Dryer Filter Cleaning

When your clothes dryer shuts off before your clothes are completely dry, it might be time to clean the dryer filter. The dryer filter, or lint trap, is the filter between the dryer drum and the exhaust. The filter keeps the majority of the lint from your clothes out of the dryer duct work. Although you remove the surface lint from the filter before each use, residue from dryer sheets and moist lint builds up narrowing the holes in the filter screen. Dryer filter cleaning is a matter of washing the filter thoroughly.

• 1

  Pull the dryer filter out of your dryer. Some dryers have the filter under a small trap door on the top of the dryer. Many dryers have the filter on the inside bottom lip of the dryer door opening.

• 2

  Roll the lint off the dryer filter with your fingers. Start at one end of the filter and rub your finger over the filter and lint. Throw the lint into a trash can.

• 3

  Take the dryer filter over to a faucet. Turn on the hot water and wet the filter screen thoroughly. Wet a nylon brush and pour a few drops of liquid dish washing detergent on the brush.

• 4

  Scrub both sides of the dryer filter with the nylon brush. Scrubbing the screen removes the residual buildup from dryer sheets and moist lint. Apply slight pressure when scrubbing but not too much that you break the screen.

• 5

  Rinse the dryer filter in hot water thoroughly. Dry the filter with a soft cotton towel. Insert the filter back into the housing in the dryer.