How to Deep Clean a Dryer

This tutorial for how to deep clean a dryer shows how to get lint out of the lint trap, vent, and hose. Can be used for all kinds of dryers (this one shows a Speed Queen).

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Add today's Cleaning 101 post to the list of “cleaning tasks I never think to do” – deep cleaning your dryer. It's that thing you didn't know you needed to do until it was way beyond gross.

If you don't believe me, try it.

I'm one of those people that's adamant about cleaning the lint trap every single time I run the dryer. I thought that was enough, as I'm sure most of you do.

Nope.

There's a lot of nastiness you probably don't even know about lurking in your dryer. There's lots of tubing and sneaky corners that are notorious for holding onto small pieces of lint and dirt. Not only do you want to do this to remove grossness, but it's important to the efficiency of your dryer (and reducing the risk of fire even). I'd recommend doing the following at least a couple of times a year – you'll notice a difference!

Let's check out the process for how to deep clean a dryer!

Step 1: Clean the outside and blades of your dryer.

This is something I do regularly anyway (it's built into Journey to Clean living areas week), so mine wasn't a big issue right now. About once a month, I take a microfiber cloth and wipe down the inside and outside of the dryer to reduce dust. Not a big deal – it maybe takes 5 minutes! This is a great time to wipe down the washer too (which I talked about more in this post).

Step 2: Clean Under Lint Filter

Guys, prepare to be shocked. Your lint trap is actually just to grab the big stuff. If you don't know much about how dryers work, there's a pipe that runs from the lint trap to the hose that vents to the outside of your home. Lots of lint can build up over time in that pipe – and it's necessary to clean it out every once in a while.

On my machine (a Speed Queen), there's a single screw that had to be taken out with a socket driver. You can't see it from here for the lint (eww), but it's there.

This is what I found underneath. I knew it was bad, but not quite this bad.

From there, I used the thin attachment for my vacuum to get into the nooks and crannies. I wanted to get as much lint as possible before cleaning it with a rag.

Even with vacuuming as much as possible, this is what my cloth looked like. There was so much lint! (I just used my basic multi-purpose cleaner and my microfiber rag to clean it out.)

But, after cleaning, it looks a thousand times better (and I'm sure works better too).

I washed the lint trap with a little bit of dish soap, allowing it to dry before I put it back into place.

Much better!

Step 3: Clean Out Tubing and Behind Dryer

Next, you'll need to pull the dryer out and unplug (important).

This is what a found – yikes!

First, use a flat head screwdriver to gently unscrew the hose from the wall and the dryer.

There was a lot of lint build-up in ours, but just dumping it in the trash got most out.

Then, I gave the back of the dryer a good wipe-down. I've read that some people take the entire back off of their dryer – I attempted this, but there were a ton of screws. I figured that if the good people at Speed Queen thought that was necessary, they would have made the process a little easier. 🙂 I didn't want to break my dryer, so I skipped it. However, it might be worth checking into – if there are just a couple of screws holding the back of your dryer on, I've read that lint can build up in the back too.

Finally, do a good vacuum of the floor and wipe the baseboards/walls before replacing the tubing, plugging the dryer back in, and sliding it back into place.

Figuring out how to deep clean a dryer isn't as hard or as intimidating as it looks – promise. I've been putting it off for awhile because I thought it would be difficult…as it turns out, it was nothing! I'm a big believer in protecting your investments, and appliances definitely fall into that category. This is great for dryers and can extend the life of your investment – do yourself and your dryer a favor and take the simple steps to maintain it every once in awhile!

Catch up on the a few more of the Cleaning 101 series with the links below!

• How to Clean a Microwave
• How to Clean Cast Iron
• How to Clean a Top Loader Washing Machine
• How to Clean a Dishwasher
• How to Clean Upholstered Furniture
• How to Clean an Oven
• How to Clean a Mattress
• How to Clean Grout