Commercial clothes dryers present a hidden hazard. Such dryers collect excess lint and debris in the vent line, which can lead to dryer fires. Dryer fires are more common than you may think, accounting for over fifteen thousand fires annually in the United States. Furthermore, excess lint and debris can lead to clogs, decreasing the efficiency of your dryer and contributing to increased energy use, which in turn leads to increased expenditures.
There are many benefits to having your commercial dryer vents cleaned regularly. Let’s explore them here.
Increased Safety
Employee safety is the chief concern of any business owner. By neglecting to regularly clean your commercial dryer’s vents, you run the risk of starting a fire. A fire, of course, will not only destroy the dryer itself, along with anything else it consumes but threaten the safety of employees on-site.
If you use a gas dryer instead of an electrical one, another safety hazard presents itself: carbon monoxide poisoning. Gas dryers produce carbon monoxide and dispose of it, but only if the dryer vents are clean. If a vent is clogged, carbon monoxide can back up into the dryer and be released into the air, resulting in a dangerous and potentially life-threatening situation.
For the above reasons, it is crucial to be proactive and rely on professionals to regularly, and thoroughly, clean your dryer vents.
Decreased Allergens
A dirty dryer vent traps water from wet clothing. Once trapped, water attracts a host of allergens from mold to dust and more. Allergens spread over time, leading to respiratory illnesses when breathed in. Common symptoms include a cough, congestion, and rashes.
To avoid such symptoms, and spare your employees the discomfort, ensure that professionals are hired to regularly clean your commercial dryer vents.
Extending a Dryer’s Lifespan
It takes a dryer much longer to dry laundry when its vent is clogged. If the vent is badly clogged, it may take several cycles to properly dry a batch of laundry. The harder and longer your dryer has to work, the more worn out it will become, and the shorter its lifespan will be.
By relying on professionals to regularly clean your commercial dryer’s vents, you can greatly extend the lifespan of your dryer, leading to cost savings and more efficient – and effective – functioning.
Lower Utility Bills
When your commercial dryer is forced to work overtime due to clogged vents, it leads to an increased expenditure of energy and greater electrical bills. Dryer vents collect more and more dust and debris over time, leaving less room through which exhausted air can pass.
Consequently, the dryer must strain itself to remain functional, resulting in increased energy use. Cleared dryer vents allow for exhausted air to travel freely, allowing the dryer to avoid strain and work effortlessly. Additional cycles become unnecessary.
Imagine the potential savings of using a dryer that can adequately dry a batch of laundry in a single cycle, rather than several. Every load of laundry would cost roughly a third in energy less than its price under sub-optimal conditions. For commercial endeavors, where laundry is being dried on a massive scale, the sheer amount of savings cannot be overstated.
Less Wear on Laundry
As mentioned earlier, when a dryer’s vent is clogged, it may require several cycles to adequately dry laundry. Perhaps two-and-a-half cycles are necessary to achieve this end. Two cycles and the laundry is still damp, three and it becomes exposed to too much heat.
Will you manually stop each load of laundry midway through its third cycle? No way. When excess heat is applied to laundry, that laundry deteriorates more quickly. Say your commercial dryer is used to regularly dry batches of employee uniforms.
If those uniforms are regularly exposed to too much heat, they will deteriorate and require replacement, which is costly and time-consuming. By relying on professionals to regularly clean your commercial dryer vents, you can ensure that a load of laundry is adequately dried in a single cycle, preventing the over-exposure of heat and saving a bundle (if you can excuse the pun) in the process.
Increased Dryer Efficiency
The more clogged a dryer vent becomes, the less efficiently it will operate, often requiring multiple cycles to do the job. As covered above, this will lead to adverse effects such as greater energy expenditure and a resulting spike in electrical costs; wear and tear on laundry and the dryer itself; and reduced efficiency.
Reduced efficiency can create a backlog of laundry that needs to be dried, which can have a disastrous and costly effect on many commercial endeavors. If you run a laundromat, for instance, and cannot dry clients’ laundry in a timely manner, this can tarnish the reputation of your business and lead to decreased profits. It is therefore critical to have your commercial dryer vents regularly cleaned by professionals.
Conclusion
Initially, it may not seem particularly important to have your commercial dryer vents cleaned on a regular basis. On second thought, and as this piece makes glaringly clear, it is crucial. Doing so will result in a bunch of benefits including greater safety, increased performance, and decreased costs.
If your business operates a commercial dryer, call a team of cleaning professionals and benefit from the service, and the results, you deserve.