How Clueless am I?

 So . . . here's a good one for you on this wonderful Saturday morning.

For awhile now, there has been a nasty mildew smell coming from my clothes dryer.  It and the washer live upstairs in my kitchen rather than in the basement. 



When the original owners built out the kitchen and added the sunroom back in 1985, they moved the laundry upstairs.



It's very handy to not have to go down to the basement whenever I want to do laundry. 

Anyway, earlier this year, I noticed that some condensation was dripping on to my potting bench down in the basement. It was coming from the dryer vent.  Said vent actually goes a very long way to vent to the outside - from nearly the middle of the house, out to the north wall.  And then, about three or four weeks ago, a nasty mildew smell started coming from the dryer.  Or in the vicinity of the dryer.  I tried to move it, thinking that I must have a dead mouse somewhere behind it, the smell of which was coming through the dryer. 

Nope.  And I realized I couldn't move it myself anyway.  Then, I noticed that there was a rotten potato in the hanging vegetable baskets.  It was nasty.  I tossed it out, and the smell went away. 

For about a week.  When I opened the dryer to dry a load of laundry . . . seriously whiffy.  However, the clothes never smelled like mildew - because, of course, the dryer was sucking the air - and smell - out toward the vent.

I rang Mike the Appliance Guy.  If you live anywhere in his area, he's the guy you want to call if something goes sideways with one of your appliances.  He arrived on Thursday evening to figure out what was up.

Let me just tell you here that I've always been religious in cleaning the lint trap in my dryer (any dryer I use actually) - my mom always told me to be sure to do that, but I've never lived anywhere as long as I've lived here, and for nearly all of my life I did laundry at a laundromat, so I never knew that you had to clean out the vent to the outside from time to time.  In addition, I've never lived anywhere as long as I've lived here, so a long-term, recurring maintenance requirement like this has never presented in my life before.  I thought that if you cleaned the lint trap before/after every load, that that did the trick. 

 Um . . . . apparently not.

According to Mike the Appliance Guy, the lint trap only catches about 75% of the lint generated by drying clothes.  He also said the vent should be cleaned out every three years.

Oh boy. 

I know it has never been cleaned out since I moved in 12+ years ago, and I'm wondering if it's possible that it had NEVER been cleaned out since 1985 when the previous owner built out the kitchen and moved the laundry upstairs.

It took about two hours for him to clear the vent.  We're talking a couple of garbage bags of lint.  I am counting myself lucky that all I got was a nasty mildew smell rather than setting the house on fire.

The first load of wet laundry is in the dryer even as I type.  Mike said the mildew smell  would dissipate with use. and now that the vent was clear that I shouldn't have any more condensation along its path to the exterior. 

He also said I should notice that my clothes are getting dry a whole lot faster  ;-)

I trust my inner wisdom

As I go about my daily affairs, I listen to my guidance.
My intuition is always on my side.
I trust it to be there at all times.
I am safe.

Today looks to be another beautiful, unseasonably warm day here in Chicagoland.  I'm going to enjoy it  :-)

I am thankful for lazy weekend mornings.

I know I post a lot of old songs here - I guess that's because I like to hear people who can really rally make music and really sing, not lipsync or rely on autotune.  Enjoy . . .



Comments

Anonymous said…
Ah, the joys of owning a home. :) As time goes on, you'll learn a lot of things that you never thought of. I was raised with a dad who was handy around the house and luckily I absorbed a lot without realizing it. You are fortunate to have Mike, the Appliance Guy. We single women need to know men like him! And the Computer Guy, the Cable Guy, the clean out the gutters guy . . . . .

Janice H.
A :-) said…
I've been very lucky with ALL the tradesmen I have ever used in this house. I'm very thankful :-)
Michelle said…
I wonder if I can persuade my live-in maintenance man (not as easy as one would hope) to clean out our vent; I know the outer vent has not been cleaned in the 14 years since we built this house!
A :-) said…
Yeah, I'm thinking that would be a very good idea. You can show him my post . . . :-)

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