Cleaning Your Lint Dryer Trap

The Lint Trap and Screen – Depending on the design of your dryer the lint trap will either be on the top of the dryer or located just inside the door. Be sure to locate the dryer’s lint trap, which houses the lint screen, before continuing.

1. Remove the lint screen from the lint trap. Simply grab the end of the screen and give it a gentle pull. The screen should lift out fully from the dryer (see photo, above).

2. Clear the lint free from the screen. The trick here is to just get a small amount of lint to start with. Once you’ve scraped a small bit free from the screen use it to remove the remaining lint. Like a snowball rolling downhill, the lint will attract to itself and aid in the removal process. Once it’s removed, toss the lint into the garbage bag.

3. Use your vacuum cleaner and use a soft brush attachment to clean the screen. Turn on the vacuum and simply run the attachment over the screen. This will remove any remaining lint from the screen.

4. Now use the vacuum to remove any lint from the lint trap. Swap out the attachment on the vacuum for one with a longer neck. Once you’ve done that, turn on the vacuum and put the attachment as far into the lint trap as possible. Now work the attachment around the inside of the trap. The goal here is to remove any and as much of the residual lint as possible. Occasionally, you might want to pull the attachment out (since you won’t be able to see down the trap), and make sure the tip of the vacuum attachment is not clogged, which it often is. If so, just pull out the lint that’s clogging the attachment, put your hand against the end to check that it’s sucking clearly, and reinsert it into the trap.

5. Once the lint trap is clean, put the lint screen back into place. It’s as easy as it sounds, simply take the lint screen (now cleaned) and put it back into the cleaned lint trap.