How to Burn Your House Down......

So while I have been busy with many projects (posts on those to come later), I thought that I might share this with you.  I went into my basement the other day when the dryer was running, and the basement was hot and humid, which is not what one expects in October in Maine.  I thought there might be an issue, so I showed my dad, since he was over helping me with projects anyway, and he mentioned that I might want to take the dryer apart and clean it, since it was not blowing air like it should.  This is what I found as I took it apart:

In case you are not already appalled. this is NOT how the inside of a dryer should look.  I am not a dryer technician, but I know this is not right.  There was lint on the underside of the lid, on all the wiring, above the drum, below the drum, in the electric motor, and even in the heater core.  We are extremely lucky to have not burned down the house with this much lint in the dryer.  In the picture immediately above, do you see something missing?  Take your time, I will wait..........

 This is what was missing.  Instead of the lint and hot, humid air being blown out the missing vent pipe, and out of the house. it was being injected into the dryer housing and into all nooks, crannies, and possible fire starting places possible.    In case you think I am kidding when I say it was a miracle we didn't burn our house down in the 6 months we've been here, the 5 gallon bucket that I collected the lint into was 1/2 full.  Yes, that is right, 2.5 GALLONS of lint came out of the dryer.  Talk about a fire starter!  If you've never seen lint catch fire before, take some from the dryer catch screen, go outside, somewhere where you won't catch anything else on fire, and light it.  It lights extremely easily, which is why when mixed with wax, it makes a wonderful campfire/fireplace starter.

So, my suggestion to anyone/everyone is to clean your dryer on a regular basis (or if you are not confident in your own abilities, get someone else to do it).  Also, because the dryer is now ejecting the moisture out of the dryer, it should work much more efficiently, and save us a lot of money on our electric bill.  That is a wait and see game.  Seriously though, check your dryer so you don't burn your house down.  I'm off to buy a lottery ticket, even though I am pretty certain that I used up all my luck on the dryer.