The threat to home safety posed by a clogged dryer vent is what makes its regular cleaning so important. There are other benefits that come with dryer vent cleaning, but that improvement in home safety is unquestionably where its importance lies. Along with chimneys, dryer vents are where a huge number of house fires begin every year and their blockage is the cause.
This is especially crazy when dryer vents take a short and direct path to the great outdoors, making it easy for homeowners to clean them. More often than not, however, dryer vents in modern homes travel complicated routes and require professional cleaning. Inexpensive to begin with, these services potentially offer savings that far outweigh a skipped outing or two.
Clean Dryer Vents Save More Than Money
Beyond removing the source of too many house fires, dryer vent cleaning improves its performance, resulting in less drying time and lower utility bills. The savings can be significant, with drying time reduced to a third or less of what it was when the vent was blocked. When you think about it, those savings can more than pay for the guy with the right equipment to come out and clean the vent.
Don’t Cut Corners Just Because the Venting Does
Fire in a dryer vent is usually attributable to an accumulation of lint, but living things have been found in them, too. Both types of blockage can be avoided with the vent’s regular cleaning and proper maintenance. Unfortunately, both nests and lint are most likely to pile up at jointed corners, in exactly the vents most difficult for homeowners to clean.
Luckily, professionals have specialized equipment that snakes proper brushes around those corners and through the vent. Well worth including in the budget is a visit by one, to do what needs to be done that you really cannot on your own. The chimney sweeps that handle the job for you are invariably knowledgeable and efficient, and their services are much less costly than a blocked vent.