No Heavy Lifting: How To Clean A Dryer Vent With A Drill Attachment

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It's no secret that cleaning out the dryer vent is one household chore people put off doing. The reason why? No one wants to put in the heavy lifting of getting that dryer out of the way in order to access the vent. There is good news on this front, however. A simple power drill attachment takes all the leg work out of the equation by accessing your dryer vent from the outside.

Located at the back of your dryer unit, the vent is what takes the humid air generated by the heating of the laundry and expels it through ductwork that leads to an exterior port. Overtime, lint and debris can build up and clog the vent, making your machine work overtime to get your laundry dry. Cleaning that excessive lint out of the vent won't just help your dryer's efficiency, but it is one of the best ways to prevent a dryer vent fire.

This helpful power drill attachment is a dryer vent cleaner kit with a flexible brush that can attach to your power drill. Something like the DRYVENCK 30-foot Dryer Vent Cleaning Kit comes with two synthetic brush heads and flexible extensions that are suitable to a wide variety of pipe sizes and lengths. When connected to the drill, the brush will spin and expel any debris back through the exterior port.

The great part about using an extendable drill brush attachment is that you don't have to worry about disconnecting anything or moving a heavy dryer out of the way. Instead, you can get the brush set up outside and remove the lint through the exterior vent cap. This makes these affordable tools (the aforementioned DRYVENCK is only $20 at Walmart) one of the easiest tricks that makes cleaning your dryer vents a breeze. 

When you do insert the brush into the dryer vent, make sure that the brush is already spinning so it immediately starts catching lint. You don't want to do this at too high a speed because that could damage the vent duct work. Move steadily up and down the vent to expel as much lint as possible. You should feel resistance when you hit the dryer itself, then you'll know you've gone far enough. Because of the discharge of lint, it would be a good idea to wear eye protection and a mask to avoid inhalation. 

One simple trick you can use to make the cleanup process easier is to use a shop vacuum to catch the dryer lint as it is expelled from the port. You can also turn the dryer to air dry so the heating element is not on, but the air blower will be activated to push more lint out of the vent. When no more debris is discharged, you're finished.