My friends have one
And I’ve borrowed it on a few occasions. Dryers that have the lint trap just inside between the door and drum tend to get a lot of lint accumulation below the filter so I use it to get that out. You have to pull the lint filter out of course first.
Dryer vents should be cleaned annually and there are companies that can do this. Birds often can build nests several feet into the duct work over and over year after year. I just cleaned one vent out last year that had about 6 different nests in it. It was unbelievable what I pulled out of there! People often remove the “bird screens” from the vent hoods because they collect lint but trust me it’s much easier to clean the bird screen of lint a few times a year than have to dig out several birds nests down deep in the pipes.
I also never run any appliances or candles for that matter when I’m not home or sleeping. There’s been far too many instances of malfunctions leading to possible fires or fires that have occurred in appliances that were able to be quickly eliminated by only running the appliance when awake and present.
This is one of those things that people “preach” about and some say “blah, blah, blah, that’s what insurance is for and set their dishwashers to run while they are at work or when they go to bed and same with the dryer and never have issues...then there are those of us who have had issues and are thankful we were home, and others who were not so fortunate, including losing their or loved ones lives. I’ve been through a home disaster, a flood due to a death...long story...but the point is I’d rather not have to deal with a huge disaster if simply preventable by only using the appliance while at home and awake.
My parents had set their dishwasher on and were stepping out the door to go to a store when the phone rang (pre cell phone days) and Mom took the call and they vetoed the store run because she needed to talk with the caller and while she was on the phone the dishwasher control panel caught fire. If that person hadn’t called the moment they did, they would have had a major house fire as no one would have no been at home to catch it.
My Sister’s dishwasher had a burning electrical smell and fortunately we were all there and decided we should shut it off and get it replaced immediately than bother to chance it as it was old anyway.
Just last month a tenant complained at a rental property I manage that he could smell an electrical burning smell when he was running the dryer. We discovered the wall outlet was arcing on the cord prong and melting the outlet and cord...it was an electric dryer. That could have been a major fire if he hadn’t been at home to catch it. As an extra safety precaution the breaker was changed to an arc fault breaker which will trip as soon as something like this occurs, it was pricey but worth it. This is the third instance I’ve seen of this occurring with 220 volt dryer outlets.
Jon
