Back in Boca Raton for the season? Check your dryer vent first

Why a vent that sat unused needs a look

Many homeowners in Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach spend part of the year somewhere else. While the house is closed, the dryer vent is a quiet, sheltered opening on an outside wall or the roof, which is exactly what birds, rodents and insects look for when they build a nest.

Nothing about this shows from inside the laundry room. The dryer looks the same as when you left. The first sign is often the first load: clothes that take two or three cycles to dry, a dryer that feels hotter than usual, or a musty smell when it runs.

Nesting material blocks airflow and burns easily, and a blocked vent keeps the dryer's heat from escaping. That's why we recommend an inspection for every seasonal resident when they return, before the dryer goes back to daily use.

For the year-round schedule, our guide to how often Florida homeowners should clean their dryer vents covers when a vent needs cleaning in general.

What can change while you're away

Nests

Birds are the most common visitors. A flap that doesn't close fully or a missing cover is all a bird needs, and nesting material packs into the pipe quickly. Squirrels, rodents and wasps use vents too.

Stuck flaps

Salt air near the coast corrodes the outside flap and its hinges. After months without the dryer pushing it open, a flap can stick shut, which traps lint and moist air inside the vent.

Damp lint

Lint left in the vent before you went away sits through months of Florida humidity. Damp lint is heavier and clings to the walls of the duct, so the vent you come back to is often more restricted than the one you left.

Storm debris

Summer and fall storms can push leaves and debris against the outside opening, or bend the vent hood so the flap no longer opens all the way.

A five-minute check before your first load

1. 1

   Look at the outside vent

   Find where your dryer vents outside: a side wall, the roof, or a balcony wall in many condos. The flap or louvers should be closed but free to move, with no twigs, grass, feathers or lint around the opening.

2. 2

   Check the lint trap and behind the dryer

   Clean the lint trap, then look behind the dryer. The short duct between the dryer and the wall should be attached at both ends, not crushed or kinked behind the machine.

3. 3

   Run a short load and feel the airflow

   Run the dryer on a warm setting and go outside. You should see the flap open and feel a strong, steady stream of warm air. Weak air, or a flap that barely moves, means something is in the way.

4. 4

   Trust your nose

   A musty smell or a smell of burning lint is a reason to stop. Turn the dryer off and don't use it again until the vent has been checked.

When to book a cleaning instead

Book a cleaning before you use the dryer again if any of these are true:

• The outside flap stays shut while the dryer runs.
• You see nesting material, feathers or droppings at the opening.
• The airflow outside is weak, or you can't find the outside end at all.
• A load needs two or three cycles to dry.
• Your vent exits through the roof or runs a long way across the house, so you can't check the outside end easily.
• It has been more than a year since the vent was cleaned.

A Basic cleaning is $150, one flat rate. It covers the full vent run end to end, the exterior cap, and the lint trap and dryer port, and we measure airflow before and after so you can see the difference. Premium, $250, adds a deep clean inside the dryer, where lint that got past the trap settles around the motor, and a bore-scope camera inspection of the full vent run. If you found signs of animals, the camera shows whether anything is still hiding further in.

If birds keep coming back to the same opening, ask us about a cover for the outside vent. The Exterior Cover is $150 and keeps animals out while the dryer still vents freely.

The best time for your yearly cleaning

If you split the year between two homes, the start of your Florida season is the best time for the yearly cleaning. It clears whatever settled in while you were away, right before the months you use the dryer most. We send a reminder each year, so you don't have to keep track of it.

It also gives you a baseline. We measure airflow before and after every cleaning and put both readings in your written report, so next season you can see whether anything has changed.

Common questions