According to the National Fire Protection Association, nearly 17,000 fires linked to clogged dryer vents are reported each year, causing an average of 55 deaths, 380 injuries and nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in property damage.
That’s a lot.
Ask any firefighter you encounter and many of them will tell you to clean out your lint trap every chance you get because they’ve seen the consequences of not doing so first-hand. But did you know that it isn’t always just lint buildup that leads to dryer vent clogs?
Over the years, Hi Tech Duct Cleaning has cleaned thousands of dryer vents and so far, we’ve seen the following things cause clogs and potentially fire-inducing problems:
- Birds nests built in the part that vents to the outside
- Debris that fell out of people’s’ pockets
- Construction debris (if in a newly built home)
- Dryer vents with so many twists and turns that there’s no way you could get everything out yourself
- Dryer vents that are so long that there isn’t enough power to push lint to the outside
Yikes!
If you haven’t had your dryer vent cleaned in recent years, it’s probably time. Remember, only you can prevent forest…. I mean, house fires.