Your Dryer Takes Two Cycles: Here Is Why

Check these four things before calling anyone

All free, and between them they resolve a good share of these calls.

Empty the lint trap and then look past it

Pull the trap out and shine a torch into the housing. Lint packed below the trap is restricting airflow before it even reaches the duct.

Look behind the dryer

The transition hose is the commonest single restriction. If it is ribbed flexible foil, crushed flat against the wall because the dryer is pushed back, that is your answer. Rigid or semi-rigid metal with gentle bends is what should be there.

Go outside and watch the termination while it runs

You should feel strong warm airflow at the hood and see the backdraft damper flap standing open. Weak flow, or a flap stuck shut with lint, means restriction.

Count the elbows

Every bend slows the air. A long attic run with four elbows moves far less air than a short straight one, and it needs cleaning more often.

Why it is worse in Florida

Two reasons, both structural rather than behavioural.

The first is the routing. Slab-on-grade single-story construction means the duct usually goes up into the attic, along, and out through a wall or the roof. That is a long run with multiple bends, which is the configuration lint accumulates in fastest.

The second is the air. Florida air is humid, so there is more moisture in the load and in the air being used to dry it. The appliance has to move more air to achieve the same result, which makes it less tolerant of restriction than the same dryer in a dry climate.

If you are in a condo

Your own run may be clear and the problem may be downstream, in the shared vertical riser the whole stack discharges into. That is the association's to maintain, and frequently nobody can say when it was last done.

Why it is worth acting on beyond the laundry

Three reasons, and only one of them is convenience.

A restricted dryer runs hotter and runs longer, which shortens the appliance's life and costs real money on the electric bill. It puts the heat and moisture into the laundry room instead of outside, which loads the air conditioning. And a hot appliance with lint accumulating in a restricted duct is the underlying condition in a large share of household dryer fires.

The fix is usually a duct clean rather than anything expensive, which is what makes ignoring it a poor trade.