Orinda Dryer Vents | Choose A Wood Burning Fireplace Insert

What to Expect From Professional Dryer Vent Cleaning Experts

Read on to find out what to expect from dryer vent cleaning experts – and learn about how these services guarantee better performance!

Did you know that firefighters respond to about 13,820 house fires caused by dryers every year? These unfortunate and dangerous accidents often cause fire-related injuries and cost a great deal of money in property loss. What’s more, they are often preventable: 34% of the time, these fires are often the result of simply not cleaning the dryer vent. To keep your dryer safe and running smoothly, schedule a dryer vent cleaning experts services at least once a year for a thorough cleaning and inspection.

Expect a Thorough Cleaning

With professional services, you will get a deeper and more thorough cleaning than you would from cleaning the dryer yourself. That’s not to say you shouldn’t still clean your Orinda dryer vents regularly – doing so will keep buildup and clogs to a minimum – but professionals have the specialized equipment and techniques to extract a high volume of lint and dust. Clean dryers can dry clothes faster, run on less energy, and last longer than dirty dryers.

Expect High-Quality Equipment & Techniques

Professionals have been trained to use specialized equipment that can reach every nook and cranny in your Orinda dryer vents and ducts. The process usually involves a flexible vacuum brush, snake brush, or suctioning tool, which can reach inside the dryer vent and collect all of the debris within. After the cleaning, technicians perform an inspection using a digital airflow meter to ensure that the airflow has improved.

Expect Improved Fire Safety

Lint is essentially kindling sitting in the hot environment of the dryer vents. By keeping ducts and vents free of lint, dust, and debris, there is a greatly reduced chance of fire. Without anything to ignite, sparks won’t catch. Professional cleaning services are an investment in the fire safety of your home.

Expect High-Quality Results

Clean and maintained dryers work better, faster, and last longer. Though maintenance requires foresight and action, it offers long-term benefits for your household appliances. After dryer vent cleaning experts services, you can expect improved performance, faster drying times, reduced energy usage, reduced damage to your dryer, and reduced wear and tear on your clothes on each cycle.

Signs your dryer vents and ducts need cleaning:

It takes more than one cycle to fully dry clothes
Clothes smell musty after going through a dryer cycle
The laundry room feels hot or maybe damp while the dryer is running
Clothes are too hot to touch at the end of a cycle
The dryer sheet picks up sour or musty odors

Schedule a Dryer Vent Cleaning Experts Now

The Irish Sweep specialists can get deep into your vent system where most household cleaning methods can’t reach, so you can enjoy a safer and more effective system for years to come. Our top priority is safety and we customize our services with our client’s best interest at heart. To schedule an appointment with an expert, call us at (510)521-4088, or use this simple contact form by clicking here.

4 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR FIREPLACE MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

There’s nothing like gathering around a fireplace for warmth and ambience. However, many people are aware that fireplaces are not the most environmentally friendly way to heat your home. The amount of smoke produced by fireplaces and the inefficiency of their heating performance can be a concern. However, with these 4 innovate techniques, you can make your fire more environmentally friendly while preserving the charm of sitting around the fireplace.

Choose A Wood Burning Fireplace Insert

A wood burning fireplace insert takes the benefits of a wood burning stove and fits into the layout and structure of your traditional fireplace. Wood burning fireplace inserts are enclosed and boost the efficiency of a fireplace to 65-80% (versus 5-10% for an open fireplace).

Wood burning fireplace inserts can heat a room for 3 times longer and burns wood slower and hotter. They also keep the fireplace sealed when not in use, keeping your home warmer, more insulated and more environmentally friendly at all times.

Convert to a Gas Log Fireplace

A traditional fireplace can also be converted to a gas log burner for a cleaner and more environmentally friendly heating source. Gas is a slightly more expensive fuel source than wood (if you get firewood free) but it reduces the costs of fireplace maintenance. On the other hand, quality firewood can also be costly, so gas can sometimes be the more cost efficient option.

Gas logs can look and feel just like a real fireplace without the smoke, ash and chimney buildup. Because a gas log fire produces no smoke and provides more efficient heating, it’s a cleaner and more eco-friendly option when compared to an open fireplace.

Keep Your Fireplace Efficient

No matter what type of fireplace you have, keeping it efficient will make it more environmentally friendly. Regular chimney servicing clears build up and boosts efficiency, allowing wood to burn more effectively. A chimney sweep clears creosote and ash buildup from the chimney interior to improve ventilation, achieving a more complete wood burn. This helps to make your fireplace more environmentally friendly, while also reducing the risk of chimney fires.

Use Quality Wood

Wood that doesn’t burn effectively means a less eco-friendly fire and more fireplace buildup. You should never burn trash, wood with glue or paint, driftwood or moldy wood as these can release chemicals into the air. Instead, always choose hardwoods to burn on your fireplace, as these burn longer, cleaner and hotter than softwoods. Hardwoods burn more efficiently, providing more heat for longer for the same amount of carbon released. Always choose hardwoods to burn on your fire, and make sure every piece of wood burns hot.

Choosing to convert your traditional fireplace to a more environmentally friendly option means you can retain all the charm and ambience of your traditional fireplace while greatly improving the efficiency. While traditional fireplaces have a bad environmental track record, these modifications can help you enjoy a home heating luxury. Talk to your local chimney service and fireplace professional about the options for making your fireplace more environmentally friendly today.

THE IMPACT OF A DIRTY DRYER VENT

Many people who buy washers and dryers notice the rising inefficiency of their appliances over time. The wash cycle that used to take 30 minutes is now taking almost 1 hour. The dryer can no longer dry the same amount of clothes within the 30 minutes you allotted. While some of this is related to the age of the unit, water supplies, etc, this can often be attributed to dirty dryer vents. Doing regular dryer vent cleaning ensures the following:

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HOW DO CLOTHES DRYERS WORK?

We’ve discussed the importance of clean dryer vents, but most people don’t even know how a dryer works and the impact the vents have on things. I wanted to take a moment and explain how dryer vents work. The following is the simplistic explanation of how clothes dryers work:

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CLOTHES DRYER FIRES

A high number of home fires begin in your laundry room. This is usually a result of your clothes dryer, although the washer is not immune. The source of a dryer fire can be either the machine itself, or the dryer that goes away from the home. Preventing dryer fires in your Bay Area home is critical and not too difficult. Here are some facts from NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) dated June 2017.

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TIPS FOR CHOOSING A DRYER

There are so many considerations that go into choosing a dryer. Many more than you probably expected when you decided a new dryer was in order. Today’s tumble dryers have so many options, it could easily feel like too many. So let’s start with the basics and we’ll walk through some of the new-fangled options too.

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