Did I mention my dryer has been under-functioning since we moved in three months ago? Most loads have to be dried twice, a few need a third go-around. It seems to be heating fine, but for some reason everything just stays wet. Laundry has been a real problem.
I was willing to give allowances for our dryer (a model of unknown age and origin refurbished in a high school tech class), but I found out by accident that the former owners of our home had recently replaced their dryer. With a little digging I discovered that their new replacement hadn't worked well either. Aha!
So, I began poking around. After sending a drain snake through the downstairs bathroom fan vent by mistake (and being blessed to not have ruined anything), I finally discovered that our dryer vents nearly straight up onto the roof. Who invented that? Sounds like a lint trap to me!
I snaked out what I could, pulled out a ton of lint, attached a new dryer hose, and found that all my efforts had significantly . . . INCREASED the problem. Now EVERY load needed to be dried three times with some needing a fourth!
So, this morning Ben climbed up on the roof and unclogged the whole thing for me. It took longer than we thought, but I can't tell you how satisfying it was to turn on the dryer after we had snaked out some of the main blockage and see lint come volleying out of the pipe, some even in compact rug-like rectangles larger than my hand! I no longer wonder why the laundry room always felt so humid and warm -- there was absolutely nowhere for the air to go.
I am happy to report that my dryer seems to be back to normal. What a boon for the Cloward laundry!!! Wonder how much it will lower our electric bill?
One other note: I have a pretty nasty cold. Wish my sinuses were similarly unclogged! Any ideas?
2 comments:
Wow. Talk about detective work. Elementary my dear. :) That's amazing. With how bad I am about doing laundry, I can't even imagine what would happen to this house if I had the extra hassle of drying it all three times.
Sorry about the cold. We just did that here too. We OD'ed on grapefruit juice and tomato juice. John thinks it's gross, but I like to drink hot V8 (generic) when I feel sick. I buy it in the huge cans. More soothing than a drain snake anyway. . . :)
Sick Christine... Drain snake? I guess I took that a little too personally. :) Ick.
I also celebrate your victory over the lint. Nasty. What are you going to do with all of your new found free time, now that you don't have to dry every load 3 times? (Or should I say, now you can get back to doing all those other important things you haven't been able to do lately.
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