I rented a house once that the previous tenant had been living in for about a year with 3 little kids. She had mentioned to me that the dryer worked ok when she moved in but it wasn’t working anymore. It still ran but it didn’t really dry anything.
Not a big deal I thought. Went over to the dryer and took a look at it. First thing I did was pull the filter. It was clogged solid. She didn’t even know it had a lint trap, never mind that you’re supposed to clean it after every single load. Not only was the trap plugged, so was a bunch of the hose and ductwork. I spent several hours taking everything apart and cleaning it out, finally got it all back together, turned the dryer on, and it worked like a champ. Not a single problem for the 7 yrs I lived there.
She was a lady already in her thirties with 5 kids (3 lived with her)… you’d think she would have known how to use a dryer at that point. I’m just happy she never burnt the house down…
You dont have to clean lint traps at the laundromat. I wonder if this was her first in-house one
Maybe. She grew up on a small farm outside town but I’m guessing she must have got out of chores a lot. She was moving to get married to another guy I knew which lasted for 8 months, but at least she carried the knowledge on how to use a dryer with her.
small farm outside town
Sounds like her only was with clotheslines. Having a dryer must have been absolutely glorious, at least at first.
I know her parents had a washer and dryer, I assume she wasn’t allowed near them I guess. Clotheslines are very rarely used up here because we get a lot of snow.
I’ve never had a dryer so only ever heard about lint traps from random internet stuff.
I genuinely think that you should take a class in highschool that teaches basic life skills like this. 1 class each year. It could cover cooking/nutrition, mental health, chores, financial literacy, First aid basics, etc. Then by the time thye graduate they have had 4 years of teaching about basic stuff like that. I bet it would save tons of lives.
We could call it something like Home Economics, or “Home Ec.” for short.
Which appliances do you cover cleaning on though? I have never owned a tumble dryer, or a furnace (is that american for boiler or are they a bit different?).
Meanwhile I do have a heat pump, not had to clean it yet, I think its more of a problem when you have lots of trees around, especially ones that drop sticky residue.
I think a furnace would refer to forced hot-air heat, with the furnace being the thing that heats the air being blown around through the vents.
Boiler would be to heat water/steam for radiant heat.
I am wondering what other appliances would be covered. What about electrical work or plumbing? Even if you don’t do the work yourself, knowing a bit about what’s involved can help avoid getting ripped off.
I’m regularly shocked by people who are incapable of doing basic home repairs.
Knowing how to wire a plug or change a fuse is apparently a vanishing skill. Even calling it a skill feels odd, its barely any harder than Lego.
I’d say anything that is relatively common and could potentially be dangerous if not maintained properly. You don’t need them to be masters of every appliance. Just to be aware of the dangers of the most common ones.
This is a common opinion that never holds up. Kids’ schedules are insanely bloated compared to a few decades ago and honestly, think about what would have been taught as “useful” at home 30 years ago and how much of that would still be in use today… Its just a waste of expensive teaching resources for something that anyone with a search engine can teach themselves.
I think your arguement is kind of silly. Kid’s schedules are bloated? With what though? Is it actually valuable? Maybe if they’re bloated we should… get rid of the bloat and add in things that would actually help them.
Also, you aren’t teaching them what will be useful in a home in 30 years. You are teaching them what will be useful NOW. When they go to college, or get an apartment in a few years. If we didn’t teach people things that changed we wouldn’t teach SCIENCE! But we do. Because when you have a baseline and things change you can update what you know over time.
On top of that, your argument is self defeating. You are similtaneously saying kids are too busy for a class on this stuff but also saying they should just teach it to themselves in their free time. If they’re so busy when do you expect them to do that? The entire point of a class is so that we can MAKE TIME for them to learn this stuff.
If I’m around, I clean it mid-load. Makes a huge difference on every model I’ve ever had.
Now do the sacrificial anode in your water heater.
I feel like the sediment would bury the element well before the anode becomes an issue. I’m just imagining this person doesn’t flush it either.
You uh… Have you checked your water filters?
In a tank water heater you react out calcium and magnesium when your heat. Tap water varies but you will get sediment from disolved minerals that will eventually bury the element if not flushed out.
How long are they supposed to last? I have an extra because the guy who sold me the heater convinced me to upgrade from the factory model. He said the stock ones failed too early. It wasn’t a huge cost and I didn’t know enough about it to doubt him so I just did it.
It really depends on the properties of the water where you live. I have lived places that needed replacing every 2 years and I have lived places where it was still fine after 20 years. You’ll know when it’s time to swap it, it will look like shit.
Haha good to know. Thanks.
If your hot water starts to smell like sulphur, that can also be a sign. Especially if it’s worse when you don’t run it for a day or two.
