How often should you clean your dryer vent?
Grumpty's answer
Every 12 months
Why bother
Lint is the top cause of dryer fires. This is an essentials-tier job. Skip it and you're inviting the expensive kind of problem, or the dangerous kind.
Why it's a range
A long or kinked vent run, a big household, or a shedding pet all pull it shorter. Once a year clears most, sooner if the clothes come out hot and still damp. That's the vent telling you.
What the job involves
- Unplug the dryer. Gas model? Shut the gas off too. Then pull it out and disconnect the duct from both the dryer and the wall.
- Run a flexible vent brush, the kind that takes a drill, the full length of the duct, dryer end to the outside. Pull the lint out as you go.
- Clean the lint-trap housing and both vent openings, and check the flap on the outside actually opens and shuts.
- Reconnect everything, shove the dryer back, power it up, and run a cycle to make sure air's blowing strongly out the outside vent.
Do it yourself, or pay someone?
Either. A short, straight, ground-floor run is a DIY job with a $15 to $40 brush kit. Long runs, several bends, or a vent that exits through the roof want a pro, who'll charge somewhere around $100 to $180.
What skipping it costs
Lint is the leading thing that catches fire in a dryer, and never cleaning the vent is the leading reason it happens, behind about a third of them. When one goes up it does around $10,000 to $15,000 of damage on average, and north of $40,000 if it spreads past the laundry room. The lint screen you empty each load only catches some of it, the rest packs into the duct out of sight. A brush and an afternoon, against that.
Signs it's overdue
- Clothes come out still damp, or want a second cycle to dry.
- The dryer, the clothes, or the room itself feel unusually hot at the end of a cycle.
- A musty or burning smell while it runs, or lint creeping out around the trap, the back of the machine, or an outside flap that won't fully open.
When to start thinking about it
Give yourself about 14 days' notice. That's when Grumpty starts grumbling, so it doesn't land on you the day it's due. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 12 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.
Questions people ask
How often should you clean a dryer vent?
Once a year is the standard line, and the CPSC and the dryer makers agree on it. Big household, lots of laundry, a shedding pet? Every six months, because the lint piles up faster.
Isn't emptying the lint trap enough?
No. The screen catches part of it. The rest rides into the duct that runs to the outside and builds up there, where the screen can't reach. Empty the trap every load anyway, but the duct still needs doing.
What actually starts a dryer fire?
Trapped lint. It restricts the airflow, the dryer overheats, and lint is about as flammable as it looks. A bird or animal nest blocking the outside vent does the same job. Per the NFPA, failure to clean is behind roughly a third of home dryer fires.
Related jobs
Stop keeping this one in your head
This is one job. Your home has dozens more, each on its own clock. Grumpty is a free home-maintenance app: add a job once, it tracks the date, grumbles when it's due, and rolls it forward the moment you mark it done.
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