According to The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPC), electric dryers are actually 2.5 times more likely to cause a dryer fire vs. gas dryers. This means that your dryer could easily be the number one fire hazard in your home.

If your laundry room becomes more humid while drying clothes than normal, this could be a sign that the moisture isn’t being removed via the vent, and that the vent is clogged with lint, causing more damp air to become trapped in your clothes. Also, clothes taking longer than usual to dry, or coming out wet, is another sign that your dryer is struggling to dry them because of an inability to safely remove moisture from the machine. If you smell a burnt smell while your clothes are drying, or your clothes come out hotter than usual, these almost always indicate that your dryer vent is dirty.

You should have your dryer vent inspected and cleaned every two years to prevent buildups of lint. Other circumstances, such as crushing kinked ducting, can exacerbate the issue, causing faster buildup of lint. Because of this, it’s important to have your vent hood flap inspected as well as cleaned to be certain you don’t have an issue causing faster than normal buildup.

Although lint screens trap the bulk of the lint that comes off your clothes while they’re drying, they don’t get it all. The remainder must go through the venting system. A clean lint screen catches, on average, about three quarters of the lint that comes off your clothes. This efficiency is reduced when the screen isn’t cleaned. However, although cleaning the screen in between loads is absolutely necessary, it’s not enough in and of itself to prevent buildup of flammable lint over the long term. Thus, getting professional dryer vent cleaning services are a must to reduce the risk of fire.