APOD Firearms

Clothes Dryer issue

The #1 community for Gun Owners in Texas

Member Benefits:

  • Fewer Ads!
  • Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership
  • Discuss anti-gun legislation
  • Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section
  • Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses
  • Discover free outdoor shooting areas
  • View up to date on firearm-related events
  • Share photos & video with other members
  • ...and so much more!
  • Saltyag2010

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 100%
    6   0   0
    Feb 11, 2014
    5,851
    66
    Flour Bluff, America
    Whoever built my house put the laundry room in the middle like an idiot.
    Now my duct work to vent the dryer is clogged.
    I stuck a fish tape through it and it repeatedly got stuck at 10 feet in. 30ft short of the exit vent outside.
    The vent line to the outside is the same aluminum foil flex duct that hooks up the dryer to the wall.
    I tried sealing the server side up to a vacuum and sucking the clog out.
    This sucks.
    Any ideas?
    Hurley's Gold
     

    robertc1024

    Moderator
    Staff member
    Moderator
    TGT Supporter
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    20   0   0
    Jan 22, 2013
    20,779
    96
    San Marcos
    I've got a long duct on mine too. I went inside the house and put a leaf blower in it, surrounded by a towel to close the gap between the nozzle of the leaf blower and the inside of the duct. The cloud of lint it blew out was impressive.
     

    Saltyag2010

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 100%
    6   0   0
    Feb 11, 2014
    5,851
    66
    Flour Bluff, America
    I estimate the entire duct run is 35ft and there are 3 90s and it finishes with cheap flexible duct to the outside making at least 1-2 more 90s.
    If you build homes never do this to anyone else.
     

    robertc1024

    Moderator
    Staff member
    Moderator
    TGT Supporter
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    20   0   0
    Jan 22, 2013
    20,779
    96
    San Marcos
    Dang man - that is a crappy design. I thought mine was bad. Good luck with it.

    Why did "nozzle" get filtered? The bad-word filter is more perverted than I am.
     

    Leper

    Active Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 28, 2008
    730
    21
    I have stood on the roof with a leaf vacuum over the exposed vent. Had that little engine screaming and then out came about 3 pounds of lint. Redneck, but it worked nicely.
     

    Brains

    One of the idiots
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 9, 2013
    6,904
    96
    Spring
    Do you have a booster fan inline? Many runs that long will need one in order for the dryer to work well.

    I've cleaned mine out in my old house with a shop vac and a couple long hoses taped together, which worked 'good enough.' To really do it right you need one of those really long snake brushes to unstick the mess from the inside of the pipe.
     

    tango5seven

    Active Member
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Mar 8, 2012
    334
    1
    DFW
    I get birds nesting in mine from the roof jack to about 3' in. Blow or suck won't do it. Have to go in the attic, pull the pipe apart and muck it out by hand.


    I should probably go do that in this nice weather.


    Sent from Cheyenne Mountain to confuse the NSA
     

    Glockster69

    TGT Addict
    BANNED!!!
    Rating - 100%
    7   0   0
    Jul 1, 2011
    27,739
    21
    Whoever built my house put the laundry room in the middle like an idiot.

    I estimate the entire duct run is 35ft and there are 3 90s and it finishes with cheap flexible duct to the outside making at least 1-2 more 90s.
    If you build homes never do this to anyone else.
    Pitiful design! Can you abandon and go up or down instead for exhaust?
     

    TX69

    TGT Addict
    Emeritus - "Texas Proud"
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 23, 2012
    6,801
    21
    DFW
    I just cleaned mine out this AM. Tons of junk. Yes, some genius put a 90 in my vent pipe as well, but at least it was all the hard pipe, not flex.

    I didn't mess around - I bought this and a pack of the rod extensions.

    Lowe's Home Improvement

    My old home had a vent line with the same problems. I had to buy a fish tape line tht was 26ft long and come at it from both ends. The trick is to use a shop rag duct raped to the end. Push and pull it as you insert it all the way loosening all of the trapped lint. Then use the shopvac (3" 5hp) on push/pull to get everything out. Do this once a year to avoid fires that will burn your house down. Beware that insurance may not cover you.

    ETA: For the birds I had to make a removable cover to keep the Crackles out or whatever their called. Damn bird. Everything else had to get industrial covers.
     

    deemus

    my mama says I'm special
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    30   0   0
    Feb 1, 2010
    15,586
    96
    DFW
    I got a small diameter plumbing snake that has a plastic coating on it. This one can be affixed to a drill. I then threaded a collapsable coozie to the "hook" on the end, and fed it into the vent pipe, spinning it on high speed with my cordless drill as I fed it. It worked pretty good. When I fired off the dryer it blew out all the loose stuff. Be sure to take off an bird grills on the outside, if it has one. I fed the snake into both ends of the pipe. It did the trick.

    I think the humidity made the stuff stick to the inside of the pipe. That little coozie banging around in there knocked it loose so it could be blown out.
     

    Whistler

    TGT Addict
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    12   0   0
    Jan 28, 2014
    3,383
    96
    Northeast Texas
    ETA: For the birds I had to make a removable cover to keep the Crackles out or whatever their called. Damn bird. Everything else had to get industrial covers.

    They're called "Grackles" and I hate 'em, must be 10 thousand of them in the trees around my house always making an awful racket.

    +1 on the shop vac, worked pretty good for me.
     

    Saltyag2010

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 100%
    6   0   0
    Feb 11, 2014
    5,851
    66
    Flour Bluff, America
    UPDATE - I borrowed a toro leaf blower in the dryer side and sealed it with a towel. The blower didn't push anything through to the outside.
    I feel defeated. I'll try the plumbers snake next. I tried a fish tape earlier and couldn't get it past the clog.
     
    Top Bottom