Dryer vents can be massive fire hazards, so ask some safety questions whenever you’re installing anything new on them. It can seem like a no-brainer that you need a cover over the outside of your Euless home’s dryer vent to prevent pests, but you need to be careful.
Dryer vent covers aren’t inherently dangerous, but plenty can seriously increase your fire risk. This will cause you to need Euless vent cleaning services more often. Here are things to consider when it comes to dryer vent covers.
Remove all screens and cages
Plenty of dryer vent covers have screens and cages to prevent pests and contaminants from coming in. These screens do not let the lint vent safely. They’re common, but they’re not a good design for dryer vent covers.
Lint catches constantly on screens and cages, creating a fire hazard that worsens the more you use your dryer. You’ll need a Euless dryer vent cleaning quite often if your cover looks like this.
Get a backdraft damper
Backdraft dampers are very useful, as they close when the dryer vent isn’t operating. You’re not using your dryer most of the time, so you don’t need the cover to be open 24/7. There’s way more time for birds, rats, and other animals to crawl in there and make themselves at home if you have a cover that’s open all the time.
Backdraft dampers combat this by swinging open when the vent exhaust pushes against them and falling closed when not in use. Pests can’t open them from the outside, so your dryer expels lint when it needs to and stays closed otherwise, meaning you need to call a Euless cleaning service less.
Make sure they open when they need to
No pests are a good thing, but you need to double-check that the backdraft damper operates and there’s an actual place for the exhaust and lint to go. You need to understand the dryer vent functionality and check that lint is actually leaving every time.
Backdraft dampers are a great solution, but you must ensure they operate. Your dryer vent cover should absolutely be open every time the dryer is running.
Prevent pests safely
Overall, covers are still better than no covers. This is because pests themselves pose a fire hazard, not just lint. Rats leave fur, spiders leave cobwebs, and birds leave feathers and nests. Combined with lint, this can create all kinds of effective kindling for a fire. If you have a pest problem, you’ll need a Euless cleaning technician to come to fix that.
Never vent indoors
Sometimes dryer vents leave their exhaust on the inside. The owners of these dryers are often eager to get vent covers to mitigate the problems that come with this. But the truth is, your vent really shouldn’t be indoors anyway.
No matter what kind of covers you have, your vent will produce a lot of moisture that can damage things and encourage mold growth. If you can, redirect your dryer vent to output its exhaust outdoors instead of indoors.