It's very important that you handle a dryer vent with a lot of care in order to avoid fire in your house.
Here are some of the things that you should and shouldn't do with the vent: Dos Putting a booster fan This is great when the duct is long and has a long way to go from the dryer to the exterior wall.
The booster aids in improving air flow so that the air isn't deposited in the ducts resulting to pipe clogging.
For the fan to work effectively, you should ensure that the fan you use is specifically designed for dryer ducts.
Cleaning You should clean the dryer vents regularly in order to increase air flow and dryer performance.
The frequency of cleaning the units depends on how you use the dryer.
For example, if you have a large family and you use the unit regularly you should consider having the vents cleaned after every six months.
If you live alone and you clean your clothes only on weekends, you should clean the unit once every three or four years.
Don'ts Venting directly into your house While you might be tempted to do it so that the house air can be used as the source of humidity or source of heat, it's wrong.
This is because doing it will result to you pumping a lot of moist air directly into your home which will result to mold growth in the house.
The practice will also result to a lot of structural damage to your house.
Since air from the dryer tends to carry a lot of fine lint particles, venting the dryer directly into your house will result to you breathing in a lot of lint.
High concentration of lint in the house is highly flammable which is dangerous to your house.
To be on the safe side you should vent the dryer outside.
Using corrugated, flex hose to vent the dryer Although, it sounds right, it's not.
This is because the white plastic flex has a lot of problems which can be dangerous to your house.
For example, the plastic flex results to accumulation of lint in the little folds resulting to blockage of the vent.
The plastic lacks structural strength; therefore, when wet lint accumulates, the duct sags which allows more lint to accumulate.
When this happens over a long period of time, air is prevented from passing through the vent and clothes take long to dry.