No, my foolish husband DID NOT help clean up the mess! LOL And at this point, I'd be afraid to let him -- leaf blower? After many damp cloth dustings of everything I can get my hands on, I've decided to do as suggested and get the HVAC system, carpets, and fabric furniture cleaned professionally. All of the other fabric like clothes and linens were behind closed doors but after reading the suggestions, I'm going to make a long trip to the laundrymat and get it all washed through. I'm definitely one of those people allergic to mold . . . allergy testing and years of desensitation shots haven't even begun to stop my reactions. Sure would have rather bough something fun with all of the $$$ this is going to cost . . HOWEver, my house is going to be company ready when it is all over. Anyone wanna come over for a party? Janet

dadoes: "Fault 6 refers to the inner sliding door panel and latch/release mechanism on the drum, not the outer loading lid." Hmm, well I never saw the fault code displayed on the LCD panel and the dryer never refused to start up, so I have no idea when this problem occurred, and certainly did nothing to correct it. dadoes: "E-mail sent again. :-)" And received, thank you very much! kcred: "I've only done one load since the cleaning, but I like to think the dryer is now more efficient, but it also might be wishful thinking on my part. I'm just glad it's clean as I'm a firm believer in preventative maintenance." I never thought about dryer maintenance before I had this no heat problem with my dryer. I emptied the lint bucket after every load, cleaned out the indoor lint trap water reservoir, but that was about it. Now I know to religiously check the vent for lint build up (once I get a "real" one installed especially,) as well as removing the lint bucket housing from time to time to clean out the lint from there as well. kcred: "BTW, I use that flexible-foil dryer vent hose. Haven't ever had a problem with it." I never thought there was a problem with it, either, and many, many people use the foil vent hoses. I don't believe any dryer manufacturers recommend using this sort of venting, however, and it certainly isn't UL listed, if that is important to you; Fisher & Paykell's user manual, (which I have finally read thoroughly :-o ) specifically says not to use it (and to never vent your dryer indoors, either - good thing I never needed warranty service because I bet my entire set up would have voided the warranty!) I have now read many articles as well as posts on various DIY, etc., forums written by people that also recommend against using the foil vent tubes. From what I have read, the problems caused by these foil vents is primarily due to air turbulence/resistance caused by the ridges in the foil ducting cutting down on the dryer's efficiency; even more important, the ridges - and the potential sagging or kinking of the aluminum foil venting - can also lead to a build up of lint, which can cause both a significant blockage of the vent and maybe even a fire. I'm not sure how one goes about cleaning out an aluminum foil vent tube, either; I would think one of the "normal" vent cleaning brushes would catch on all of the metal wire spiraling through the tube as well as tearing the foil itself. I think it all depends upon your venting configuration. In the picture, you can see that dadoes uses an aluminum vent, but it is just barely extended, there can be little air turbulence, it doesn't sag at all and is probably very easy to clean out. My vent will need to go about 8-10 ft to get to an outside wall so I intend to use rigid metal pipe for my vent. Holly Here is a link that might be useful: Reasons why foil vent should not be used

While this is the ideal rarely is it the case anymore. Builders opt for making the laundry room more convenient to the kitchen which more often than not is in the central part of the home. As a chimney sweep for 40 years who tackled dryer vents early I learned convincing builders to alter their habits is futile much to the peril of homeowners. We suggest rerouting the vent up and out the roof. This is not optimum but normally the only feasible way to do it. The pipe should be metal but not aluminum and each joint should be taped with METAL tape not duct tape which will fail after a few years of heated use. Dryer vents can only be 35 feet long according to building codes and each 90 degree bend subtracts 5 feet from that total. Slab vents have 4- 90's thereby making the legal limit of the vent to be only 15 feet long. Rarely are they that short. The cleaning procedure detailed above is normal and time consuming but necessary for this faulty dryer vent design. As dryer vent cleaners we have perfected a system that works most of the time yet there are those that must be rerouted to be made more efficient.

JDS, THANK YOU for the info about a booster fan. I didn't know something like that existed so I'm definitely going to look into that. This is a track home that we moved into when it was 11 years old and that was how the vent was installed. I really don't know how it passed inspection and I assume all the other houses in the neighborhood like mine have the same set up. Anyway we will be living in this house for at least 8 more months so I think it will be worth it to get that fan. We cut out the drywall in our garage so we have access to the duct, so we should be able to install it. Then maybe I can finally patch the drywall :-) This dumb dryer vent is always a concern to me. When we found out how crazy the run was I was told to never leave the house when the dryer is going because it could easily catch fire. It works much better since my husband shortened it, however, the last time we cleaned the run, we still pulled out a 3 foot long chunk of solid lint that had backed-up at one of the elbows. We check it at least twice a year and that is usually the case. Lesson learned: Go with a shorter run if at all possible.