Pro tip: Check the whole vent run if you get a call for a dryer that won't heat

I was at a job in a big apartment building downtown last week. The tenant said their dryer just blew cold air. I checked the basics, heating element, thermostat, all good. I pulled the unit out and the vent hose looked fine at the wall. On a hunch, I asked the super to let me into the basement laundry room. The main vent line from the upper floors runs down there. Sure enough, the 4-inch rigid pipe coming down from that unit's stack was completely packed with lint, like a solid plug about 6 feet up. It wasn't the dryer at all, it was a building issue the tenant was paying for. I cleared it with my rods and the dryer fired right up. Always check the full run, not just the first few feet. How many of you have run into this with multi-unit buildings?

4 comments

4 Comments

murphy.mason2mo ago

Imagine a solid six-foot plug of lint. That's a whole different level of neglect from the building owners. Tenants definitely shouldn't be footing the bill for that kind of maintenance failure.

marywilson5d agoTop Commenter

My cousin had a similar situation in her building a few years back. The maintenance guy admitted they hadn't cleaned the vents since the place was built in 2005. When she complained about the smell and the heat not working right, they just told her to vacuum more often. Then her neighbor's dryer actually caught fire. Luckily someone was home and put it out before the whole place went up. The landlord tried to say it was the tenant's fault for overloading the dryer. It took a lawyer's letter to get them to even look at the vents, and sure enough they found a two foot blockage.

anna_ellis882mo ago

My old apartment in Denver had a vent so clogged it took two guys an hour to clear it. That lint plug didn't form in a month. Like Sandra said, it's a pattern of ignoring small signs. Landlords skip the yearly twenty dollar vent cleaning for years, then blame tenants when the three hundred dollar emergency fix comes due. It's a budget choice that puts people at risk.

sandra_bennett592mo ago

See this all the time with landlords passing basic costs down. They let small problems grow into huge messes, then act shocked when it's expensive. It's a classic move to avoid their own responsibilities.