About 3 weeks ago, my dryer started smelling worse than hell. In the past, I have seen birds fly into the exhaust duct on the back of the 3rd story of my town house. I believe that a bird may have flown in there and died as the smell is horrid and I have cleaned the dryer thoroughly (and clean the lint between every use) and it still smells like complete shit.

Has anyone ever had their exhaust ducts cleaned in their house? If so, what company did you use and what was the cost? I don't need my whole system cleaned, just the exhaust from my dryer if my hypothesis is correct. I don't own a 2 or 3 story ladder, so I can't examine it myself...

6/14/2010 6:33:36 PM

I don't know who to call, but you definitely want to get it fixed. If there is a dead bird in there, or anything else clogging up the pipe, it could be a serious fire hazard. Until you get it taken care of, I would make sure to be home whenever you use the drier.

6/14/2010 6:47:40 PM

theres one kind of bird that the male has to making several nests a day trying to impress females, they make em in you car, in u dryer vent, even in you hairdo

6/15/2010 4:17:10 AM

how long is the vent duct and is it exposed or under the floor or in a wall or what? this could be a very simple diy job. a new vent hose is very cheap.

6/15/2010 7:37:50 AM

It is on the back of my 4 story townhouse. It is on the 3rd level. I would need either a 3 story ladder or a 2 story ladder from my back deck, depending on the angle needed to access this. I'd rather pay someone else to clean it rather than hurt myself trying...

6/15/2010 8:41:19 AM

Does it stick straight out of an exterior wall? In my house the laundry room is located on the second story on an exterior wall and the vent just sticks straight out of the wall. If yours is similar, you can just move the dryer out of the way and use something like a plumbing snake or a broom handle (depending on the length and if there is an elbow on the end). Even if it's not, you can still use a plumbing snake to navigate through any in wall vent hose and do it from the inside, without the need for a ladder. I've helped my dad do this with their dryer vent which had hose running from the laundry room, through the crawl space, to an outside wall. I'm assuming there isn't some type of cover over the vent (it would prevent you from pushing lint out but also prevent a bird from entering) like this:



or



Also, if it smells bad then it's also probably a good time to replace the "accordion" hose that goes between the dryer and the vent, as NRR stated, it's really cheap.

6/15/2010 1:02:43 PM

I would think that the vent on the outside would be an HOA issue. If it is broken and critters are getting in there I would make them address it.

6/15/2010 1:31:38 PM

^^ I've had the bottom kind of vent. Birds can still get it. I watched a bird manage to lift the louvers with it's beak while hovering in flight to get in. It was rather impressive, but I still had to get the bird out and switch to the cage type cover.

6/15/2010 1:47:25 PM

you can probably get to it from the inside good enough to clean it out and put on a new hose. the actual vent that screws in from the outside probably doesn't need to be replaced.

6/15/2010 2:24:46 PM