How to Clean A Dryer

They make an attachment to go on your vacuum cleaner hose that you can use to get all of the excess lint out of the lint trap on your dryer. I got mine at Wal-Mart, it came with the vacuum attachment, a brush for cleaning the inside of the dryer and another brush for cleaning the exhaust vent at the back of the dryer.

Wipe out the inside of the dryer and all around the door seal once a week with a disinfectant cleaning wipe to get out any oils, grease or extra lint.

If you’re lucky, the crayons just tumble around and make scribbles on the inside of the dryer. You can get the scribbles off by lightly scrubbing over them with a scouring sponge or plastic scouring pad, or with steel wool if you are very careful. I’m usually not that lucky, so if the crayon melts inside the dryer here’s what you do:

1) Scrape off as much of the wax as you can with your fingernail.

2) Pick out crayon that has melted into holes or cracks with a pointed nail file or the tip of a kitchen knife.

3) Use the scribble removal method above to get any crayon remnants off of the dryer interior.

4) Run something you don’t care much about, like your dust rags, through a full drying cycle on High to make sure there isn’t crayon left somewhere that will come off on your clothes or towels.

Cleaning the lint trap isn’t enough! Try to clean behind and under your dryer once a month, and once a year or so get a handy person to take the back off the dryer and blow all of the lint and dust out out of it.

If you can, have them take the vent hose off and blow that out too. You’ll see all of the crud that has built up in the vent hose come flying out of the outside vent, so be sure to check the outside vent afterwards to make sure it isn’t clogged.

If the crayon gets into the lint trap and melts on the screen, take the screen out and use a hair dryer to melt the wax, then remove the wax with a paper towel. Use an old toothbrush to get wax remnants out of the screen itself.

Use Formula 409 or the equivalent. You can’t let any of the cleaner go down the holes! Spray it on a cloth and then use the cloth, don’t spray the cleaner directly into the dryer. Once you’ve gotten off as much of the stain as you can, wipe out the inside of the dryer with a clean damp rag to get the 409 residue off.

Use rubbing alcohol on a cloth and wipe it down inside. This is really good for removing ink.