3 Remove Dryer Lint Before It Catches on Fire

The U.S. Fire Administration estimates that clothes dryer fires occur about 15,600 times each year. The leading cause of these fires is lint in the trap, the vent and the area around the dryer—lint is highly combustible. If your clothes take a long time to dry or the dryer is hot to the touch, your dryer vent may be obstructed.

While cleaning out the lint trap inside the dryer after each use is easy, cleaning out the vent itself is a multistep operation. Here's a quick step-by-step:

- Unplug the dryer.

- Pull the dryer away from the wall.

- Uncouple its connector to the wall. Replace the connector if you find it's a flexible plastic vent; these are designed for venting bathroom fans, not dryers. Replace the connector if it's dented, cut or severely kinked.

- Use the vent-cleaning rods, or brush by hand to make an initial pass to clean out the dryer vent. Push and pull the rod/brush combo and work the vent clean.

- Then, attach a cordless drill and spin clean the vent Go outside, remove the exhaust grille and repeat the procedure from the outside. If the entire dryer vent run is more than a few feet long, you can actually use an electric leaf blower to blow the vent clean. Set its nozzle into the dryer-vent opening in the wall on the inside of the house and blow the vent clear (inside to outside) while brushing the vent clean. Yes, this means that you've got this blowing in your face as you clean from the outside, but do you want the vent clean or don't you?

- Remove the dryer's front panel and clean the inside of the appliance, being particularly fastidious to remove lint accumulation near the burner (if gas) or near the heater-element box, if it's electric.

- If possible, remove the panel shielding the moisture-sensor assembly. Clean the assembly itself and any lint that could interfere with the dryer's ability to read moisture.