Cleaning Out the Dryer

Last night I told my husband that I wanted to clean the dryer.

He wasn't thrilled because that pretty much meant HE was going to clean the dryer.

But that's okay, because I did help. I gave him encouragement and held all the screws. :)
I threw the safety factor in as a reason. He's been doing a lot of woodworking over the last six months, and our washer and dryer are in the basement. You can do the math...lots of sawdust! Plus, he's a firefighter and a fire investigator, so he knows the importance of a clean dryer to prevent fires.

WHAT WE DID:
1. We unplugged the dryer and pulled it away from the wall. Then we took some cleaner (Method Pink Grapefruit All Purpose) and wiped down the outside of the dryer.

2. Then, we pulled out the lint trap. Mike took the hose of the vacuum and snaked it down the lint chute while I brought the trap itself upstairs. I'd heard that extensive fabric softener use can cause a film on your lint trap and make it not work as effectively. To check this, you run the trap under water. If it pools on top, it needs a scrubbing!
Mine let the water right through, so I used the sprayer to get all the excess lint that had gathered in the little crevices in the corners. I put it on a towel to dry while we continued working on the rest of the dryer.

3. The top of the dryer should pop up with a little jiggling. Ours had two screws to keep it down (where the lint trap went) so we unscrewed them and popped the lid. We vacuumed out the drum and in the corners, then replaced the lid.

4. Then to tackle the back! We unscrewed the back and vacuumed out all the crevices. There are a lot of crevices in the back of a dryer.

5. Next, the vent pipe got a cleaning. We detached it from the dryer and straightened/shook it out. We forced the hose into the vent pipe to clean out the lint from in there, then vacuumed out the opening in the dryer. The vent pipe got reattached, then we replaced the back panel.

6. Our dryer has a panel on the top behind the dials. I asked Mike if we should take that off too. He said probably not since he'd fed the hose into there through the lint chute, but he'd do it to humor me. Good thing, too, because there was a ton of lint back there! It looks like it would collect on top of the dryer when I'd clean off the lint trap, and sort of slip under the dials. We vacuumed out behind the dials and replaced the panel.

7. And that was it! Another good wipe down to remove all the dust we'd displaced and then it got pushed back against the wall and plugged back in. I tested it out with the load of towels that was waiting in the washing machine. Lately, the towels, on the high setting, had been taking an hour and a half to dry. This time it was cut down to just an hour! Yahoo!

Clean dryer, fire hazard lowered, and saving money on the electric bill because I don't have to run the dryer as much...a great way to start saving a few pennies!