Dryer Vent Cleaning in Dover, NH
Tell us about your home, and a licensed contractor who covers Strafford County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Cold vents make lint stick
Your dryer pushes out warm, damp air. In a vent run that sits in a cold attic or against an outside wall, that air cools fast, and Dover winters give it plenty of reason to. Nights average 16°F from December through February, and the moisture in the exhaust turns to dampness on the inside of the vent. Lint sticks to a damp wall a lot better than it slides through a dry one.
Once lint builds up along those walls, the vent narrows and the dryer has to push harder to move air out of the house. That buildup is also the fuel if any heat reaches it, which is the reason a clogged vent is a fire risk and not just a slow-drying one.
- 16°F
- the average winter night, and cold vents catch damp lint
- 8 months
- October through May, the vent stays cold
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should a dryer vent be cleaned?
- Once a year for most households. If you run several loads a day or the vent run is long with a lot of turns, lint builds up faster and it is worth checking more often. Homes here are heating eight months of the year, and a clogged vent makes the dryer run longer to do the same job, which is easy to miss until the bill or the lint tells you.
- Can I clean my dryer vent myself?
- You can clean the section from the dryer to the wall yourself, and it is worth doing. Pull the dryer out, disconnect the vent hose, and clear out the lint with a brush or vacuum. The harder part is the vent run through the wall or roof to the outside hood, especially if it is long or has several bends, and that is where a contractor with the right length of rod and brush does a more complete job.
- What are the signs of a clogged dryer vent?
- Clothes that take more than one cycle to dry, a dryer that feels hot to the touch on the outside, and a musty smell during the cycle are the main ones. Check the outside vent hood too. If the flap barely moves or you feel weak airflow when the dryer is running, lint is probably blocking the line somewhere between the dryer and the outside wall.