Camelot Neighborhood Association

My co-worker was late to work today because he had an electric dryer fire!  He was drying a comforter, and the accumlation of lint and the high heat triggered a fire in the dryer.  He said the dryer door popped open and flames shot out damaging the wooden cabinets directly about the unit.  He took a garden hose to extiguish the fire - I glad he didn't get electrocuted! 

I'm going to take a long lint brush to clean out the lint catcher slot in the dryer and then blowout the vent leading to the roof this week!!!  Please check your dryer for excessive lint to reduce the risk of a fire.  Here are some methods to prevent a fire: http://www.laundry-alternative.com/clothes_dryer_fire.htm

One of the first things I noticed about the design of my home that I don't like is that my dryer vent has to run straight up to the roof of my house.  It takes 3 times longer for my dryer to get our laundry dry.  My poor dryer has to run overtime and I'm sure it uses triple the electricity.  But another concern to me was the fact that lint must also back up due to my dryer having to work so hard to expel.  Before I moved here it only took about 15 mins to dry what will take 45 min to an hour now.

Now I use a clothes line to dry the heavy things like towels or jeans.  I'm surprised that there are not more fires in Camelot on the design of my house. 

Longer dryer times maybe caused by a restricted vent pipe. Our homes have a vent pipe connection which is flush to the wall leaving minimal space for the flexible pipe to work efficiently.  For less than $38 a dryer box can be delivered to your home and plan on 1 hour of total effort to install it. Here's a link to the product I've purchased - http://shop.dryerbox.com/s.nl/sc.7/category.10/.f

Prior to ordering, confirm how much wall space exists behind the drywall to select either the 4" or 6" wall depth model. 

Blowing out the vent pipe can be done using a shop vacume using its exhaust port (air output).   I was amazed how much lint came out of my vent pipe! When I checked my roof, there was enough lint to fill a paper grocery sack 1/3 full.

We have had the same problem over the years and even had a professional company come out to clean out the vent.  However, that only temporarily fixes the problem.  The installation of a dryerbox sounds like the way to go, but neither my husband nor I feel like we want to tackle the project.  Can you recommend someone or a company that we could hire to do this?