What's in your dryer vent?

Speaking of dryer vents...

We were speaking about dryer vents on ActiveRain Sunday morning... or dryer vent cleaning franchises anyway.

This is a Chicago area blog post my friend Gene Molloy wrote: "What's in your dryer duct?" on his RealTown Blog... a couple of years ago. Me? I call it a dryer vent.

I don't know if we have codes on new construction about aluminum dryer vents in Central Ohio. I have worked with clients moving from other areas of the country who are amazed the seller (resale property) has a plastic dryer vent still. Want to be safer? Replace the dryer vent. Yes dryer vents get a build up of lint, pet hair and more...

I have to tell my dryer vent story... we kept walking in through the garage and saying "ooooooooh what's that smell?" in the utility room.

We blamed one another...

We blamed the dog... "Buddy!"

We noticed when Buddy my beagle mix started taking a real strong interest in the dryer...scratching. We thought some dog food had rolled under the dryer but when Buddy tried to jump INTO the dryer's drum and was giving his hound dog hunting yips (the precursor to the howls) we knew something was going on. We were perplexed... then we pulled out the dryer from the wall.

Do you know how scary opossums are? Have you ever seen opossum teeth? Opossum eyes? Have you heard a opossum growl? Luckily I got to be the one in charge of getting the dog out of the utility room, not the one trying to persuade the stinky opossum to "back up!"

He did not play possum.

Mission accomplished the opossum was persuaded to go back out into the cold cruel world. There is an opossum proof grate on the vent outside now.

Photo credit Opossum photo compliments of Animaldetector on Wikipedia. The photo is licensed with a creative commons license.