Tuesday

Dryer Vent Cover

Wondering why you need dryer vent cover? Will you really benefit from one, or is it just a fancy looking thing that does nothing but looks good? You will realize you need a dryer vent cover after you read this post.

Just think about one thing here. Did you noticed how the room where your clothes dryer is feels different? Isn't it always colder in there, comparing to other rooms in your home? Answer for that is quite simple, because the cause is well known.

Your exhaust duct is opened to the outdoors, and that means that you have a 4 inch diameter hole in the wall. During the cold days, the air that comes in your home will be cold. And during warm days, the hot air will enter your home. This means you will lose heat during winter, and gain heat during summer. Not a pretty situation, right? This is exactly why you need dryer vent covers.

You lose energy this way, meaning that you will have to pay more for home heating. Also , you will have to pay more for air conditioning during hot summer days.

The solution for this problem is quite simple. You can use a sheet metal flapper and reduce air leakage. It is the basic solution and will help you a bit, but if you want to solve this problem entirely, you have to use something better as a dryer vent cover. This is simply because the lint will clog the flapper and leave them opened. Then you are back to square one.

You need to find a clothes dryer vent cover that will open itself only when your clothes dryer works. This is the perfect solution. It will keep the air outside, along with the insects, rodents and birds. This type of dryer vent cover only allows hot air outside when your dryer is working. It doesn't get better then that.

Dryer Vent Cleaning

If you want your clothes dryer to be efficient, you have to stick to dryer vent cleaning. Wit time, lint will build up and it closes the dryer vent system, creating a dangerous situation. Cleaning dryer vent is a necessity in order to prevent your clothes dryer to work over his limits, as well as preventing the possibility of fire. Irregular dryer vent cleaning is the biggest cause of home fires in the US.

How can you know if your clothes dryer ventilation needs cleaning? The most important thing you can do is to notice any difference in behavior of your dryer. If it needs more time to dry clothes than usual, that could be a sign of clogged dryer vent. Check out your ducting, but if you are not experienced enough, then call someone who can help you with that.

Most dryer vent are short because they have an exhaust right next to the clothes dryer, out to the wall. And these have less chance to become clogged and need cleaning. The longer dryer vent is, bigger possibility for clogging and cleaning.

If you have a long ducting, then it is much harder to do the dryer vent cleaning. You will need special tools and equipment or you will even have to call cleaning service. Besides cleaning the lint, the service will also take care of any animal nesting that can appear in dryer vent.

All gas dryer users should be more concerned with dryer vent cleaning because the carbon monoxide is created when gas dryer works. This gas is poisonous and can enter your rooms. This is why vent cleaning is really important, the goal is to prevent losses of lives. And the statistics say fires and carbon monoxide poisoning happen due to improper dryer vent cleaning. If you think you are not able to clean the vent by yourself, hiring a professional would be a good choice.

Wednesday

A Short Clothes Dryer Fan Guide

First, let us try to follow the path of the air that goes through the clothes dryer. When you start your machine, the air gets sucked into the clothes dryer through the openings in the machine. This air is needed to dry our clothes, of course, and without it this machine wouldn't be able to operate.

The air that goes inside is there with the help of one fan that drives all of the air through the clothes dryer. But you must remember that this fan is actually the last step in the air moving process. What happens next, is that air goes out the clothes dryer by his own will. This is where you need a duct to get rid of that hot air through to roof, or sometimes through the wall. But, it will move slowly and there is a possibility that you will have problems. This is why you need other fan, the one that will be on the other side and suck the air out of the dryer, leading it out through the duct.

We want to say this again, because people seem to forget it all the time. If you have a clothes dryer that is powered by propane or natural gas, it is DANGEROUS to vent the air to the inside. Do not do this, under no circumstances. The exhaust gas is blown out along with the heated air, thus poisoning your basement with carbon monoxide. Make sure you vent it through the roof and use a exhaust fan to get rid of the dangerous air.