How to Prevent One Cause of House Fires.

This is a repair or maintenance to help eliminate household fires caused by lint build-up in clothes dryer exhaust vents.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• aluminum flex duct kit,or
• aluminum rigid duct,elbows
• vacuum cleaner
• tin snips-for rigid

1. This procedure applies if current duct is vinyl, it can melt if over-heated. Otherwise, vent can be taken loose and thoroughly cleaned out.
   Unplug the dryer from the electric outlet. Move dryer away from the wall to allow working space behind it.
   Remove and dispose the old duct. Vacuum out the back of the dryer as far as possible with brush attachment.
   Vacuum the through-the-wall hood, clean it on the outside of the house, also ( lint, spider webs, wasp nest,etc.)
2. If flex duct is to be used, slip large spring clamps over each end. Carefully slip the duct over the dryer and hood rigid ends, squeeze clamps to open, slide them over the rigid duct and release to secure the flex to rigid ends.
3. Rigid duct will have to be measured and cut with snips to cover length of space from normal position of dryer to the hood. Will probably need one or two adjustable elbows, hood is seldom right in-line with the dryer vent. Possible setup is: firmly slide an elbow onto dryer, turn it to be parallel to the floor, position second elbow on the floor, in line with hood.Measure length from elbow to elbow. Cut rigid duct to this length so it will slide into elbow ends. Measure length from final position of second elbow to the hood, cut the duct. Slip all ducting together as dryer is moved back into normal position.
   Plug the cord back into the electric outlet.

Tips & Warnings

• Overheated lint build-up can cause a fire. Aluminum will contain the flame to some extent. The flame should not be given a chance in the first place- it will still damage the house and destroy the dryer. Make it a point to clean the duct, - more often with more use!!
• Snipped ends of duct will be sharp, handle with care.