Your clothes dryer is a pretty simple machine. It uses a combination of tumbling clothes and warm air moving through them. But remove any element — tumbling, heat or air movement — and your clothes won’t dry.
Here’s some basic maintenance tips to keep things working great.
Clean the lint tray after every load. This is where the air must pass through to exhaust. If the trap’s full, you trap a lot of hot air. You can cook your breakfast on top of the dryer, but you won’t dry your clothes.
Cut the flexible dryer ducting so it’s as short and as straight as possible. The more bends, the more chance for lint buildup.
Use 4″ ducting. Very old machines used 3″ ducts, and if the vent in your house was 3″, the installer might have just attached a 4″ to 3″ adapter rather than enlarge the hole in your wall. This restricts air flow.
If you’re using aluminum ducting, don’t attach it with screws through the dryer manifold. They’ll snag lint. Use duct tape.
It’s a small point, but louvered vent caps might work a little better than the single-flap style. If one louver gets stuck, at least the others will open.
Service your dryer once a year. First unplug it and wait till it cools down. Then, either pop off the front kickplate with a putty knife, or get in behind and remove the panel. Then vacuum out the inside. Remove the pipe section inside the dryer and clean it out; you’ll be surprised what you find in there.
Keep the rubber door seal clean by wiping it periodically. Spray it with silicon spray.