Product rates well in preventing dryer fires
»Play Video
Thousands of house fires are started each year by clothes dryers clogged with lint. Consumer Reports just tested the Lint Lizard, an infomercial product that's designed to more easily remove lint from your dryer, to see whether it can help reduce a fire risk.
The Lint Lizard attaches to your vacuum cleaner. You thread the tube through the opening of a dryer's lint trap.
Consumer Reports checked to see how much lint it could remove from the dryer. The Lint Lizard worked really well. It removed more lint than any other technique testers tried.
The Lint Lizard costs $11 plus shipping and handling at lintlizard.com. You can get it for less at major retailers, including Amazon.com, Target, and Walmart
It does have one drawback: It might not fit easily into very narrow dryer openings. And its sharp tip could damage flexible foil or plastic ductwork. But Consumer Reports doesn't recommend those kinds of ducts anyway. They can sag, collect lint, and cause problems with venting your dryers.
Consumer Reports says flexible or solid metal ducts are far better. You should clean them at least once a year. And clean your lint trap every time you use the dryer. Taking those precautions can help prevent a tragedy.
The Lint Lizard attaches to your vacuum cleaner. You thread the tube through the opening of a dryer's lint trap.
Consumer Reports checked to see how much lint it could remove from the dryer. The Lint Lizard worked really well. It removed more lint than any other technique testers tried.
The Lint Lizard costs $11 plus shipping and handling at lintlizard.com. You can get it for less at major retailers, including Amazon.com, Target, and Walmart
It does have one drawback: It might not fit easily into very narrow dryer openings. And its sharp tip could damage flexible foil or plastic ductwork. But Consumer Reports doesn't recommend those kinds of ducts anyway. They can sag, collect lint, and cause problems with venting your dryers.
Consumer Reports says flexible or solid metal ducts are far better. You should clean them at least once a year. And clean your lint trap every time you use the dryer. Taking those precautions can help prevent a tragedy.
We have about 18' of dryer pipe so I recently bought a Gardus RLE202 LintEater 10-Piece Rotary Dryer Vent Cleaning System with extensions and lint catcher from Amazon for about $60. Hooked my yard blower to the vent pipe using their adapters and cleaned out the system. Dryer works much better and it is now safer, too.
Also - in the story that ran on TV - the reporter said cleaning out the lint increased the drying time, which increases the efficiency of the dryer.... but she must have meant to say exactly the opposite. It DECREASES the drying time, and that is what increases the efficiency of the dryer. And saves a lot of money in the process!
The best way to prevent a dryer fire due to accumulated lint, is to have the vent hose cleaned from the outside of the house, at the spot where the dryer vents air to the outside. It should be done at least once a year. A company called RED - based in Bellevue - will come and clean your dryer vent like this for free, in the context of a no-cost home safety & emergency preparedness evaluation. You can contact them through their web site at www.countyred.com. (The company was founded by firefighters - they know what they are doing.) A vent hose clogged with lint is a time bomb ticking in your house. We had ours done recently for the first time ever, and a LOT of lint came out. Pretty scary actually.