Clogged Clothes Dryer Dangers

Clothes dryers seem harmless enough — yntil they burn your house to the ground.

Not trying to be extreme here, but we’ve seen enough house fires in Sioux Falls to know that cleaning your dryer vents is not a task to be taken lightly.

In fact, if you don’t schedule a regular Sioux Falls duct cleaning service, you could be faced with one of the top clogged dryer vent dangers.

Here are three reasons to start taking your clothes dryer seriously.

3 Reasons to Clean Your Clothes Dryer Vent

1. The Danger of House Fire

The most common — and most frightening — danger of not cleaning your dryer vents is the risk of house fire.

When lint collects in your dryer vents, it restricts the air flow, causing exhaust gases to get backed up — creating the perfect environment for a fire to start.

Here are a few shocking facts from the National Fire Protection Association on how clothes dryers contribute to house fires:

  • Around 15,970 clothes dryer fires are reported each year, resulting in an estimated 13 civilian deaths, 444 civilian injuries, and $238 million in property loss.
  • Clothes dryers and washing machines are involved in one out of every 22 home fires, with dryers accounting for 92% of those fires.
  • The leading cause of clothes dryer fires (at 32%) is failure to clean the dryer.

Yeah. Yikes.

2. The Danger of Pest Invasion

If a home fire doesn’t scare you, how about a pest invasion?

When you have a buildup of lint in your dryer vents, your duct hood flap may not close properly. This could provide a small entrance for pests seeking shelter and warmth during the winter.

The most popular dryer vent pests include birds, mice, and rats. If you’re really lucky, you might even have a groundhog or baby skunk sneak in! (Kidding, of course.)

To prevent pests from using your house as a crash pad, clean your vents, so the hood flap is actually able to close. Then, have your duct cleaner install a pest guard for you. It’s not a replacement for dryer vent cleaning, but it at least gives you some extra peace of mind.

3. The Danger of…Well, Less Money

Okay, so a slimmer bank account isn’t necessarily a danger, but it’s definitely an annoyance — sometimes a serious one.

Dryers with excess lint use more energy, meaning you’re paying an average of $30 more per month on your energy bill. Once your dryer vent is cleaned, you’ll enjoy quicker and more efficient drying cycles.

Plus, when you’ve got a clogged dryer vent, you’ll need to run it more often in order to fully dry your clothes. The harder you work your dryer, the quicker it will break down, so you could be shelling out the cash for a new one far before you should.

Schedule Your Dryer Vent Cleaning Sioux Falls

Clogged Dryer Vent Cleaning Sioux Falls

So how do you know if your clothes dryer needs cleaning?

Well, if you don’t remember the last time you cleaned your dryer vent, it’s probably time.

You should schedule a dryer cleaning service in Sioux Falls about once a year, more often if you run your dryer frequently. A family with four children, for instance, may want to have their dryer vents cleaned three times a year.

If you’re still uncertain whether you really need a dryer vent cleaning, check out this list of the key warning signs of a clogged dryer vent.

While there are do-it-yourself options for dryer vent cleaning, beware that unless you’re a trained specialist, you could actually create a worse problem by failing to remove all the lint (or worse, compacting the lint tighter).

So when in doubt, give your Sioux Falls duct cleaners at INTEK a call. We offer free video inspections and quotes, so there’s no commitment involved.

(Although, when you consider the health benefits of duct cleaning — not to mention the fact that it lowers your risk of fire damage — you probably won’t hesitate to book your dryer vent cleaning ASAP!)