COCOA, Fla. – Larry and Charlotte called us from Cocoa because they saw our segment on cleaning out a dryer vent hose to get rid of lint buildup and reduce the risk of a fire, but they had a problem - they couldn’t get to the back of their dryer!
So we bought a dryer cleanout kit to clean out the vent hose from the outside!
If you have a project you’d like Erik to tackle, send us an email at GettingResultsAtHome@wkmg.com and next week Erik might just show up at your door!
[Watch video below to see Erik Getting Results At Home]
We purchased:
12-foot-long dryer vent hose cleaning kit
We brought with us:
Electric drill
Breathing mask
Glasses
Step 1
Assemble the cleaning kit. The extension pieces screw together to become 12-feet long. The brush screws onto the end of the extension. My favorite part about this kit is it comes with a drill adapter. The adapter screws into the other end of the extension pieces and then you put that end into your drill like a drill bit. Then you can spin the brush with your electric drill!
Step 2
Clean the pipe. This is where your mask and glasses come in handy. Feed the brush end into the dryer vent opening on the outside your house. It helps if you have a partner here - have the partner hold the drill and slowly start to spin up the drill (and the brush inside the vent pipe) while you continue to feed the brush deeper into pipe. Keep spinning the brush while feeding it into and out of the pipe. You’ll see lint and dust loosening up.
And this is important: Larry and Charlotte’s vent pipe was much longer than 12 feet (the length of the extension pieces) so we didn’t have to worry about the end of the brush burrowing into the back of the dryer and potentially damaging the internal dryer blower. But if your dryer vent pipe is shorter than 12 ft, you must be careful of this! The cleaning kit comes with a plastic guard that you can place into the vent opening at the back of your dryer to protect the brush from burrowing into the dryer - but this is assuming you can get access to the back of your dryer to remove the vent pipe to put the guard in place.
Step 3
Vacuum. Since you just loosened up a ton of dust, you’ll want to vacuum out as much as you can. We used a shop vac and fed the vacuum hose into the vent pipe as far as possible. The cleaning kit also comes with an adapter that allows you to connect your vacuum hose at the same time you’re feeding the brush into the vent pipe so you can suck out lint as you’re spinning the brush.
Step 4
Start the dryer. Make sure you do this before loading any laundry! Have someone watch the vent pipe on the outside to make sure your pipe is clear. Dryers have a built-in blower motor so as soon as you start the dryer it will blow out air - and any loosened and remaining lint or dust - from the vent pipe. You may see those leftovers blow out of the pipe. Either way make sure you can feel the exhaust from the dryer coming out of the pipe. This confirms that you have a clear pipe with no obstructions.
You just got results at home!