Your dryer is the second half of the your Laundry Room’s workforce. Helping your dryer work at it’s most efficient will not only reduce it’s drying time but it will also help extend the life of your dryer (and help to reduce your energy bill).
Here are 4 tips to watch for to help your dryer live it’s fullest life…
1. Make sure your home’s dryer venting is clean of lint and up to code.
A half inch build up of lint in a 4 inch dryer duct reduces the overall area for air flow by 44%. This could be anywhere in the system (including bends). Keeping your home’s dryer venting clear of built up lint will help your dryer do it’s job and help to avoid a dryer fire.
It is important that your home’s dryer venting is up to today’s code even if your home were built many years ago. Dryer venting that isn’t up to today’s code could cause problems that you might not be able to see. If you have any questions if your venting is to code, give us a call, we would be happy to come take a look.
2. Listen for sounds.
Your dryer when in use should not sound like a car engine, jet engine or anything other than it’s normal (from the factory) sound. If you are hearing these type of sounds it could be a sign that your dryer’s drum may be off-kilter, it’s belt may be wearing or that it needs a tune-up.
By listening to the sound of your dryer and noting if something is off is a sign to call for maintenance right away before the sound gets louder and may cause additional damage.
3. Feel for heat.
When you feel the outside of your dryer when it is on, is it warmer to the touch than usual? A warm dryer is normal. However, if the dryer is too warm, this may be a sign that your dryer is over heating. This could be caused by lint build up inside your unit that you cannot see.
If your unit is too hot to touch, this should not be ignored. A dryer fire could ignite from over-heated components causing your dryer’s life to end before it should, or worse, a house fire that could have been avoided.
4. Avoid overload.
Are you trying to dry loads that are more than your dryer can handle? Just a normal load of wash can hold up to 1 gallon of water.
Overloading your dryer adds to the water content and weight load of your clothes. It is important to read your owner’s manual to know how large of a load your dryer can handle and to not load over that amount.
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