Fire Hazard Alert - is your Dryer ready to Ignite

In recent years there has been many stories about dryers
catching on fire. Should we be concerned? Yes of course. We
should take seriously anything that may put our family at
risk.

Was the problem the dryer? Rarely. After investigating it is
usually determined to have been the venting within the home
catching on fire, and not the dryer.
Obviously appliance manufacturers are concerned about the
possibility of any dryer related fires. They have made it a
policy to advise both service companies and consumers that
the use of plastic venting is prohibited. They have also
begun issuing cautions not to exceed suggested maximums for
venting length. Let me try to explain the details of this
problem.

The drying process ---------------------------

When clothes are being dried inside your family dryer there
are two processes happening. Firstly, heat is applied to the
air inside the dryer drum as it turns. This raises its
internal temperature to approximately 175 Fahrenheit causing
moisture to be driven out of the clothes by evaporation.
Secondly, large amounts of air is passed through the
clothes. Surprisingly, the real trick to efficiently dry
clothes is not the heat, but rather this vast volume of air.

Ever wonder why the clothes on the clothesline dry so fast
on a windy day? The hero is the wind. Well, the same process
takes place inside your family dryer.
To make them dry faster air is constantly blown through the
clothes during the drying cycle. The tumbling action of the
drum further exposes the clothing to the hot air flow. While
they tumble the air picks up moisture from the clothes,
carries it down the venting, and dumps it outside the home.
Most people think the venting is to push the lint outside.
Actually, its primary purpose is to dump the moisture
outside the home.

It is a process that works efficiently. That is, as long as
nothing is allowed to interfere with it. Impede, slow
down, or stop the airflow and the process quickly fails.
In the past homeowners who wanted to vent their dryers did
it using rigid sections of venting. The sections were
secured together (using screws or duct tape), and elbows
were added if necessary, to connect the dryer and venting to
the wall outlet. Although time consuming to install,
straight venting sections were durable and would often
outlive the dryer. This was in the era when laundry
equipment always sat in the basement, against an outside
wall.

Then along came flexible plastic venting. It made
installations easier. It turned an hour installation into a
ten minute job. The flex though tended to become brittle and
break easily. Also it was prone to blockage and needed to be
replaced every few years. But since plastic venting was more
convenient we continued with its use.

Then came a change in lifestyle. As both parents went off to
work the household dryer was moved to accommodate our faster
paced lifestyle. To save us time it was moved from the
basement to a ground floor laundry room. Although moved to
the working level of the home, it was still close to an
outside wall.

So you are saying,