is this normal? (dryer vent)

[earthmama369]

I was walking outside in the yard with dd and noticed that there was a LOT of lint hanging off the dryer vent on the outside of the house. I took a stick to the vent opening and pulled out even more. So I'm guessing the entire hose running from the dryer to the outside is lined with lint.

Is this normal or a big old fire hazard? How would I clean the inside of the dryer hose out?

Aah, the life of a new homeowner.

TIA!

[whoamama]

Clean it out, make sure you are emptying the lint trap after every single load, it is totally a fire hazard. If you are handy, unhook the dryer, clean the duct. You can also get s/o in to clean the lint inside the dryer if you are worried. There might not actually be lint in the duct, btw, mine is clean and also occasionally sends lint outdoors. I planted some spiderwort there to hide it!

[earthmama369]

We always empty the lint trap, but the dryer's 30 years old and from my parents -- not sure if we "inherited" a bit of a lint mess, you know what I mean? Thanks for the advice; I'll ask dh to unhook the hose and clean that and and the vent out from the inside tonight. (Lucky him!) I'm fairly pregnant at the moment and can't fit back there to reach the hose! I did clean as far in as I could from the outside and pulled a whole bunch of lint out. Yikes.

I like the idea of planting something around the vent to hide the little fuzzies that blow out. I was thinking mint, since that discourages ants, too, and we've had some coming in lately.

[whoamama]

Good luck with the ant thing, between them and the mice I sometimes wonder whose house this is!

[earthmama369]

Heh. I know what you mean. We've been lucky so far with the mice -- we have three cats who loooove to hunt, pounce, and play with small furry creatures. I hate to think of how many birds they got last summer when we moved in; I think they were *really* happy to be outside again. The previous owners clearly had a cat who wasn't much on the hunting because the critters here were totally taken off guard.

The ants, though . . . wow. That's a whole new experience. One morning last week we woke up and *wham!* Where there'd been clean countertop the night before was a line of little black ants marching along toward the cabinet. I've washed everything down with water and grapefruit e.o. and laid some sugar/Borax mix along the back edges of the counters -- so far, so good, but we'll see as we get more into summer how well that keeps working.

[taz925]

Mint will take over, do not plant mint. Plant something that does not migrate like crazy!

[earthmama369]

I think if I plant mint I'll sink it into the ground inside plastic containers so the roots can't spread like crazy. It's a fairly contained little area between the oil tank (in a concrete retaining wall) and a gravel walkway, but I know the mint would take over the walkway given half a chance. I just love the smell, though, and it's the one plant I've seen consistently recommended to plant near doorways and windows to discourage ants from coming in. I'd love other recommendations if you have any, though! (Something ok for little kids to eat if they take that whim.)

[whoamama]

We have spearmint intermingled w everything in the garden and it doesn't bug us--we use it alot and i just pull it out if its in the way. I hve been thinking about getiing a cat for the mice, I can't get rid of them. Advice? We live in a semi, the only time we didn't have mice was when the neighbours had cats.

[taz925]

Oh well at least you are smart about it. The previous owner was not and I have mint everywhere! I heard the same thing about Bamboo, thankfully the previous owner did not plant that!

I have no good suggestions since I don't know too much about gardening. I just pull what looks ugly to me, for all I know it was planted on purpose???

Doreen

[earthmama369]

Cats are awesome. Get a rescue cat that's used to being outside, it'll have the hunting skills you want. Male or female, in my experience it doesn't make much difference. Plus, warm toes and contented purrs on a cold winter night are soooo nice.

[whoamama]

I plan to go to the local shelter, if I decide to do this. We just haven't had any pets except a goldfish, therefore I hesitate. I've always adored cats, I've just never been responsible for one, plus need to make sure I get one who will get along in my crazy household of 4 kids plus dh who doesn't like cats as much as I do...

[earthmama369]

Cats are generally pretty low maintenance. We have three, and two are very independent -- one isn't, but he was abused before he was rescued, so there are other issues there.

I take them to the vet once a year for a checkup and their shots, more if they need it, but they usually don't. (My parents had purebreeds *once* and they required MUCH more in the way of vet care and special handling. I'm all for rescue cats.) They have a water bowl and dry food bowl outside -- I just keep them full and they self-regulate their eating. They come in when they want, go out when they want, and are generally very friendly and easy to care for. I think having a partner who's not really into having a cat can be the biggest stress in having a cat -- my mom did a lot of litter duty when my dad decided he didn't want a cat and she did. (He got over it eventually. )

[mamapixie]

You may want to have your husband just replace the whole dryer vent hose, if it's really bad. I just had to do that in our rental. Plus..since you have critters, there's nothing better on a cold winter day for them to crawl into the dryer vent hose and make a nest. When I ditched the old hose, I found seeds, droppings, etc. inside the hose.

I wish I could get a cat, but my dog doesn't like them anymore. He did keep the mice, etc. out of the house though.

[UlrikeDG]

They make something like a drain snake for dryer vent ducts. I think it would only be $5 or so. You should definitely clean it out.

[earthmama369]

Originally Posted by mamapixie

Plus..since you have critters, there's nothing better on a cold winter day for them to crawl into the dryer vent hose and make a nest. When I ditched the old hose, I found seeds, droppings, etc. inside the hose.

EEW. OK, I like critters, but I'm a total wuss about things like that in my house. I'm definitely going to sic dh on this one! (He gets all the fun jobs.)

[chel]

I recently moved. Our dryer vent was full of lint. The dryer was only 5 yrs old and we had put in a new tube at the time. I clean my lint after every load. I now vaccum the lint opening of the dryer regularly and will replace the tube after a couple of years. I actually had birds in my outside vent.