Household Vent Cleaning

A few weeks ago, there was a local fire that could of been more serious if it wasn't caught as soon as it was. It stemmed from a clogged dryer vent of all things! This got me thinking about the different forms of vents that can be found in a home. Dryer vents, bathroom vents, air handling vents and kitchen vents all come to mind!

At least yearly, I open up the outside cover to my dryer vent and take the time to clean up any accumulation inside. We have not phased out our dryer completely, which would eliminate the risk entirely, but have reduced its usage which has helped reduce fiber buildup. I don't use any fancy gadgets as the vent is a short length from the dryer and can usually take care of it with a screw dryer and a coarse brush.



Does your home have vents? Do you clean them? How often and how?

The spot the dryer system got clogged in my sister's house, was the join between the back of the dryer and the hose that leads to the outside. Often that spot has a fairly sharp bend, which is perfect for encouraging dust to get stuck. It's also harder to get to than either the exterior vent on the building, and the filter on the machine itself. My sister didn't even know it was clogged until there was a problem with the dryer and I had to go and help slide the machine forward.

A biggie in our house is the vent above the stove. Theoretically, it can be put in the dishwasher, but we don't run our dishwasher very often. (slightly more often than our dryer I admit) Remembering to put it in the dishwasher just when we're about to run it, is the catch!

For a kitchen hood vent, I found the following video for how to clean the installed filter.




Does anybody have a Permiefied degreaser they could recommend for the job? I wonder if a citrus solvent might be appropriate?

I use sodium carbonate (washing soda) dissolved in really hot water as a "not too bad" way of degreasing range hood vent filters.

I just cleaned our dryer vent last week.  6 years of neglect from me.
I borrowed my son's leaf blower.
Took the cover off outside, Made a good seal with it in the house and my son in law outside said it was like a winter blizzard for about 30 seconds or so.  
Then did the same with the dryer itself, but used an old pillow case for catching the lint.  Really not that much came out of the dryer.
Piece of mind for another few years.

For my clothes dryer, I just never run it on the higher settings, except for the first 10-15 minutes if I have just bedding in there or something like that.  That way the heat that goes through the duct is never hot enough (I believe, I haven't actually checked with a thermometer) to catch lint on fire.  I'm trying to use the clothesline more, and even hung a wooden fold-out drying rack on the wall over our bathtub for winter use, plus we have an old towel rack that I can set as near the woodstove as I like for faster drying (and in true permie style, this stacks functions by raising the humidity in the house in winter as a byproduct.)  But until I phase over completely, the good ol' electric dryer saves the day, so I'll keep using it and keeping the heat settings medium to low to avoid the fire hazard, as well as cleaning the lint trap after each use and cleaning the outside part every few years.

What I really need to clean is my cooktop vent fan filter!  The fan runs but has never pulled steam up into itself, so I'm hoping using the tips in this thread to clean the filter will help with that.  It is always possible, though, that the cheapo handyman the prior owner used to do a kitchen remodel never actually vented the fan to the outside properly.  🙄

I look forward to permie degreaser solutions added to this thread, as my guy's high-fat carnivore diet is sliming up my kitchen with all the animal fat, and I'd love a less-elbow-grease and less-paper towels solution to this perpetual mess.  I let the dogs lick off the dishes before I wash them, but I don't really want to teach them to stand up and lick the glass cooktop and surrounding countertop... although I have zero doubt that they'd learn quickly and be thrilled to "assist!"