The US Consumer Products Safety Commission’s (CPSC) May 2003 report cited 15,600 dryer fires in the United States which caused 20 casualties, 370 injuries and $75.4 million worth of property damage.
Dryers, when not properly maintained, can cause fires triggered by the following conditions:
- Lint that has built up inside a dryer chassis on its first use. Lint has piled up on the dryer’s components together with the heater and the dryer floor. This lint build up happens even if the dryer’s lint screen is consistently cleaned after each use, and the dryer is properly exhausted.
- The dryer’s interior exhaust venting seals may not be sufficient to stop linty air from going into the dryer’s interior.
- Lint build up on the heater housing can easily catch fire whenever a high-limit thermostat failed and an exhaust vent is blocked.
- Lint that accumulates near the heater intake can spark before the high-limit thermostat turns the heater element off.
- Lint collected by the heater and embers emitted by the heater outlet can easily ignite more lint or fabric in the air stream, causing additional embers in the dryer system and exhaust vent.
- The high-limit thermostat may give way prematurely when exposed to high ambient temperatures.
- The temperatures exacted inside the heater box, heater intake, and intake into the tumbler goes up when the exhaust vent was either partially or fully blocked.
- When the exhaust vent was blocked up to 50 percent, the temperatures inside the dryer closely resemble those measured in the absence of a blockage of the exhaust vent. With 75 percent or 100 percent of the exhaust vent blocked, temperatures in other areas inside the dryer increased considerably.
- Generally speaking, the dryers only rotated on the high-limit thermostat when 75 or 100 percent of the exhaust vent was blocked, causing the temperatures near the heater to greatly rise.
- When the primary thermostat was sidestepped (as in a thermostat failure), the dryer operated at an unusually higher-than-normal temperatures which are similar to those measured when the exhaust vent was 50 to 75 percent blocked. As a whole, (3 of the 4 dryer designs tested), the dryer cycle on the high limit thermostat for the unblocked exhaust vent condition was not caused by a failed-closed primary thermostat.
- It showed that the exhaust vent airflow (V2) consistently decreased as the dryer operated which was caused by the lint screen gradually becoming blocked with lint.
A Bargain Appliance Repair’s Dryer Maintenance Plan involves:
- Keeping the interior cabinet and ducts of your dryer clean.
- Checking the exhaust pipe from the dryer to the wall for kinks and obstructions.
- Inspecting the dryer vent.
- Examining the power cord.
- Checking the washing machine and cleaning any filters.
- Securing the washing machine supply lines and ensuring that they do not require replacement.
A Bargain Appliance Repair’s maintenance program is devised to prevent dryer fires, decrease energy consumption, and eliminate the need for future repairs or replacement, which is more costly than regular maintenance.
Please check our Maintenance Program Pricing page for more information.
Ready to establish maintenance service for your dryer? Call us now or set up maintenance service online.