Is it just me or when it comes to home maintenance, what seems like a fairly easy, inexpensive project ends up being a whole lot more complicated than you anticipated and ends up costing a whole lot more than you hoped. So we end up putting off important home maintenance projects. I get it. Who wants to spend money cleaning out the gutters or the dryer vent when you could be shopping for shoes!
Well I have good news for you today. I’m sharing a super useful and inexpensive tip that will make your life a whole lot easier. If you own a leaf blower, it’s not going to cost you big bucks, actually it’s not going to cost you anything except about 15 minutes of your time. Bonus…it isn’t difficult or complicated to do.
Are you interested in finding out more?
What is it about the new year that sparks a desire to clean out and organize your life? Putting away all the excess from Christmas, clearing out the visual clutter seems to spark that inclination to clear out different areas of our homes. Plus with everything cleared out, it’s just so much easier to clean.
We moved into our new home last year and during the last several months the thought of cleaning out the dryer vent kept gnawing at me every time I took a load of clothes out of the dryer. In our old house the laundry room wall, where the washer and dryer stood, was an outside wall. The dryer hose was less than a foot long and vented directly out into the backyard. It was easy to clean out the vent on a regular basis, and no big deal.
Here at the new house the laundry room is situated in the interior of the house and the washer and dryer are not set up along an exterior wall. The dryer vent hose snakes through the walls to the other side of the house, about 30 feet from the laundry room. Does this sound like a setup that you have in your home?
I kept putting off cleaning out the vent, thinking it would be difficult to do or would require hiring someone to come out to do it, costing big bucks. When my girlfriend Christine, shared with me that she had to replace her brand new dryer because the dryer hose in her rental unit was completely blocked with lint, I knew I needed to address this. That blocked vent hose ruined the heating element of her brand new dryer. She is lucky that she didn’t have a fire!
Did you know that there are an average of 2,900 home clothes dryer fires reported each year? These fires cause an estimated 5 deaths, 100 injuries, and $35 million in property loss. Failure to clean dryer hoses and vents is the leading cause of home clothes dryer fires.
This got me motivated to finally address the dryer vent hose. No more excuses!!!
I kept looking at the vent hose and had a lightbulb moment. The opening looked like it about the same size as the end of our leaf blower. What? Stay with me here…
Could I maybe just blow out the lint? It was worth a try.
Start by pulling the dryer away from the wall so you can reach the wall where the hose attaches to the wall. Remove the vent hose from the wall.
Place leaf blower into the opening of the wall.
Mine fit snugly into the opening, but if yours doesn’t fit snugly, use some duct tape to seal the nozzle of the leaf blower into the opening.
Then let that baby rip for about 5-10 seconds.
Look at what came out of the vent in the backyard!!! Ok not the box, that is in the photo to give you an idea of how much lint is on the ground. But holy moly that was a lot of lint that had built up in the hose line.
Now be sure to save that lint! Why would you want to save it? To make these fire starters of course! Instead of throwing that lint away and having it end up in the landfill it is extremely flammable making it the perfect medium to make fire starters. They are perfect when camping, or anytime you want to get a cozy fire going in the fire pit in your backyard. I store them in a coffee can in our trailer.
Be safe my friends, don’t put off cleaning the lint out of the dryer vent hose in your home. Try this tip. Cleaning out your dryer hose may may end up being a lot easier than you ever imagined and protect your home from a fire!
Let Me Know If This Tip Worked For You
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