A dirty dryer can lead to wet clothes and, possibly, a fire. According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2010 an estimated 16,800 fires that involved clothes dryers or washing machines. Clothes dryers accounted for 92% of the fires with the leading cause of dryer fires being a dirty dryer. Deep cleaning your dryer can keep linty fire hazards at bay and will keep your clothes drying efficiently. Clean the lint trap, always If you usually skip cleaning out the dryer filter, don't. The moist air produced from drying your clothes passes through the vent that is protected by the dryer filter. If the filter is clogged with lint, the moist air won't escape and it will take longer to dry your clothes. Even more important, you're letting a highly flammable material build up in an appliance that creates heat. So, clean that trap every time.Wiping the lint from the filter is fine most of the time, but sometimes it needs a little more attention. Fabric softeners can leave a waxy buildup on your filter, preventing good air flow.

Every few months, clean it with a little dish soap, warm water and an old toothbrush. Rinse it and dry it well before putting it back in your dryer.Get down and dirty with the air vent Wait! Before you pop that filter back into place, take a good look at the vent your filter covers. No doubt it is full of lint, gum wrappers, Legos and other things that shouldn't be in there. Yes, even though your filter grabs a lot of stuff so it can't go down the vent, a bunch of junk will somehow still make it through. You don't want to know the horrors I found in mine while researching for this article.Grab your vacuum and clean the vent out using a narrow hose attachment. Do this at least once a year to keep your dryer working well and to prevent fires.Blast the vent tubes Pull your dryer out from the wall just a smidge. Do you see a big silver tube coming from your dryer and going into the wall? That's your vent tube. It carries all of the moist air from your dryer to the outdoors. Like your dryer vent, the vent tube needs to be cleaned once a year, as well.

Loosen the screw on the metal band around the tube or pinch the metal wire that connects the vent to the dryer. Pull the vent off and disconnect it from the wall. Since fabric softener can make the vent sticky, wash the vent in a sink of warm, sudsy water, rinse it and dry it well before putting it back on the dryer.The deepest of all deep cleanings Every 18 months or so, your dryer's motor and other mechanics will need to be cleaned because lint gets on just about everything. This kind of cleaning should be done by a professional, unless you feel confident with your mechanical skills. If that's the case:Disconnect your dryer from the electrical outlet. If you have a gas dryer, consult with a professional before attempting any disconnection of the gas line.Take the back panel off of your dryer by removing the screws.Vacuum any dust or lint that may have accumulated on the dryer parts or on the floor of the dryer. An upholstery attachment on the end of the vacuum hose is your best bet for getting the most lint out of nooks and crannies.

Put the back of the dryer back in place and replace the screws. Plumbing Home Repair - DIY Plumbing DIY Electrical Home Repair Heating & Cooling Repair - DIY HVAC Repair DIY Interior Home Repairs DIY Exterior Home Repair Glossary of DIY Home Repair and Tool Terms DIY Home Repair Tool Descriptions and Photossam's club vacuum cleaner How to Select a Contractor - Tutorial on Selecting and Working with a Repair Contractoramerican lincoln vacuum cleaner DIY Home Safety Tipsvacuum cleaner repair troubleshooting Appliance Home Repair: DIY Tips and Step-By-Step Guides Spending most of its life in my pocket, the headphone jack of my phone frequently gets clogged up with lint.

Usually I can tweeze it out, but this time I forgot, and tried to plug in my headphones, compressing the lint right at the bottom of the socket. I can't tweeze it out, it's too deep, and my headphones won't go in while it's there. What do I do? cleaning headphones phone retrieval Use a 1/16" drill bit. Do not put the bit into a drill! Just grip it between your thumb and forefinger. Press the end lightly into the lint-filled bottom of your headphone jack and spin it clockwise. Pull the bit gently out; there should be some lint on the tip. Repeat steps 1-3 until lint is gone. Clean jack with alcohol and q-tip or whatever you normally use. If you don't have a drill bit, a toothpick will work - but the bit does a better job of gripping packed lint. This can be done quickly and easily with a paper clip and scotch tape: Flatten out the paperclip. Tightly wrap scotch tape (with the sticky-side out) around the top part of the paperclip.

