Other Dryer Vent Tips

In addition to cleaning out your dryer vents here are a few other tips.

Your dryer should be absolutely no further than 10 feet away from an outside wall.  The further a dryer is from the area that it is going to be venting to, the longer the vent needs to be.  While this sounds rather obvious any turns or bends in the vent will be catch points for lint and other debris to build up, increasing the risk of a fire.  The more direct the path is the better.  If the dryer does need to be buried inside of the home or you are in a condo where a vent is not available you should be looking a condenser dryers instead.  Condenser dryers do not use vents and thus can be placed anywhere.

Check the hose that connects between the dryer and the vent, while this is also technically part of the vent it is a very important one.  This part of the vent tends to be a soft flexible hose and that flexibility is where you can run into trouble.  The hose should be as short as possible; the longer it is the bigger the chances are that it is going to be coiled up or bent at an awkward angle. You can also get this soft hose replaced with a hard tube that looks more like the rest of the venting system; it's a bit more expensive and you'll need to be very certain that that is exactly where you want the dryer to stay but it's typically worth it.

Dryer in the basement?  If the vent goes up to the main floor before going outside you might want to invest in an air booster which in simple terms is just a fan that goes inside of the vent to help promote air flow.  Just as with kinks and bends if the dryer is not using enough force to get the air out lint is going to get stuck at the bend and you can end up with a serious problem quickly.