Friday, November 07, 2014

My dryer had a lint stroke...

It was one of those kind of days...

We noticed that Schrodinger was itchy.  A closer exam showed flea dirt, and then - the fleas.  Since she didn't have fleas until a few days ago, we think our dog might have brought some in when we were letting them get together for "pet to pet" time, so they won't have problems with each other.

Best laid plans. Not. 

I have cleaned and vacuumed, and she was treated, so we hope we don't get fleas in the house.  So far, so good, I am not itchy, nor is Husband, and believe me, I am sensitive to bug bites.

So, the day goes on, and I notice that I haven't cleaned out the lint trap in the dryer.  Pull it out, like I have done a zillion times before, and zzzwhoop, the lint was sucked into the line.  Whereupon, the dryer suddenly became an oven.  NOT good.  (And yes, now I know not to leave the dryer running when I pull the lint trap out.  Grumble...)

After some snarling and growling between Husband and I, (mostly me... Okay, okay, all me...), Husband told me something I guess I should have figured, but didn't know. The dryer vent has not one, but two 90 degree turns in it, as well as running several FEET to the outdoors.  The feet long run I knew about, not the turns.  Well, one of the turns caught the lint, and blew it into a ball, blocking the exhaust completely, hence the oven imitation.

So, Husband had to go under our house to find the trapped lint, and fix the problem.  We tried several different methods, none worked to remove said fluff, so under the house it was.  NASTY to do this, as it is really narrow, having been build on an older foundation, and all the duct work is in the way.  Plus, it is damp and buggy down there.  I stayed up top, to get all the sheets and such put down for his return to the light, (our access to the foundation is in the house), as well as towels to clean up his face and hands.  He started to crawl down there, and came back, asking for a towel.

Oookaay?

Told me that the spiderwebs were so thick he couldn't see.

Oh, I am SO glad he did that.  I think my hysterics would have had hysterics at that point.  He found out not only had the lint balled up in a turn, one of the pipes had come loose.  He then unclogged the bend, put the pipe back together, and came out of the hole, looking like an extra for Revenge of the Mummy.  He dropped the clothing on the sheet, and ran in to get a shower.

I washed lots of spiderwebs out... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.  And dust.  And, um, other stuff.  I don't know what it was, and just hoped it would come out. (It did.)

At this point, the clothes are clean, and strangely, the dryer is working better than it has since we've moved here.

I still hope Husband doesn't have to do anymore dryer vent pipe surgery...

5 comments:

stephen Hayes said...

Horrible! I finally live in a house that doesn't have a basement or crawlspace. The garage beneath our house is all concrete.

Sharon said...

OH! Your crawl space sounds SO familiar. As I was reading, I was thinking spiders... we have some big hairy ones here, look like mini tarantulas. DH had to do the same strip show and shower when he goes under there and like as not - he will break a pipe when he's under there!
Glad the dryer is working so well now!

Dreaming said...

Shiver… yuck… bleech! I have the heebie-jeebies just thinking of what it must be like under the house. God bless your hubby!

messymimi said...

You need one of those dryer lint kits that has the rooter you run through, almost like what you have for clogged pipes. That way you can clean it from inside the house, and then from where it vents outdoors, and that should cover the whole thing to keep it cleared without having to get under the house. Doing that every few months might keep it totally clear, and prevent future such major operations.

As to fleas, i've just given up and treat every single month, to keep them from coming back.

MunirGhiasuddin said...

Once our dryer vent got unattached from the outside bracket that was holding it. A mouse just came in a started living there. I think it would just leave whenever I used the dryer because the hot air would simply push it out. When we saw the droppings, I freaked out. After we searched every part of the house, we realized that the vent pipe had gotten unattached.hence making a gateway for the mouse to get in the pipe.