Here I am a professional in the trade of cleaning dryer vents.  And to my embarrassment, I recently had a situation come up.  My wife complained of smelling smoke when she dried some clothes.  I poopooed her.  First, that is never a good idea.  But here is where my “knowledge” got in the way of actually looking at her complaint.  I “knew” my dryer vent exited my dryer thru a 18″ flex hose and went directly outside thru a 5″ wall, so it could not be a problem.  In my mind, there was no way the vent could be plugged and capable of causing a fire.  When I finally got around to looking at it, I found that the maid had pushed the dryer vent back, too far against the wall, and crimped the flexible vent nearly closed.  This did not allow full exhaust flow, lint built up, and the heat sensor did not shut off the dryer.  Low and behold, the trapped lint actually started to smoulder.  It was quite by luck, that I did not have a full on fire.  The inside of the dryer actually turned black!! Read more