Over time, lint builds up in the vent and prevents it from moving air efficiently, causing your dryer to work harder and using more energy in the process. If you notice that you have to run your dryer more than once to get your clothes dry, the lint vent may be clogged. It’s one of the appliances that uses the most energy in a home, so it’s important to keep it running efficiently. One of the most important things to do to accomplish this is to clean out its lint vent regularly.
Safety
If the lint vent is left clogged, it can be a risk for fire hazards, as hot air is continuously vented against old, dry lint. Clothes dryers were involved in 2900 home fires each year, leading to 5 deaths and hundreds of injuries, according to FEMA. The National Fire Protection Agency attributes dryer lint as the cause of 30 percent of residential fires. Clothes dryer fires also accounted for over $200 million in property damage, according to NFPA.
Health
Accumulation of dust and lint inside your home can cause allergies and irritation to lungs. It can also provide a home for dust mites and other pests. Keeping your dryer vent clear will allow the hot air and lint to more easily exit your home, rather than backing up and potentially making your indoor air less clean.
Environmental and Financial Savings
According to HECO, Hawaii’s largest electric utility, a dryer that is clogged can cost you a lot of money.
Cleaning your dryer vent resolves airflow blockages so your clothes dry more quickly and easily and you reduce your energy consumption and electric bills. With that financial savings, we also get cleaner air to breathe globally, too, as it reduces the amount of fossil fuels burned trying to dry your clothes. Each dry cycle of 60 minutes with a cleaner dryer vent can reduce 11.3 pounds of CO2 emissions, according to the EPA, and, depending on your utility’s fuel mix, potentially a lot of other pollutants that make air harder to breathe in your neighborhood.
How often should a dryer vent be cleaned?
How often the dryer vent should be cleaned depends on how often you use your dryer, but it’s a good idea to clean it or hire a professional to clean it once every six months to a year.
Schedule a professional cleaning
Pono Home has been cleaning dryer vents on Oahu since 2014, and has a perfect 5 star rating on Yelp (see photo above, of our company founder cleaning a dryer vent in 2014, for instance). Our company offers dryer vent cleaning services as part of our appliance maintenance offerings, including cleaning your refrigerator condenser coils, removing sediments from your water heater tank, and many more ways to green your home, improve your health, make your home safer, and reduce your utility bills.
To schedule a cleaning, please call (844) GO-PONO-1 or e-mail info@ponohome.com.