Nov 09, 2020
Dryer vent cleaning & snow storm #2
We were out this morning seeing the chiropractor and picking up groceries and wine. Good thing. Just as we arrived home the snow started. I was enjoying watching it fall and forgot to take photos, too late now. Basically everything is white out there. It was dark at 4:45PM with an official one mile visibility. The temperature is 27F / -3C and we are expecting 5 – 10 cm / 2 – 4 inches of snow overnight. Plus more snow Thursday and Friday. They did say that the east would have a warmer than normal winter while we here in the west are to have a colder than normal winter with more snow. So far they are right on. Of course for our first winter in Canada in over 20 years we get to experience bigger and colder.
Thank you all for your suggestions re keeping my legs warm. I have ordered some thermal leggings from Amazon and found out that Marks Work Warehouse ( a Canadian clothing retailer ) might have some warm fleece pants that I can wear over the leggings. Meanwhile I am enjoying all my heaters.
You do know of course that this snow means that ‘the project ‘ will be delayed 😯 Just our luck. All I can do is pour another glass of wine 😕
How often do you clean your dryer vent? Not often enough! Our fire department recommends an annual clean out. The number one cause of fires is smoking and the second cause is dryer fires.
Someone here in the park was having a dryer issue and posted about it on our Neighbourhood Chat page. We have used this dryer for a total of three years since we moved here ( based on us being away in Mexico or elsewhere half the year ) and it was past due.
Our dryer can’t be pulled out, unless we deconstruct how it was installed. So the only way to check it is to go on the roof. They have a special tool that weaves its way down to the dryer that cleans everything out.
A photo of a photo. Austin our dryer specialist, was surprised to see how little came out. Those white dots are bits of fluff. The orange piece at the bottom left is our dryer vent on the roof of the house.
Austin took photos with his iPhone so that we could see what was going on up there. This is not good. First of all we don’t have a screen or flap on the vent, decision made by the builder???? Austin did not like what he saw. All that white and black is dryer vent fluff that is simply sticking around the vent opening. Each time I use the dryer that stuff should just float out and away. But it is not.
I always clean the lint off the dryer screen each and every time that I put a load in. Not once in two or three loads but every load. So Colin started asking questions as to why of the build up surrounding the vent opening on the roof. Finally Austin did a major check inside the dryer.
The space between that screen with the square holes and the solid piece at the bottom is where my dryer screen sits. The lint does stay on that a screen but for some unexplained reason a good deal of fluff that should be blown up the vent pipe and out over the roof is being stopped in this area. The white stuff is a large collection of debris that comes from the dryer.
That white stuff is this. Compressed soft and fluffy materials.
Quite a bit of it as it turns. out. We even found sand sitting at the bottom of that area. Sand!
A strange mix.
A good amount is dog hair from our red coloured doxies. The hair likely came from my washing their bedding. When we came back from Mexico each year I would wash everything in the RV, blankets on the sofas, dog blankets, etc. That is where the red dog hair and sand came from.
Austin still couldn’t figure out why the dryer does not have enough force to send all this stuff up and out. So Colin has some new jobs to add to his lists. One is to add a mesh screen over the went so that critters nor birds can come into and down the vent. He also will check every six months if there is a build up under that checkered screen. It might all have started from the dog hair. We certainly plan to be on top of it. Maybe now we will no longer have that build up.
Hopefully this might motivate some of you to clean out your vents on your own or to hire someone to do it. It cost us $209.00 before tax to get this done and in the process Colin has learned what to look for and how to check for problems. Worth every penny. Likely we will get this done every two years – professionally. Meanwhile he is confident he can stay on top of it. So when was the last time you got your dryer vent checked?
I think that we could all use a good chuckle.
So sad to see this in grocery carts. We saw a few like this today.
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Wow unreal how much was found in there! Good thing you got it cleaned out!
I think we all here in the park need to get this done at least once every five years.
You are getting much colder weather than us. We are getting wind and rain though. I’ve never had my dryer vents cleaned professionally but do clean it every time I use it. That is scary! And even people who wear masks are super ignorant for not taking their own bloody garbage out of the cart – what is up with people?
Yes it is much colder here and more than I expected for this time of year. As you read I also clean my dryer screen each time. I think everyone should get this checked out every few years.