How to Prevent a Dryer Fire

 

Laundry is a component of life’s weekly grind. But did you recognize that dryers cause roughly 15,500 home structure fires, 29 deaths, 400 injuries and $192 million in direct property loss each year? What’s more, most dryer fires happen within the winter.

WHAT CAN CAUSE A DRYER FIRE?

The most common explanation for dryer fires is failure to try to to a radical cleaning. Because a lint trap isn't a foolproof method for catching all the fuzzy stuff from clothes, lint can gradually build up and erupt within the component or exhaust duct.

Further compounding the matter is that the incontrovertible fact that many of us now install dryers outside of their basements. This typically leads to dryer vent pipes being for much longer . Those longer vent pipes have a greater likelihood of being twisted and turned to accommodate the structure of the home—and that makes spaces for lint to gather .

WHAT COULD HAPPEN IF MY DRYER CATCHES ON FIRE?

Kevin Sippy, an insurance adjuster in ERIE’s Wisconsin Branch, inspects about five dryer fires per annum . One particularly bad one happened when a customer laundered an item containing a kind of rubber not meant to be dried at a heat . When she turned the dryer to high, the fabric combusted and caused a blaze that destroyed $44,000 worth of property.

VIDEO: Watch how quickly a dryer fire can spread

In another instance, a customer suffered $200,000 of property damage from a fireplace that started after she took her laundry out of the dryer. That customer washed towels that had been soaked during a sizable amount of sanitizing solution. She then placed the towels, which still had traces of the sanitizing solution, within the dryer. When the towels dried, they ended up spontaneously combusting and causing a fireplace that burned through a whole floor.

“We literally had to gut the house,” says Sippy, who changed his own laundry habits then fire. “Now, I never dry anything above the low setting—I’d rather take a touch longer to dry my clothes than burn my house down.”

9 TIPS TO STOP DRYER FIRES

1. Clean out the lint. “It starts with cleaning out the lint filter whenever you employ the dryer.” says John Hall, Ph.D., division director of fireside Analysis & Research for the National Fire Protection Association. He also advises clearing out the vent pipe to scale back the prospect of fireside and to take care of the efficiency of the dryer.

2. Install with care. make certain to follow the manufacturer’s instructions when installing the vent pipe. Use a brief , straight pipe that’s an adequate distance from the wall. By reducing the bends within the dryer vent pipe, it creates fewer opportunities for lint to collect . If you've got to vent your dryer over an extended distance, consider investing during a dryer vent fan. These automatic electric devices speed up airflow through the duct whenever you switch on your dryer to stay things moving along. A dryer vent fan should be installed by a licensed electrician.

3. filter out combustibles. Move any flammables like cleaning supplies distant from your dryer. Also regularly sweep out dust within the areas around and underneath your dryer.

4. choose a solid metal dryer duct. Research shows that flexible foil or plastic ducts can sag and cause lint buildup at low points. Metal ducts of any variety don’t sag, and they’re more likely to contain any fires that might start.

5. Read tags. If the care label reads dry low, don’t turn the dryer up to high. Also use caution with certain items like bath mats, padded bras and bibs—they may contain rubber that shouldn’t be exposed to hot temperatures.

6. Exercise extra caution with flammable liquids. Wash clothing stained with volatile chemicals quite once—and definitely prefer to line dry over machine dry.

7. Use your clothes to diagnose problems. Clothes that not feel dry or that are extra hot to the touch after a traditional dry cycle are a telltale sign that something’s wrong. Before doing subsequent load, check for a plugged vent and clean out any lint.

8. Don’t dry and dash. close up your dryer if you would like to exit during the laundry cycle.

9.Give the outdoor vent a peek. confirm that the outdoor vent flap isn’t covered by snow or debris.
Another way you'll protect your house is with the proper homeowners insurance. Talk with an insurance professional like an Erie insurance broker to find out more and obtain a free quote.

This story was originally published in 2013. it had been updated with new information on Jan. 13, 2020.