Saturday Shots: Fire!

It's Saturday! Instead of waiting for something to go wrong with your house, be preventive. After a couple shots of morning espresso, let's spend 15 minutes taking a quick look around... and maybe making a couple of quick repairs.

Saturday Shots: Fire!

Last week, we looked at the heating system. This week, let's tackle an easy one... the clothes dryer. Every year, over 17,000 home fires are a result of poor dryer maintenance. 

Dryers rely on moving heat and air through the clothes to the outdoors to work properly. If your clothes are taking a long time to dry, it is an indicator that there may be a problem. If lint builds up in the exhaust pipe or inside the dryer, it slows the air flow and allows heat to build up – and causes lint to build up on the heat source... this can be worse than awful.

The Dryer: 

Go turn on the dryer. (No heat is necessary.) Head outside, put your hand up to the vent... you should feel alot of air coming out. This video has more ways to check your vent. Many people don't realize how much lint can get past the screen, especially if we clean it while the dryer is running (like I do). You can try cleaning with the hose on your vacuum, but probably won't have much success since the lint builds up at the bends. Some other options: 

1. Watch videos on youtube, 
2. Head to the nearby home improvement store and fetch one of those fancy duct cleaner kits.. or 
3. call a duct cleaning company if it's too far or complicated for you to clean. 
4. Pull the duct system apart yourself & clean it thoroughly. 

Taking Care of Your Laundry Area

• Clean the lint trap every time you use the dryer
• Avoid drying foam-backed rugs or athletic shoes... stuff falls off and will quickly reduce air flow.
• Turn the dryer off when leaving home.
• Read the owner's manual to understand manufacturer recommendations. (some suggest removing a panel to check for lint build-up.
• Inspect the seal on the lint screen... be sure it is there & not torn.
• Avoid piling clothes on top of the dryer.  That helps ensure clothing does not fall down behind the dryer.
• Clean out behind and underneath your clothes dryer periodically (today is a good day).
• Use metal pipe for your dryer vent.  Plastic pipe will melt.  Metal rigid or flexible vent pipe will stand up to a lint fire much better.
• Use extreme caution when laundering items that might have flammable liquids on them.  Wash clothes contaminated by gasoline, cooking oil or finishing stains at least twice and then line dry them.  Often, one wash won’t remove all of the flammable liquid.  The clothes dryer will elevate the temperature of the contaminated clothing and it may start an auto-ignition reaction that will end in a fire in your clothes dryer.
• Tip from one of my clients... Double-check the pockets. We all know that crayons, pens, and lipstick can be messy... but a lighter can be catastrophic.  

When you're done, I'd recommend making notes in a small notebook or computer file, in case you find something similar in a couple months or years. 

Until next week's 15-Minute Check-up, enjoy your day off!

~ Jon

"A shot of prevention is better than a venti of cure." 

The Fine Print: Because of the general nature of this advice and the individual application thereof, neither the Merriam Agency nor Jon Barron assume any responsibility for any loss, cost, damage, injury or expense which may be incurred or suffered as a result of the use of this information or your own foolishness.