A woman learned, upon cleaning her dryer, that the dryer sheets she’s using might be putting her home at an increased risk for fire—and then she went on a quest to find lint beyond just the dryer’s lint trap.
A lengthy, linty journey
The video documenting this journey comes from Richlands, North Carolina-based creator Kristen, who uses the name Southernescape (@southernescape) for her TikTok channel. This particular video, initially going up Saturday, brought in more than 730,000 views by the time of this writing.
She frames it by starting with, “How cleaning my dryer ended with the repairman at my house telling me how lucky we were that the house did not burn down,” before saying, “Let’s dive into it.”
She contends that there’s more to do than just cleaning out the lint trap in the dryer on a regular basis. “You absolutely should be taking your lint filter out and washing it with soap in the water every few months, because there’s always going to be an invisible film from the dryer sheets, and therefore your lint filter can’t do its job,” she asserts.
The video also shows her unscrewing the hatch holding the lint filter to vacuum up lint that got under it, and then extracting lint from what she calls the “tunnel” between where her dryer’s vent hose meets the wall and the vent on the outside of the house. It’s an impressive amount of lint she’s able to extract.
“In the United States alone, there’s more than $35 million in property damage due to fires started by dryers,” she asserts.
That appears to be backed up by an older stat from the U.S. Fire Administration, which states, “From 2008 to 2010, fire departments responded to an estimated 2,900 clothes dryer fires in residential buildings. These fires resulted in an annual average loss of 5 deaths, 100 injuries, and $35 million in property loss.”
“I’m sharing [to] spread awareness,” she said.
More on fires (and dryer sheets)
The stats on fires involving washing machines and dryers might even be more dire than the creator is laying out.
“In 2010-2014, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 15,970 home structure fires involving clothes dryers or washing machines each year,” according to a report from the National Fire Protection Association.
“These fires caused annual averages of 13 civilian deaths, 444 civilian injuries, and $238 million in direct property damage,” it went on to say. “The vast majority of fires (92%) involved clothes dryers.”
The most common culprit there? Dust, fiber, or lint, contributing to slightly more than one in four dryer fires.
However, one source took issue with the creator’s assertion that dryer sheets interfere with a lint trap’s ability to filter out lint.
“It is possible that after a long period of time fabric softener sheets can contribute to some waxy or filmy buildup on your dryer’s lint screen,” said First Coast Home Pros in an online post. “Recent studies of this claim, however, have determined that the potential for this is very low. It is highly unlikely that this invisible buildup can lead to dryer heating element failure or any such fires.”
The post goes to say, “More often, the problem isn’t with the dryer itself or due to the lint screen filling up with invisible buildup. The use of improper dryer vents and the buildup of lint collecting in them is a much more common problem.”
It goes on to recommend metal dryer vents, noting, “Dryer ducts made of plastic or foil can cause buildup issues and are the most common cause of dryer fires.”
@southernescape Y’all, I thought I was just doing a routine dryer vent cleaning… turns out it was 100% BLOCKED! Had to call in a repairman because this was a serious fire hazard. When was the last time you checked your dryer vent?
#DryerVentCleaning #FireHazard #HomeSafety #CleaningHacks #CheckYourVents #HomeMaintenance #clean #cleaning #cleantok #momsoftiktok #home #homeimprovement #fire ♬ Beautiful Days – Lynne Publishing
Commenters weighed in
A few people coming to the comments section flexed their lived experiences and dispensed advice.
“We stopped using dryer sheets for this exact reason,” one said. “You don’t need em guys! We’ve been lied to!”
“I replace my dryer hose entirely every 3 years,” another counseled. “It’s cheaper than trying to clean anything.”
“I did the same thing and ended up taking my whole front of the dryer part and let me tell you what, the lint that was on the box of the heater coils was black like it was fixing to catch fire,” shared another.
Not everyone was convinced, though. Someone contended, “Nah I’m not doing allat,” then adding, “rather have a house fire.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok and Instagram direct message.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
