The holiday season is a time for great joy and family gatherings. Many holiday gatherings mean that family and friends will be visiting from afar. Will you be hosting faraway family or friends at your home this year? Will they be spending several days with you? Are your laundry facilities ready to handle the extra load? Let’s talk about the importance of cleaning your dryer vent before the holiday rush.

The holiday season is, in general, more prone to house fires than any other time of year. We’re hanging lights from strange places, lighting candles in multiple areas, bringing a tree into the house, decorating the fireplace, and doing more laundry in two weeks than we normally do in a month. We’re really putting our homes through a rough time through the holidays, especially if we are playing host to visiting family and friends.

The Purpose of the Dryer Vent

The dryer vent and hose are designed to carry hot air out of the home while the dryer itself continually creates heat and dries your clothes. The lint screen in the dryer catches the majority of lint as your clothes tumble in hot air and dry over a period of roughly 45 minutes. The lint that escapes the lint screen becomes trapped in the hose or the vent as they direct hot air out of the house. The result is a very combustible material trapped in a hose with a vent to the outside.

An annual cleaning is necessary in order to keep the dryer working properly. Here are a few signs that your dryer needs to be cleaned:

  • The dry cycle has to be restarted at least once. The dryer should dry your clothes in roughly 45 minutes. It should not need to go through multiple cycles to dry a normal load of laundry.
  • The dryer smells like it is overheating. Clean laundry is the only scent you should smell coming from the laundry room while laundry is being dried.
  • The clothing feels very hot when you get it out of the dryer. Warm or very warm is acceptable, but if your clothing is so it you’re afraid it’s going to leave a mark, it’s too hot.

The clothes dryer is responsible for more than 15,000 structural fires each year in the United States. That’s a lot of damaged property because of the dryer. Let us help make sure your dryer is up to the challenge of hosting your family and friends through the holiday season. Lou Curley’s Chimney Service is located in Drexel Hill and we provide all types of chimney services and dryer vent cleaning throughout the Main Line. Call us at 610-626-2439 to schedule an appointment for a consultation.