The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued an alert due to the fact that there are 15,500 fires, 10 deaths and 310 injuries from dryer exhaust fires annually. 

As more homes have dryers installed on upper levels of the home with long concealed runs with several elbows (as opposed to short efficient runs of vent, out the basement window) maintenance is no longer something that the homeowner can always easily do for themselves. 

As more homes have clothes dryers and are built of tighter construction, the proper operation of the dryer becomes critical.  Dryers are exhausting air from the house while they are in operation.  Gas dryers are also venting products of combustion (Carbon Monoxide)  in addition to the moisture from the clothes.

The exhaust must always be exhausted to the outside atmosphere and this is of particular importance with gas dryers.  The plastic accordion type connector is no longer considered acceptable.  Optimally this connector  would be rigid metal,  the second choice would be a UL Listed metal flex-connector cut to the shortest length possible. 

It is interesting to note that in a 4 inch vent 1/2 inch of lint reduces the flow by almost 50%.  This is very hard on the dryer.  The dryer has a high temp. limit safety switch that insures that the dryer never gets too hot... unless it cycles on and off so often that the switch wears out.  Low air flow will cause this to happen. 

Lint is recommended in the Boy Scout Manual for use as a fire starting material.  The most common material to ignite is lint, animal nests will ignite also.
 

How dryer vents are cleaned:

The dryer will be moved away from the wall, (we may do a couple more diagnostics at this point) A vacuum that is blowing out will be attached to the vent.  From the outside a set-up such as this one in the picture will be used.  The rods are quite flexible and will navigate several 90 degree turns.  The drill action gives the rotation and spin to really scrub.  The technician will move the drill/rod/brush in and out repeatedly while the vacuum is blowing from the inside.  All in all this has proven to be an extremely effective method for cleaning  dryer vents.

We service the following areas in Tennessee - Nashville, Brentwood,
Franklin, Bellvue, Antioch, Bellemeade, Madison, Goodlettsville,
Hendersonville, Gallatin, Lebanon, Mount Juliet, Hermitage, Smyrna,
Murfreesboro, LaVergne, Kingston Springs, Spring Hill. 
We specialize in Chimney Sweeping, Chimney Caps, Chimney Repairs 

and Chimney Relining