Are your clothes taking 2-3 hours to dry?  Have you ran your clothes through several cycles and they are still wet?  Have you started hanging your clothes to dry or going to the washateria to dry your clothes?  If this sounds like you, we can help!

I started clotheswontdry.net to educate people on just how common this problems is. Believe you me, you are not alone!  There are more than 73 million households in the United States with clothes dryers (That's 7 out of 10 homes).  Most of us never think twice about the clothes dryer until there is a problem.  After washing we just open the dryer, toss in our wet clothes, set the timer and walk away.  We come back an hour or so later expecting our clothes to be dry and ready to use. Instead in many cases not only are they not dry and ready to use, they are still wet!

So you do what most of us do, throw them back in the dryer, set the timer again and let them run another full cycle.  We tell ourselves "Well since I have towels and jeans in this load it will just take longer for them to dry."  That's true in some cases.  It's also true if you don't clean the lint filter between loads it will take longer for your clothes to dry.

But there is also an area of routine home maintenance that most homeowners  either neglect or are unaware of.  It's having their dryer vent cleaned.  A dirty dryer vent will not only cause your dryer to work overtime to dry your clothes, but can also lead to higher utility bills and possible risk of fire.  To understand why this is true, you have to understand the basic principles of how a dryer works.

Anatomy of a Clothes Dryer

If you understand how a dryer works you will understand how important it is to have your dryer vent cleaned regularly.  Dryers are very reliable, and easy to use. You'll be surprised at how simple this common machine is. Clothes dryers have: 

• A rotating tumbler that holds the clothes. 
• An electric or gas powered heater that heats the air that is drawn through the
     clothes as they tumble, which in turn heats up the clothes and water in them.
• An exhaust system that passes the moisture out of the dryer to the dryer vent in  
      the form of steam.

As the clothes in your dryer heat up, the water in them turns to steam. The dryer then takes that moisture in the form of steam from the dryer, through the transition duct (the hose in the back of your dryer that connects the dryer to the wall) through the dryer vent (located behind the wall) and out of your house.  The dryer works in conjunction with the dryer vent to complete the drying process.

Ah Ha! It's the Dryer Vent!

Now that we have learned how a dryer works you can see why if your dryer vent is clogged or dirty your clothes could take several hours to dry or worse yet, won't dry at all! The moisture extracted from your clothes during the drying process never makes it out the dryer, through the dryer vent and out of the house. 

Instead the moisture stays in the dryer, the dryer continues to run and maybe even overheat, but the clothes never get dry.  This problem can also be caused by a crushed or improperly installed transition duct. This can easily be checked and corrected by most homeowners. The dryer vent however is located behind the wall or inside the attic of most homes. It normally terminates on the roof or the side of the house. 

Crushed Transition Duct

Because of this, the dryer vent needs to be cleaned and inspected regularly by a company with the tools and expertise to clean it properly.  Over a period of time lint builds up inside the dryer vent and prevents proper airflow.  This condition not only leads to long dry times, but can also lead to higher utility bills, possible risk of dryer fires, and the build-up of CO gases where gas dryers are used.

The benefits of having your dryer vent cleaned are:

• Shorter drying times
• Lower utility cost
• Reduced risk of dryer fires
• Lower appliance maintenance and repair cost
• Reduced risk of CO poisioning (gas dryers)

Before having your dryer vent cleaned you want to be sure your dryer is in good working order.  You can do this by:

1.  Having an appliance repair professional check your dryer
2.  Test your clothes dryer by doing the following:

• Disconnect the dryer from dryer vent (remove transition duct)
• Attach a nylon stocking to the exhaust opening on back of dryer

                                      (this is to catch any lint coming out the dryer)

• Insert a load of wet clothes, set temp to high and start.
• If clothes dry in a reasonable amount of time you can assume your

      dryer is working properly and you have a dirty dryer vent.

ClothesWontDry.net is a site run by DVC Service, visit us at www.dvcservice.com.  At DVC Service we specialize in dryer vent cleaning and repair (sorry, we don't do chimneys, carpets or air ducts).  We are a family owned and operated company located in Houston, TX.  Dryer vent cleaning, repair and installation is all we do.  If your clothes take hours to dry or just won't dry, we can help!