Dryer Vent Cleaning in Spearfish, SD
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Step 1 of 3: Equipment
Cold vent runs, lint sticks
Your dryer pushes out warm, damp air. That air has to travel through a vent that sits in a cold house most of the year. Homes here need heat from September through June, and winter nights average 13°F from December through February. Inside a cold vent, that warm air cools fast, and the moisture in it settles on the vent walls. Lint sticks to a damp wall far more than it sticks to a dry one.
Once lint builds up along those cold walls, the vent narrows. A dryer working against a narrowed vent runs hotter and takes longer to dry a load, and the damp air it pushes out has less room to escape.
- 13°F
- the average winter night, and cold vents catch damp lint
- 10 months
- September through June, the vent stays cold
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NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should a dryer vent be cleaned?
- Once a year, at least. If you run loads almost every day, or you've got a long vent run to the outside, check it sooner. Lint builds up along the way even if the lint trap gets cleaned every time, and a vent that's choked down makes the dryer run hotter and take longer to dry a load.
- Can I clean my dryer vent myself?
- You can clean the part you can reach, but that's rarely the whole vent. Pull the trap lint out and vacuum a foot or two into the duct from both ends, that much is safe to do yourself. Most vents run several feet through a wall or up through a roof, though, with bends a shop vac hose can't reach around, and that's where lint actually collects. A contractor uses a rod and brush system built to travel the full run and pull lint out at the far end, not just push it deeper in.
- What are the signs of a clogged dryer vent?
- Clothes that take two cycles to dry, or come out hot instead of just warm, are the first sign. The outside vent hood should flap open and push out air while the dryer runs. If you feel weak airflow there, or barely any, the vent is likely blocked somewhere along its length. A burning smell or a dryer that shuts off mid-cycle means it's overheating from restricted airflow, and that's worth having looked at soon rather than waiting.