Top 6 Ways to Set Your House on Fire Using Your Clothes Dryer

[Mike]

This came from an appliance maintenance mailing list I'm on. I thought it was a bit excessive and then learned clothes dryers cause more than 10,000 residential fires per year. The appliance site is www.DavesRepair.com.

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One of the scariest things I see on a daily basis is charred lint inside dryers and dryer vents. Here in the Northeast, we're in the middle of 'dryer season', and we're running them really hard, so I thought this'd be a good time to talk about several ways to reduce the fire hazard that's caused by making just one or two common mistakes with clothes dryers. Here are the best 6 ways I can think of to start a rip-roaring dryer fire (if you're in a hurry, just combine any 2 or 3):

- Don't clean your dryer's lint filter every load (or twice per load when drying towels and other high-lint fabrics), but only when the lint starts keeping the filter from seating, or lint starts falling out on the floor

- Be sure to leave the house for extended periods when the dryer's running

- Use white plastic, flexible duct (it's really cheap)

- Make the vent length as long as possible, looped through cold crawlspaces if possible, to allow it to fill with condensate and prevent any airflow

- Don't have the dryer professionally disassembled and cleaned and lubed every two years, max

- Vent it through one of those screened hoods that's sold to keep birds and other critters out

OK, if you've read this far without hitting 'delete' <grin>, you know I'm just having a little fun here. But I've only done it to get your attention, because the issue is deadly serious. I see the above mistakes made way too often, and the consequences are scary - but can easily be prevented.

Here's the 'skinny':

- DO clean the lint filter every load, twice when drying terry towels and other heavy 'linters'.

- DON'T rely on that to prevent heavy lint buildup inside the dryer, where you don't see it (it won't).

- DO have it thoroughly cleaned by a pro as often as necessary, at least every two years (some dryers, 27" wide Whirlpools and Kenmores come to mind, can need it twice/year on average - depends on usage)

- DO, if at all possible, install your dryer on an outside wall, to keep the vent run as short as possible. DO use as much 4 inch aluminum 'smooth wall' pipe in the vent run as possible, with sections connected with foil tape (screw points projecting into the duct will catch lint) with any flexible 'tails' connected with one of the high quality foil ducts available. I've come to prefer 'Supurr-Flex' brand, 5-layer foil (The 12/03 DRSNews includes a picture of this material).

(If you have to run any duct through a cold area like a crawlspace, whether solid or flex, poke 1/4 in drain holes in the bottom, at about 2 foot intervals, to keep moisture from accumulating.)

- DON'T use any size screen anywhere in the vent system. Even the popular 3/8 inch mesh 'bird screens' clog, as hard as that is to believe! I see this regularly (Here's an article with a picture of one of these).

So there you have it. There are probably a few other methods of accomplishing this, but these are the ones I see most commonly used, so I thought I'd pass them along <g>.