blocked dryer ducts also cause leakage of air inside the house, hence doubling the chance of fire due to the increase in moisture content.
As a result, it is essentially a life-saving act to clean the vent with a dryer vent cleaning machine or a leaf blower with appropriate technique. At this juncture, we are discussing some easy ways to clean the dryer vent, with a step-by-step method.
More Energy Consumption Without Work
The clogged vent is one of the measure reasons behind unnecessary energy consumption. It is one of the most neglected negative aspects, but the fact is; it is a major one. The more the blockage is, the more energy would be used by the machine.
It is a directly impacting factor for a washing machine, which can affect its efficiency as well. Then again, this resistance would highly damage the machine’s working capability in the long run.
How to Clean Dryer Vent
First of all, look into the passage where the dryer vent is present on the wall connected to the machine via the aluminum duct. Then, detach the duct while checking in it, this step is important to minimize the pressure.
And,
Clean the part using a brush or leaf blower according to the amount of lint present. If it is in less quantity then doing it manually would be easier. But if the amount of debris is extra; then the leaf blower is perfect to draw out all the clogging stuff.
At this instant:
Leaf blower makes this work stress-free by giving the proper pressure at the right place to clear the blocked part. By using this equipment we can also save the aluminum duct from unwanted scratches which can cause leakage.
Things You Need to Clean Dryer Vent
For following proper steps you must need a few things to start with:
- A Leaf blower for the extraction of wool ball or lint
- Spare brushes to scratch any stuck dust or cleaning
- An extra aluminum duct if the present duct is already leaking
- Duct tape to seal any free air spaces.
- Plastic bags for collecting residue or dirt
Now repeat the given steps after gathering all the mentioned things above in this list.
Essentially the first step would be
- To reach out to the place or the washing area where the drying duct is present
- Try to loosen the duct from the dryer and the wall; the part present in the house.
- Check the duct from inside, you can easily see the amount of lint clogging the vent.
- At this time you can clean this duct pipe manually likewise with the brush
But this is not enough, the exterior end of the vent also requires equal attention.
- After following the first steps, go towards the other end present outside the house.
- The outer casing needs to detach as well to avoid unnecessary stress from the exterior side.
- Also, we can clean the outer covering using a brush
Now again:
After this, you need to go inside the house, and
- Bring a leaf blower near this area and try to place the nozzle in the vent hole.
- The space left around the nozzle of the leaf blower can be covered using duct tape.
- Then start using the leaf blower at its lowest speed just to check the pressure.
- At this moment, give the leaf slower several tries with the increasing speed
- See outside the duct covering whether the lint leaves the duct or not
- Now try again until the duct is completely clean from the dirt
Note: Duct tape is essential to create the required pressure to extract all the lint. It will help to cover all the spaces from where the air is leaking.
Conclusion
The factors explained above tell us clearly about how to clean the dryer vent with a leaf blower. The jammed and dirty air vent of the washing machine is not only unhygienic but hazardous as well. Despite giving health threats, it is also intimidating the safety of the family.
We already know, it is illegal to make the opening of a dryer vent inside the house due to the moisture content imbalance. Nonetheless, there is also several evidence of fire incidence due to ignoring clogged vents. So, to save your house from every fear it is a worth trying procedure.
Now, it doesn’t matter with the size and type of the leaf blower, it just requires the right technique.
