jeff_wisnia wrote:

The hired painting crew got through doing the outside of our home a
couple of days ago and while I was admiring the improved look of the
place I noticed that our clothes dryer's through the wall vent had been
painted with siding paint.

While it blended in and looked better than if they'd left it in its
native off-white plastic color, I wondered if its louvers were still free.

I grabbed a ladder and took a look. Sure enough, all three of its
louvers were stuck in the closed position. It took me a few minutes with
a putty knife to break them free and scrape off some dried paint ridges
so the louvers were all flapping free as birds again.

That got me thinking about the often repeated warnings about the dangers
of glogged clothes dryer vents and what can happen as a result.

I'd expect that a clogged vent on a gas fired dryer could cause gas
combustion products to be released into the inside of the home, which
doesn't sound like something you'd want to have happen.

Assuming an electric or a gas dryer, what "catches fire" and where, when
the vent gets blocked with lint?

Do any dryer manufacturers equip their appliances with air flow or back
pressure sensors to prevent them from running if the venting system
becomes blocked?

My curious mind wants to know.

In our case I've got about the most direct outside venting possible, the
vent goes through an outside wall behind our electric clothes dryer and
is lined right up with the dryer's outlet port. A ten inch long length
of corrugated aluminum flex connects the dryer to the vent which lets me
move the dryer out enough to disconnect it when needed. A couple of
blocks of wood screwed to the flook on each side of the dryer keeps its
outlet from moving out of line with the vent.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10e12 furlongs per fortnight.

Pretty much noting happens when the outlet is clogged, including no
drying of clothes, since either type of dryer will trip it's high temp
safety in a minute or so of operation and shutdown.