Vacuum cleaning a flexible aluminum dryer vent hose, to remove lint and prevent fire hazard. Focusing on the entrance. Photo: Benjamin Clapp/Getty Images. Dryer vent cleaning is a messy job.

If your exhaust pipe is a soft foil design, make sure you replace it with a 90 degree aluminum elbow pipe instead, such as the Deflecto Aluminum Dryer Vent Elbow. These are fire-resistant and more ...

So we bought a dryer cleanout kit to clean out the vent hose from the outside! If you have a project you’d like Erik to tackle, send us an email at [email protected] and next week ...

If your dryer used a soft foil-style vent to link to the wall duct, get rid of it. These hoses are a known fire risk. I personally replaced the original semi-rigid venting with a pair of 90-degree ...

Tinfoil-coated dryer hose is OK for short distances, but anything over 8 feet in length should be rigid metal pipe. • Do not vent the warm, moist air to the interior of the home.

And don’t forget your gloves – the thin metal hose often has really sharp edges once it’s cut. Carefully reattach your vent hose to the dryer, then attach it to the wall.

In fact, dirty dryer vents are the leading cause of domestic dryer fires, according to the US Fire Administration.So you’ll want to clean your machine’s dryer vent at least once a year.