Avoid House Fires From Your Clothes Dryer

[New Jersey Home Inspector]

<P>Many house fires are easy to prevent. All it takes is removing and disposing of your existing clothes dryer vent hose and relacement with new pipe.</P>
<P>The accumulation of lint in clothes dryer exaust piping is not avoidable. As moisture accumulates in the clothes dryer vent lint sticks to the clothes dryer vent material.</P>
<P>As you may know lint is flamable at low temperatures. Replace the existing vent with smooth metal vent sloped up towards the exaust point. If you do not slope the pipe moisture will acumulate and cause cloggs to develope.</P>
<P>Pipe joints should be taped. The use of screws can allow lint to get hooked on the inside of the pipe and cause problems.</P>
<P>Prolonged drying times are an indication the exaust pipe is clogged. If the exaust pipe clogges the temperature inside the dryer will rise and hopefuly cause a safety device to shut down the heat until the dryer temperature cools. Then the temperature will rise again. This cycle repeates until one day the safety device fails and you have a house fire.</P>

Michael Del Greco, AccurateInspections.com

[New Jersey Home Inspector]

Circuit breakers do not prevent electric shock. They will only trip if defects occur that are acute enough to heat up wiring within the walls of the home. Do not ever count on a circuit breaker to protect your life because they will not do so.

GFCI or ground fault current interupters are designed to turn off prior to your getting a fatal electric shock. One should use the test button on them once a month or so to exersize the circuit and avoid failure that can result in electric shock.

AFCI or arc fault current interupters are new circuit breakers designed to stop house fires from occuring. They are expensive and new to the market.

Smart use of GFCI and AFCI circuit breakers can be a major safety upgrade to older homes that lack these more modern protective devices.

Installation of GFCI and AFCI should be left to electrical contractors. As a home inspector I see many homes a week where well intended home owners created far more hazards than they solved.

Michael Del Greco, AccurateInspections.com