Thursday, June 19, 2014

How To REALLY Clean Your Lint Filter

     After every load, we all check (at least you should...) our lint filter in our dryer, and clean it off. We don't want a dryer fire happening, or our house going up in flames because of forgetting to wipe that thing off. You would be surprised at how often these fires occur, though. Some of them occur because even though you think you're doing a good job at cleaning your filter, you really aren't. According to statistics I pulled off of this government page, there are an estimated 2,900 clothes dryer fires in residential buildings each year that cause an estimated 5 deaths, 100 injuries and upwards of $35 million in property loss. Failure to clean the filters (properly) is the leading cause of the ignition of the clothing in these fires, at a whopping 34%. Scary stuff, right? That's why you're here. 

     I'm sure some of you have probably noticed your new (or not so new) dryer when it starts to suddenly not do it's job so well. You may think it's a maintenance issue and in some cases it may be, but I can guarantee you what I'm going to show you will give you at least SOME improvement in how well your dryer is, well... drying. 

     One way to really test this out, is to take your lint filter and run it under a stream of water in your sink. Obviously, with a filter being mesh the water should run right through it. In most cases, it probably won't. That right there, means your filter isn't as clean (and safe) as it should be.  


Clearly no water is getting through...
     Now, the best part is the fact that you only need three things to clean your lint filter. A sink, dish soap and a toothbrush or nail brush. Easy enough, right? I used hot water, but I don't think the temperature matters too much. All that I did, was squirt a small amount of soap onto the filter, and start scrubbing under the water with the toothbrush. I scrubbed both sides of it, because I could see lint coming off of it and wanted to clean it the best that I could. 


     After a few minutes of scrubbing, I took the spray attachment from the sink, and rinsed it off with that. I figured it would push through any extra lint and help force off any residue that I may have missed. 

You can already see the water is actually coming through.
     Voila! After only a few minutes of super easy work, my house is safer thanks to the lint filter being noticeably cleaner. I can already tell that my dryer is working so much better and getting the clothes dry much quicker thanks to this scrub. I would recommend doing this clean-up when you start to see that residue build-up. A good way to test is to simply run that stream of water over top like we did in the beginning, and if it doesn't come through-it's time for a cleaning! 
     
Runs right through! Perfect :) 

     Now, go clean your lint filters and enjoy your more efficient (and safer!) dryer. 

-Taylor 

No comments:

Post a Comment