Ladies,
I just wanted to let you know about something I just learned, and feel the need to share so you all can be safe. Last weekend, we had a small fire in our dryer. We had never cleaned out the bottom of our dryer, and though we clean out the lint screen, the overflow and missed pieces of lint collected below and started on fire. We were so very lucky that the fire was contained, burned out quickly, and wasn't worse. But, it was a huge wake-up call, so I wanted to suggest that all of you take 30 minutes this weekend, and remove the front kick plate of your dryer, and clean out all the lint below. Please share this with everyone you know. One benefit of having done it is that our clothes are drying in 1/2 the time now, which will save us some money too.
Also check your vent hose that runs to the outside. It can become totally packed full of lint and cause fires, plus the extra drying time costs money like you said.
My neighbors had the same kind of fire but unfortunately it was a big one so Thanks for telling people about this cause that's one thing that I would of never done!
Good Call! My husband is a firefighter and just went to a dryer fire this week. The family lost everything. He has also had a situation where a child died because of a dryer fire. Their dryer was in their kitchen and the mom could not get to her napping child because the hallway was filed with smoke and fire. It was a tragedy and as you said something that could have been prevented. Thanks for the info!!
Good reminder Tammy--I actually had this same thing happen to us two months ago! Thankfully the fire went out and the fire department came and checked it to be safe. When the repairman came he took this plate off and vacuumed it all out, saying it should be done once a year. I felt like such an idiot at the time, I thought I was the only person who didn't know this. I'm glad it turned out okay for you guys too--thank heaven for smoke alarms! I hope people remember to check those batteries every few months, they really do save lives!