A dryer is probably the most maintenance-neglected appliance in the house. Washers get blamed when laundry goes wrong. Refrigerators get their coils cleaned when someone reads an article. Dryers just run — until they don't, or until they cause a problem that could have been avoided entirely.
This is the first in a series on appliance maintenance. We're starting with dryers because the stakes are high, the maintenance is simple, and most homeowners are behind on at least one of the things covered here.
The lint trap — every single load
This is the one everyone knows and the one most people still skip occasionally. Clean the lint trap before or after every load. Not every few loads. Every one.
Lint is highly flammable, and a partially blocked lint trap makes the dryer work harder — longer cycle times, higher operating temperatures, and faster wear on the heating element and motor. Cleaning it takes ten seconds. There's no argument for skipping it.
What most people don't do is clean behind the lint trap. Lint bypasses the screen and accumulates in the housing below it over time. A few times a year, use a flexible brush or the narrow attachment on a vacuum to clear that housing out. It's usually a 30-second job once you've done it once.
Dryer sheet residue builds up on the lint screen mesh and reduces airflow even when the trap looks clean. Hold the screen under running water occasionally — if water beads on the surface instead of flowing through, the mesh is coated. Scrub it gently with a soft brush and dish soap, rinse, and let it dry before reinstalling.
The dryer vent — the part that actually matters
The dryer vent exhausts hot, moist, lint-laden air from the dryer drum to the outside of your house. When that duct is restricted or blocked, a chain of problems follows: longer dry times, the dryer running hotter than it should, moisture staying in the drum, and — in the worst cases — a fire. The U.S. Fire Administration attributes approximately 2,900 home dryer fires per year to failure to clean dryer vents.
For a typical household doing five to seven loads per week, the vent should be cleaned at least once a year. Households with large families, pets that shed, or dryer runs longer than 15 feet should do it every six months.
Signs your vent is due for cleaning
- Clothes take more than one cycle to dry fully, or come out still damp and hot
- The dryer itself is unusually hot to the touch on the outside
- There's a burning smell when the dryer runs — this is lint near a heat source
- The flapper on the exterior vent cap barely opens when the dryer is running, or doesn't open at all
- It's been more than a year since it was last cleaned, or you don't know when it was last cleaned
If any of those apply, clean the vent before running another load.
How to clean it yourself
For runs under 15–20 feet with no more than two 90-degree elbows, most homeowners can clean the vent themselves with a dryer vent cleaning kit — a flexible rod system with a brush head, available at any hardware store for around $25–$35. Disconnect the dryer, attach the kit to a drill, and work it through the duct from the dryer end toward the exterior. Vacuum out what comes loose. Reconnect, run the dryer for a few minutes, and check that the exterior flapper opens freely.
For longer runs, configurations with multiple elbows, or vents that terminate through the roof, a professional cleaning is the better call. The DIY kit won't reach everything, and a partial cleaning can push a blockage further in rather than removing it.
If your dryer is connected to the wall with flexible white plastic duct or the thin foil accordion tubing, replace it. Both are fire hazards — they crush easily, trap lint in the ridges, and aren't rated for dryer exhaust temperatures. The correct material is rigid metal duct (galvanized steel or aluminum), or semi-rigid aluminum for the connection between the dryer and the wall. This is a $15–$40 fix that meaningfully reduces fire risk.
Vent run length and configuration
Dryer vents are rated for a maximum equivalent length — typically 25 feet for most residential dryers, reduced by 5 feet for each 90-degree elbow in the run. A vent that exceeds this equivalent length won't exhaust properly regardless of how clean it is. The dryer compensates by running longer, wearing out faster, and retaining moisture.
If your laundry room is far from an exterior wall, or the vent takes a complicated path through the house, it's worth measuring the run and checking it against your dryer's manual. If the run is too long, options include rerouting the duct (sometimes straightforward, sometimes not), adding a dryer booster fan rated for inline use, or accepting the limitations and cleaning more frequently.
The moisture sensor bars
Most dryers built in the last fifteen years have a moisture sensor — two metal bars inside the drum, usually near the door opening. The dryer uses these to detect when clothes are dry and stop the cycle automatically. When they work correctly, auto-dry cycles are efficient and accurate. When they're coated with residue from dryer sheets, the dryer thinks clothes are dry before they are, and the cycle ends too early.
Clean the sensor bars every few months with a small amount of rubbing alcohol on a cloth. Takes thirty seconds. It's one of those maintenance steps that's easy to forget because the symptom — clothes that aren't quite dry at the end of a cycle — is easy to attribute to other things.
Leveling
A dryer that rocks or vibrates during operation isn't just noisy — it causes premature wear on drum bearings, support rollers, and the motor. All four feet should make solid contact with the floor. Most dryers have adjustable leveling feet that screw in or out by hand. Set a level on top of the machine, adjust until it reads level in both directions, and check the feet are finger-tight against the floor.
When maintenance isn't the issue
Some dryer problems aren't caused by skipped maintenance — they're component failures that happen regardless. A heating element that burns out, a thermostat that fails, a belt that breaks. Maintenance extends the life of the machine and prevents a lot of the most common failures, but it doesn't prevent everything.
If you've cleaned the vent and lint trap and the dryer still isn't heating, is taking an unreasonable number of cycles to dry a normal load, or is making a grinding or thumping noise it didn't used to make — that's a repair call, not a maintenance issue. The Appliance Doctor can help narrow down the likely cause before you pick up the phone.
Dryer problems in Central PA?
If maintenance hasn't resolved it, it's a component. We diagnose and repair all major dryer brands — gas and electric — in Mechanicsburg and a 30-mile radius. Written estimate before work starts.
A maintenance schedule you can actually follow
The problem with most appliance maintenance advice is that it assumes you'll remember to do things on a schedule. Here's a version built around natural triggers instead:
- Every load: Clean the lint trap
- When you change your HVAC filter (every 1–3 months): Vacuum the lint trap housing and check the exterior vent flapper
- Once a year (spring cleaning, or when you flip to a new calendar): Full vent cleaning, clean the moisture sensor bars with rubbing alcohol
- When you move in or buy the house: Check the duct material, measure the vent run length, clean the vent regardless of when the last owners did it
Next up in this series: refrigerator maintenance — coil cleaning, door gaskets, ice makers, and the things that make a fridge last twenty years instead of ten.