Carefully insert the sticky end into the headphone jack. A straightened paper clip with a little turn at the end generally does the trick. Use a shopvac and (if you can) set the suction to be very light. Hold it up to the headphone jack and the lint should be pulled out rather quickly. I just ran in to this but with the added fun of part of a sticker. Safety pin took care of everything quickly and effectively.Browse other questions tagged cleaning headphones phone retrieval or ask your own question.In most homes today, a clothing dryer is a common appliance used on a regular basis. The vent of a dryer collects debris, fluff and hair that accumulates when the clothing spins around in the machine. It should be emptied after each load, but unfortunately, not everyone makes a habit of doing so. The debris can build up over time and even clog the dryer's vent. Believe it or not, thousands of home fires each year are started due to the dryer vent. When debris begins to clog the dryer vent, the exhaust gases produced by the dryer begin to back up and create a potential fire hazard.

This can turn an otherwise helpful appliance into a disaster waiting to happen. Aside from the biggest risk of a home fire, clogged dryer vents can lead to short-circuiting and major electrical problems, overheating in the home and increased energy bills as the dryer has to work harder and harder with each spin cycle in order to dry clothes. In a nutshell, the biggest cause of a clogged dryer vent is a lack of maintenance. It is impossible to escape the fact that as water evaporates in the dryer, lint with detach from the spinning clothes and become trapped in the vent. Along with emptying the smaller lint trap included with most modern dryers, homeowners need to be vigilant about checking the length of the exhaust vent on a regular basis, or approximately once each year even when no problems are apparent. Another major cause of clogged dryer vents is placing the dryer far from the exterior wall. This creates a longer vent to take hot air outside of the home, and a longer vent simply means more opportunities for a clog.

Plus, a long and winding vent exhaust pipe can be crushed up against a wall when going around a corner, which leads to major blocks and potential buildup. In some cases, birds and animals can even create nests within the dryer vent, which is a major contributing factor to a big clog. One of the biggest reasons to clean a dryer vent is to increase the efficiency of the dryer itself. When a dryer's vent is partially blocked or even fully clogged, it has to work harder than ever to remove moisture from clothes, create heat and dry the items in the spin cycle. Running a dryer for an extended period of time is a major waste of money, and it can add up quickly for a person's monthly utility bills. In addition, the extra heat generated by the dryer with extra use and overcompensation may result in higher temperatures throughout the house, especially if the exhaust vent pipe runs through more than one room before exiting the building. A higher indoor temperature means that during the summer, the air conditioning system has to work harder as well.

Dryer vent clogs can therefore lead to a waste of valuable energy resources, making them a problem for an eco-friendly home as well as additional costs for energy each month for the homeowner. It is important to clean dryer vents before they get to the point where they could be a fire hazard. Some of the signs that a dryer vent needs to be cleaned include the following: Clothing comes out of the dryer much hotter than normalThe drying cycle takes longer, or clothes are damp after a normal cycleThe laundry room feels much hotter than normal The lint filter fills up quickly or appears unusualUtility bills rise without an explanation Clothes from the dryer take on a musty smellDryer sheets smell odd or break down more than usual during the cycle All of the signs listed above signify that a dryer vent absolutely needs to be cleaned. Many homeowners opt to clean their dryer vents themselves, which can be done by unplugging the dryer from the wall outlet, removing the vent exhaust pipe from the dryer, vacuuming or pulling out debris from both the dryer and pipe, visually inspecting the interior of the vent pipe and checking the exterior of the home for any blockages where the exhaust vents outside.

However, this can be a time consuming process, and it is not always effective. A better idea may be to call a professional. Rather than just calling a handyman, it is worth looking for a dryer exhaust technician that is certified by the Chimney Safety Institute of America. These professionals are familiar with the biggest fire risks and can help you prevent clogs as well as eliminate any existing ones. On average, a professional dryer vent cleaning will cost anywhere from $90 to $160, depending on the severity of the clog. Thankfully, there are several steps that homeowners can take to prevent debris from ever clogging the dryer vent in the first place. Instead of relying on dryer sheets for each load of laundry, opting for a liquid fabric softener can help to reduce the amount of debris created with each cycle. Instead of running the dryer for multiple cycles in a row when doing laundry, aim to let the dryer cool down for at least 15 to 20 minutes before loading it back up and turning it on for another cycle.