Dryer Vent Cleaning in East Stroudsburg, PA
Tell us about your home, and a licensed contractor who covers Monroe County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What cold nights do to your dryer vent
Your dryer pushes out warm, damp air every time it runs. In a vent that runs through a cold space, that air cools fast, and the moisture in it has nowhere to go but the walls of the vent itself. Lint does not blow through a wet vent the way it should. It sticks.
With winter nights here averaging 19°F from December through February, that cooling happens fast and it happens for months, October through May. The lint that sticks stays put, layer on layer, narrowing the path the air has to travel. A vent choked with lint forces the dryer to push harder and run longer, and it gives a spark somewhere in that buildup a place to catch.
- 19°F
- the average winter night, and cold vents catch damp lint
- 8 months
- October through May, the vent stays cold
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should a dryer vent be cleaned?
- Once a year for most households. If you run the dryer more than that, for a large family's laundry loads, or if you've noticed longer drying times, check it more often. Lint builds up along the length of the vent, not just in the lint trap, so a yearly cleaning keeps the whole run clear.
- Can I clean my dryer vent myself?
- You can handle the first few feet, but most of the vent run is out of reach. A vacuum and brush at the wall connection will pull out what's nearby, but lint collects all along the duct and at the hood outside, and a straight vacuum hose usually can't reach that far or dislodge lint packed into elbows and bends. A contractor uses rods and brushes built to run the full length of the vent, which is the part a homeowner usually can't clean.
- What are the signs of a clogged dryer vent?
- Clothes that take longer than one cycle to dry is the clearest sign. Others include the dryer or the laundry room getting hotter than usual, a burning smell, lint around the outside vent hood, or the vent hood flap barely moving when the dryer runs. Any one of these means airflow is restricted somewhere in the vent.