When The Dryer Doesn’t Work

We have had diminished capacity on our dryer for some time. When we moved into our house almost 3 years ago, it took about an hour to dry a load of clothes. As each year progressed, it started taking longer and longer until last week I would put clothes in for 70 minutes and then repeat the process. Since they were coming out hot, I knew that the heating element was not the reason. The clothes were still coming out damp and I knew that something else was wrong. The vent line runs from the front of the house, through the ceiling tile in the basement to the actual outside vent in the rear of the house. It is a good 40 foot run of tube. Since the house is about 10 years old, I can see how it could be getting clogged with lint. What I found in the conduit was not what I expected.

First, I pulled the dryer out and checked the line from the back panel to the floor. It has a little lint in it but not enough to cause the clothes not to dry in more than two hours. So, Joy and I trekked downstairs and started looking at the length of vent line. We started at the obvious place where is vented outside. It was hooked up and appeared to be working correctly. We had left the dryer running and I was hearing a thump on the ceiling tile so I took it off. The dryer vent dropped down and was sagging into the basement ceiling. I had found something. I wasn’t sure what at first. After poking my finger into the pythonic bulge, it was full of water and I could hear the air from the dryer burping through. The first thing to do was drain the water.

So I poked a hole in started draining into a bucket. Once the water stopped trickling, there was still a mushy blob in the tube so I opened the hole wider. Solid blobs of juicy lint started falling from the enlarged hole and I had soon torn the hose almost in half. It was disgusting. If there had been a smell you would have sworn that it was a dead possum or rabbit. But it was just blobs of water soaked lint. I checked further down and found another sagging piece and knew that the whole length would need replaced. I went to my handy dandy Lowes and picked up 25 foot of metallic hose, metallic duct tape and two clamps. After an hour and a half we managed to replace the worst of it. The dryer now blows through to the back and can be felt on the skin. I do not know how that much water got into the dryer hose. I can see my son and his 10 years old buddies squirting the garden hose into the vent opening and thinking it cool. I may never know but at least my clothes will be dry and we can get laundry done in a day instead of a week.

Icool

Cobb