I’m also wondering “my what” upon hearing about furnace filters. As far as I can tell, my furnace has none. The “filter” is the size of the hole I chuck logs through. If log too big, it no go in.
I’m wondering what “furnace” entails too. I realize I’m showing my ass here but do they mean like the water boiler, or the heater? Do gas burners have filters?
In the US we refer to the large heater for central air conditioning to be the furnace whether it is gas or electric. The filter is on the blower that pushes the hot air around the house.
Interesting. We tend to heat with water in my part of the EU so that specific chore doesnt really exist here.
The HVAC system.
Depends where in the world you are I think. In the UK most people have combination water/heating natural gas boilers. Some places are on heating oil if you’re out in the sticks (or in Northern Ireland which has a different system) and some modern houses are all-electric heat pump setups. We mostly have no air con which is becoming less tenable with climate change, and water-based radiators so nothing like a furnace in American systems.
My sister in law refuses to clean the dryer filter, and also wants to be the one in charge of the laundry for her and her husband. Whenever I do a load of my clothes, I clean the filter and it’s at least 10 layers of fire hazard
My SO and I argue over who gets to clean the lint trap. We love it.
Hey, theyre clearly made for eachother. Good for them tbh.
What is her reasoning?
Seasoning
My Girlfriends aunt complained about her dishwasher not Wirkung properly the other day, GF asked Ehen was the last time you cleaned the filter? Aunt was linke the WHAT? She has owned dishwashers for 30+ years and never heard oft that.
You want to write in English but your phone wants to write in German
yeah I realized too late I forgot to switch. Also for some reason I can never edit comments.
Some keyboards let’s you set two input languages, also seems to do a great job at catching on to which language a given input is intended to be in.
certainly a unique language you got there
You and fdnomad@programming.dev have been added to the Best of Lemmy: https://sh.itjust.works/post/69167752
I made it a few years before I learned it. When I was a kid we hand-washed, and it took a few years of renting before I caught on - not because of any labels or the like, but because of my troubleshooting a smell.
It’s not obvious what it is if you don’t already know about it, and if you don’t install it yourself…
I saw one of these posts about ten years after buying a washer/dryer. So I checked mine. Absolutely nothing in it. What the hell are these people washing? Vacuum cleaner bags?
Not even a whole sock?
What are YOU washig?
Bro doesn’t do laundry, bought the machine & never set it up
Is it because it’s a washer as well? Maybe all the bits just get washed away…
I have a combined washer/dryer. I have to filter the drain hose so I don’t clog my sewer pipe.
Same, I was wondering how bad mine was after I finally found where it was. Barely anything 🤷
my guess is, that those are combined dryer/washer machines. in my old place we had dedicated dryers, those could build up a felt just after one load.
currently we have a washer (non drying) and the filter is a small tube shaped thing under the main door. it never builds up much, except someone forgot some paper in their jeans…
Lint trap is easy. Exhaust ducts are the real danger. Not only can lint build up in those, but critters like birds and mice can make nests in them which further blocks the airflow. Even if you have the outside vent gated off, they can get stuck open enabling access for critters into the duct. Clean out your ducts at least once a year.
It’s absurd that building codes don’t require some sort of inspection or access to the vent if it’s not a simple straight-through-the-wall affair.
Slum lord gunna slum. I’d say many swap them out when new tenants move in
I’ve seen million-dollar homes that don’t do this either.
“Why does it take 3 hours to dry my clothes when it used to take 40 minutes?” Or “why aren’t my clothes drying at all?”
Thise seems like it’s one or two loads away from house fire territory.
Sometimes it’s just a shitty dryer that doesn’t work that good anymore.
My last house I lived in for like 5 years and never found the furnace filter… I’m convinced it just didn’t have one and the system was raw-dogging the dusty air. I checked the air return vent where I am used to them being, and I checked the furnace in the garage closet. I am glad I moved out before that became a problem…
And where are those located on the heat pump? Asking for a friend.
Just before the inside air handler. The big box, usually in the basement, the one that makes noise when the blower kicks in.
Or alternatively on big intake vents throughout the house
Got an air to water system so there really isn’t much cleaning to worry about at all. Other than occasionally cleaning the cat hair from the blanket we put on it to make it more comfortable for him.
Sweet thank you so much!
I for one am amazed that you could create an entire clothing item from all that lint, if it was connected.
I could use it to start my fireplace for like a year imo, in tiny pieces
You could probably felt it into something.
Houses have furnaces now?
Newer machines will stop drying if the sense the filter is too full. Helpful for if you forget when doing a bunch of laundry, but if the sensor goes faulty, it’ll be throwing errors regardless of how clean the duct or filter is.
Is that a dead mouse?
Removed by mod
