How to Fix a Leaky Dryer Vent (and Why You Should Do It)
Having a laundry room in your home is one of the great little luxuries of modern times. The ability to simply throw dirty clothes and bedding into two magic cubes and have clean, dry items come back out after a while is amazing and easy to take for granted. It’s so magical that most of us take our hard-working washing machines for granted – as long as they do their job, we don’t think too much about them.
But your washer and dryer require maintenance, especially if you notice anything strange. Dryers may seem fairly harmless: all they do is dry clothes using heat and air circulation. You might think that as long as you clean your dryer vent occasionally to prevent lint from building up, you’ll be fine. But dryers should be self-contained systems that extract moisture from your clothes and carry it outside the home. If you notice that your home is filled with laundry smell every time you dry your clothes, you should immediately inspect your vent hose or ductwork as a dryer leaking air can cause you a lot of problems.
Signs of an Air Leak
Signs of an air leak are both subtle and obvious when noticed:
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Smell. As mentioned, if you can tell by the smell in the air that someone is drying clothes, you most likely have an air leak.
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Lint and dust. If the area around your dryer is covered in a thick layer of lint, it may be leaking air from a vent or hose.
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Air movement. If the air leak is particularly large, you may even feel a warm breeze when you walk up to the dryer.
If you discover an air leak, you may be tempted to assume that there is nothing wrong with it. The dryer is still running, your clothes are still drying, so what’s the problem?
Potential problems
Your dryer may seem like a perfectly safe device, but an air leak can cause serious problems for you and your home:
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Water damage. The air coming out of the dryer is very humid because it picks up moisture from the wet laundry. If it doesn’t escape outside, then all that moisture ends up inside your home – either directly into the laundry room or room, or even into your walls or attic if that’s where the air leak is located. Over time, constant exposure to high humidity can lead to mold and moisture.
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Fire hazard. If an air leak from your dryer has left a layer of dust and lint all over your laundry room, congratulations, your house has only become more likely to burn down. Dryer lint is an excellent source of fire fuel, and dryer fires can have devastating consequences.
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Health. Aside from the potential health problems caused by mold growth due to increased humidity, the air coming out of your dryer isn’t exactly healthy to breathe. In fact, it’s filled with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) , which can lead to respiratory problems ranging from chronic coughing and much worse.
Easy to fix
Luckily, if you find air leaking from your dryer vents or hose , the fix is very simple:
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Find the leak. Start the dryer. You can use some of the same methods used to detect any air leaks in the home, including lighting an incense stick and holding it near a dry vent hose or duct to see smoke coming out, shining a light bulb inside the duct or hose using turn off the lights to see small gaps and visually inspect the vents to see if there are obvious gaps or parts moving due to air flow escaping.
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Repair or replace. If the leak is relatively small and your ductwork or plastic hose is otherwise in good condition, buy some foil tape from your local hardware store and tape (or re-seal) the connections and any holes or gaps you find. If the air duct is very worn, replace it with a similar air duct. If you hire a professional to do this, it will cost you several hundred dollars .
Once the air leak has been repaired, test again to ensure that you have sealed all leaks. Then clean away the resulting lint and dust and breathe easy.