Walnut Apartment – Real Estate for Everyone – Get the Facts
Introduction
It’s difficult to imagine a week without the clothes dryer. While line drying gets the job done, a clothes dryer is just convenient and saves a lot of time. If your clothes dryer is out of order, you can search for “dryer repair near me” and hire professionals to fix it for you. For now, let’s check out how you can keep your clothes dryer running smoothly.
The Details
- Don’t overload – Most people tend to stuff as many items in their dryer as possible. However, it’s the most counterintuitive thing you can do with a clothes dryer. The dryer is designed to work perfectly with a certain weight. When too many damp clothes go into the dryer, the dryer needs to spend more energy spinning the heavy drum. This also stresses the motor and makes it burn through its lifespan at a quicker pace.
That’s not the only problem that comes with overloading. When the drum is full of too many clothes, there’s not enough room for a smooth flow of hot air. Since the hot air doesn’t get to circulate properly inside the drum, the damp clothes take a longer time to dry or come out damp. It also increases your energy bill since the dryer burns more gas or uses more electricity to raise the temperature of the air for quickly drying your clothes.
- Clean the drum – Most people clean their kitchen counter, refrigerator, dishwashers, microwave oven, and other appliances in the kitchen. However, no one thinks about cleaning their laundry room appliances. However, giving your dryer drum a good scrub can help you in many ways.
Cleaning the dryer drum is especially important if you live near the beach, have forgetful kids who leave things in their pockets, or have a pet that sheds a lot of hair. Pet hair, sand, dirt, and all kinds of random stuff end up in the dryer even after they spend some time in the washer. However, unlike the washer, the dryer isn’t designed to get rid of such large debris. If that dirt, pet hair, and other residue ends up in sensitive dryer components, you may end up spending hundreds of dollars for repair.
Now that you know you should clean the dryer drum, how should you go about it? Cleaning the dryer drum the wrong way can also cause damage. To clean loose residue like pet hair or sand you can simply wipe the dryer drum with a damp cloth. The damp cloth will collect most of that residue while the lint trap will block the rest.
On the other hand, if you have sticky residues like gum or lip balm, throw in a few towels inside the dryer. After that, turn on the dryer and allow it to warm up for a few minutes. When the drum is warm, you can use a rubber spatula to scrape away all the sticky residues. Don’t use a sharp metal spatula. Otherwise, you can cause serious damage to the dryer. To completely get rid of the wet residue, make sure to rinse the drum with warm soapy water and wipe it off with a clean dry cloth.
- Clean the lint trap – The lint trap in your clothes dryer does a very important job of trapping dust, hair, and other loose debris. It even traps loose dry fibers from your clothes. When the lint trap gets blocked, it reduces airflow inside the dryer. This isn’t good for the efficiency of the dryer. That’s why you need to remove the lint trap after every cycle and vacuum up all that dust or brush it away to the bin.
Apart from reducing efficiency and increasing energy expenditure, a clogged lint trap is also a fire hazard. The dryer always releases hot air inside the drum and if the temperature gets high enough to light the dry lint on fire, dryer damage is going to be the least of your worries. It can also cause thousands of dollars’ worth of property damage by starting a fire in your home and can even cause loss of life.
Apart from regularly cleaning the lint trap, you also need to deep clean it at least once a year to improve your dryer’s performance. Getting the dryer lint trap deep cleaned helps you get rid of lint that makes its way past the filter.
- Vacuum lint around and behind the dryer – A dryer doesn’t perform well in a dusty room. You don’t want the lint around and behind your dryer to end up inside the dryer and cause problems. That’s why the dryer room should be kept as clean as possible. Lint always brings the risk of fire and reducing it to the best of your abilities helps you avoid that costly risk.
- Inspect the exhaust hood – You need to do this only if you own a gas dryer. A gas dryer has an exhaust hood that releases carbon monoxide and other harmful gasses when the dryer runs. Those gasses need to be released outside your home for obvious safety reasons. Moreover, when those gasses can’t come out and build up in the dryer, the dryer can get damaged. To inspect the exhaust, turn on the dryer and go outside to check up on the hood.
You can also disconnect the dryer and the exhaust duct to get rid of any blockage. An exhaust hood should always push more than 1500 feet of air every minute. When it’s clogged, you may hear strange noises, clothes may come out damp, there may be a burning smell and the exhaust will release hot air. In that case, you need to call a certified technician to fix the problem.
Conclusion
Keeping your clothes dryer running smoothly is very important so that your life doesn’t get disrupted. Moreover, it helps to keep the dryer efficient and makes you spend less money on repairs and energy. If your dryer breaks you can always search for “dryer repair near me” and hire professionals to fix it for you.
