In the Gospel according to Jen, there are two types of people:
Those who take care of their things and those who do not.
Why drop a ton of money on a home, vehicle or appliance, and then never do any maintenance?
Being thrifty around our house starts with one very basic principle: Take care of what you have – make it last and get your money’s worth out of it.
When we moved into our home 4 years ago, we were blessed to be in a position where we could outfit the kitchen & laundry with brand new appliances. We didn’t go top of the line on anything because I couldn’t justify the extra expense.
In hopes of getting as many years as possible out of these appliances, we regularly take steps to make sure they are in good working order. Everything is wiped down constantly and pulled away from the wall for cleaning behind and underneath. Insides and outside are scrubbed and de-gunked. Belts, hoses and filters are inspected and repaired as needed.
One of my monthly tweaker tasks is to take my favorite little yellow handvac and attack the compressor vent under the fridge and suck all the “run away” lint that gets stuck under our dryer’s lint trap. I get in there with my crevice tool and revel in all the dust and pet hair I can coax out.
So let’s flashback to a Saturday not too long ago, when I was cleaning out my dryer’s lint trap….
After using the vac to suck out any loose lint from the collection area, I decided to grab a flashlight to see if I had missed any. After peeking down into the opening, I noticed a big piece I had missed.
I recruited the husband to take apart the lint trap so I could get to said lint ball.
After pulling out gobs and gobs of lint, it became apparent that there was a collection area about the size of a text book underneath the lint trap.
Mind you, there is no way you could get your hand down in there to clean it! So the normal person who might just be scraping the lint filter may never know that there’s a giant brick of lint growing in their dryer.
Annnnnnd it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyways):
LINT IS FLAMMABLE.
So ladies and gentlemen – here’s what we pulled out of this unknown bowel of lint hell. This was very densely compacted when we pulled it out. I shudder to think what might have happened if we never knew it was building up down there.
So just when I was starting to feel all proud of myself, I got the wild idea to buy one of those dryer exhaust cleaning kits. Being that Matt had the day off today (a rare occurrence for a Sunday), we hit Ace Hardware, then powered up with a little Sonic breakfast (don’t judge).
First step was to remove the exhaust hose:
While Matt was putting the kit together, I removed the access panel behind the dryer and sucked out a ton of dust/lint. Note that it’s completely caking our belts and wiring.
Before
After
The section that comes out of the wall was very clogged.
After sticking my hand in to scrape some out, I realized we had a hole in there. Out came some drywall! Yeah I don’t even have words for what kind of cluster this was. The wall underneath was FULL of lint. Now all the drywall had to come out.
We ended up pulling down that pipe since a nail had literally rusted a giant hole through it.
So Matt’s been running a drill operated brush extension up through our living room ceiling for the past couple of hours and has broken through some major blockages and pulled out a trashcan full of lint. Some of that junk has probably been in there for 20 years.
The moral to this little tale is that we came very close to having a lint fire destroy our home. After new siding, windows, heating, ac, plumbing, flooring and everything else we’ve poured into this house, it would have been gutwrenching to lose it all to something as seemingly harmless as a little dryer lint. Please take a peek at your venting while you’re doing your spring cleaning. A couple hours and a little elbow grease could save your home.
