Signs Your Dryer Vent Is Clogged Seven Things to Notice

1. Loads take longer than they used to

The Consumer Product Safety Commission's dryer safety alert names this one first: clothing still damp at the end of a typical cycle, or drying that needs more time than normal, may mean the lint screen or the exhaust duct is blocked. What matters is change: jeans that took fifty minutes last spring and now need eighty.

2. Little or no air at the outside

The CPSC also tells owners to check the outside vent while the dryer runs and make sure exhaust air is escaping; if it is not, the vent or duct may be blocked. A garage laundry in a block house usually vents through a low wall hood that is easy to test by hand; a central utility room often vents to a roof cap nobody can check safely, so the sign gets missed.

3. Heat where it should not be

A restricted duct traps hot air in the drum. The top of the cabinet gets hot to the touch, clothes come out scorching, and the laundry room warms up in a way it did not before. Ocala makes this sign harder to read, because a garage laundry in July is already hot: the Ocala weather station's 1991 to 2020 normals show daily highs of 91 to 92 degrees from June through August and about 110 days a year at 90 or above. Compare the dryer against itself on similar days.

4. A smell

A scorched or burning smell while the dryer runs is a stop sign. Turn it off and do not use it again until the duct and the machine have been checked. A musty or sour smell is different: it usually means damp lint is sitting in a low spot of the duct, often a sag in an attic run, and staying wet. Ocala's normals put about 28 inches of rain into June through September alone, and moist air from a struggling dryer has nowhere to go but onto that lint.

5. Lint in the wrong places

Lint collecting on the floor behind the dryer, around the screen slot, or on the wall below the outside hood means air is escaping where it should not or backing up. The CPSC advises cleaning behind the dryer and having a qualified service person clean the inside of the dryer's cabinet periodically, because lint builds up there too.

6. The hose behind the machine

Pull the dryer out and look. White plastic or thin foil accordion hose is a sign in itself. The CPSC says that kind of duct traps lint more easily and kinks or crushes more readily, and recommends rigid or corrugated semi-rigid metal instead. A metal hose flattened against the wall chokes airflow too.

7. A flap that will not move

The hood flap should lift while the drum turns and fall shut when it stops. A flap stuck open lets in rain, lizards and insects; one stuck shut, or a hood packed with twigs and grass, is the beginning of a bird nest. Florida's residential code requires a backdraft damper at the termination and forbids screens there, so a screen someone added to keep animals out is a blockage waiting to happen.

Why the signs are worth acting on

The National Fire Protection Association's figures for 2010 to 2014 put home fires involving clothes dryers or washers at about 15,970 a year, with 13 deaths, 440 injuries and $238 million in direct damage. Dryers were involved in 92 percent of them, failure to clean was the leading cause at 31 percent, and dust, fiber or lint was the item that caught first in 27 percent of the dryer fires.

A two-minute check from the ground

Nearly three in ten Marion County residents are 65 or older, so here is a test that needs no ladder. Run the dryer on high heat with a load in it. Go outside to the hood and hold a hand in front of it. A firm, warm stream that pushes the flap wide open is healthy. A faint, lukewarm puff, or nothing, means the duct needs attention whatever the date of the last cleaning. A roof exit is better left to someone with the right equipment.

What each sign points to

• Slow drying, weak flow or a musty smell: dryer vent cleaning of the whole run.
• Any of the above on a roof exit: roof dryer vent cleaning.
• Twigs, grass or chirping at the hood: dryer vent bird nest removal.
• A crushed or foil hose, or an outlet that ends under a mobile home: dryer vent repair.

The pricing page lists what operators serving Ocala post for each of these.