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Hi all,
I have a Whirlpool dryer that takes forever to dry clothes. Often, the clothing load is about medium sized, yet, the clothes are still damp when the cycle is finished (even after doing it nearly twice!)
The vent is located on top of the roof and I can feel warm/hot air coming out when I place my hand over it, but I do see lint lined along the rim, but as far as I can tell, no blockage.
Should I do a ball and string down the vent pipe to see if there's any blockage?
Also, I'm using a foil flexible vent hose from the dryer to the outlet. I know those are fire hazards and not recommended, so I will replace it with a flexible metal hose. But currently, I don't feel any air leakage.
Other than this, anyone have any ideas as to why the clothes are damp?
Foil hose is OK; it's the vinyl hose that's a huge no-no.
Typically, it is a blockage that would cause the long dry times. If you have an electric leaf blower, use that to see if you can blow the lint out too.
Foil hose is OK; it's the vinyl hose that's a huge no-no.
Typically, it is a blockage that would cause the long dry times. If you have an electric leaf blower, use that to see if you can blow the lint out too.
Is this a new thing with the clothes not drying? If so, your element may be bad and is not heating up (if dryer is electric).
If the dryer is gas, the burner is probably not going on.
You did say you could feel warm air.....hmmmmm. Maybe the heating elements are going on fully, or staying on long enough.
If you have never had dry clothes, then it might be the length of the vent is too long. Each 90 degree elbow adds 5 feet to the "effective length" of the vent. You want the dryer vent to really be less than 30 feet total (effective length).
IF you have flexible ducting running up to the roof, you will get some clogging too. Dryer duct should really be rigid metal duct with flex only at the connection to the dryer.
If you can get an electric leaf blower, use it to blow out the line.
The cycle of heat on, heat off, is controlled within the dryer by a thermostat. They go bad.
If the problem isn't a blockage in the line, I'm leaning toward this being the problem. A bad thermostat can cause the dryer to get warm, but not actually hot enough to dry the clothes. You can test this by removing the vent hose where it attaches to the dryer, and turning it on with no clothes in it. Let it run for a couple of minutes, and put your hand in front of the air stream. Should be about like putting your hand in front of a hair dryer. If it's cool enough that you can leave it there with no discomfort, have the thermostat checked out. If it's actually cold air coming out, you have a bad element (if electric) or something going on with the burner (if gas).
We also remove the back panel of the dryer periodically and remove lint that way. It's quite amazing how much accumulates. When we were doing some routine maintenance we found a squirrel nest in our dryer vent.
here is a bathroom fan that probably hadn't been removed in 15 years. Notice, this is the outside of the fan housing, the blades were clean.
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