Our household has laundry issues like you wouldn’t believe. I could go into the whole saga, but let’s confine ourselves to the dryer.
Our dryer has a lot of work to do to get its exhaust to the outside (our laundry room isn’t against an outside wall). The long duct means there is a lot of opportunity for lint buildup. The outside vent is so far off the ground that it’s hard for us to clean it from the that end, and it’s pretty hard to clean effectively from the inside. I have a snaking vent brush but it doesn’t go to the end of the vent.
We’ve had a special booster fan installed to help in this, but even so we find that lint does build up. We need to call the people with huge ladders out again, but I was wondering…
Could this Airzooka toy blast some lint through the vent? It would be excellent if it could be used to extend the length of time we had to go between service calls. I’ve never used one so I can’t gauge how difficult it would be to, say, hold the business end against the interior vent while letting fly with a honking big blast of air. Any of you have this thing, or have shot one? Wanna weigh in on this?
You could possibly use a fish tape to pull a duct cleaning brush from the inside to the outside, several passes may be needed to clear the duct.
If you can, head off the problem at the source. Where my dryer vent exits the machine, I take a knee-high stocking or cut off the partial leg from a pair of pantyhose, stick the toe end in the direction of airflow, stretch the leg end over the pipe and reconnect. Every few months, depending on dryer usage, you’ll need to replace the pantyhose filter, but I’ve been doing it for years and recommend it to customers with situations similar to yours.
If you just want an excuse to buy an Airzooka, tell the hubster I said it was okay. 
We also have a long, convoluted dryer vent to the outside of the house. I extended the reach on the vent brush by duct taping a new, unused 15’ drain snake to it. Worked like a charm, I tell ya! And much less expensive than those professional guys.
Given the thorny relationship between my husband and the cat, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to have one of these things around, unless I think it would serve us well in the laundry room.
I don’t think an Airzooka would yield the kind of airflow you’d need. You might consider a ShopVac in blower mode (that is, the hose connected to the outflow) or even a leaf blower.
I’d avoid using a fish tape unless you’re sure that the vent pipe is constructed out of sheet metal and not that flimsy accordian foil stuff. You don’t want to be poking holes in it.
You shouldn’t have more than about four to six feet of the stuff. Anything longer, and you really ought to have smooth solid piping as the corrugated / spiral inside surface puts up a lot of resistance to airflow.
You’re correct-yet I’ve seen developments done with plastic spiral hose terminated into the porch roof above the ventilated soffit. The run was easily 30’.
:eek:
The brainiacs who installed the dryer in our house vented it directly to the attic.
Well, with all that dry air Louisiana is known for, that must be great for upping the in-house humidity…
I recently used a leaf blower and some duct tape to blow mine out. Lowes has a good return policy too 
Not to mention mold and mildew. We’ve seriously got to get that vented to the outside. We’re going to end up running at least 15-20 feet of conduit.