Dryer not drying? Check your vent

If your dryer can’t breathe it can’t work, resulting in long dry times.

If you are having trouble with your dryer not drying or taking too long to dry, here are some things you need to keep in mind.

Dryers need three things to work properly.

  1. Air exchange, aka ventilation
  2. Heat
  3. Motion

Think of these like the ingredients required to make a cake. Without the required ingredients you won’t end up with a cake. It’s as simple as that.

The same is true for the dryer. Heat and motion without ventilation and you just have a smoldering pile of steamy clothes. Heat and ventilation without movement and you just have a pile of hot clothes that are dry on the top (although that’s impossible due to safeties in the dryer), Ventilation and movement without heat and you have an indoor clothes line. All three combinations will result in a long dry time and a dryer that takes too long to dry.

The point is that dryer venting is at least 33% of the dryers requirement to work and will result in long dry time, or taking too long to dry.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

A lot of the houses built in the last 10 years have the washroom on an interior wall of the home. I’m not sure why they thought this was a good idea but they did, and now you’re stuck with dealing with it. The fact is that most people don’t even know they should get them cleaned on a regular schedule. What will happen over time is that the vent will build up lint on the interior walls restricting the air flow. This results in a dryer not drying properly.

Dryer vents cause a lot of problems.

If your dryer takes more than one cycle to dry heavy loads such as towels or jeans you probably have an issue with your vent.

Long dry times are preventable. They are also energy consuming money pits, resulting in broken dryers and high energy bills. Having your vents cleaned once a year will probably double your money in the electricity savings alone because your dryer can work proplerly. Alleviating the problem of your dryer not drying.

Newer dryers will error out but the older ones will work themselves to death trying to dry a load of clothes. I’ve heard of many people replacing their dryers only to have the new one not work either because they had a clogged up or crushed dryer vent. If your vent goes through the walls or attic of the house you should have it cleaned on a regular schedule dependent on how much use it gets and the length and number of turns in your vent pipe. You have to establish the cleaning schedule with a professional you can trust. I recommend Ryan from Northshore Dryer Vent. He’s HVAC certified and knows how to manipulate these pipes and find potential problems. Together you can establish a cleaning schedule to keep your dryer drying, and keep me from having to repair it.

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