I got this email from Drew-a fellow blogger (and author!) over at “How to Cook Like Your Grandmother“.
Photo by Kent Barrett
Dear Frugal Upstate,
Got this in an email forwarded from my mother today. Thought you’d like it.
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“The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it.
The lint filter is made of a mesh material .. I’m sure you know what your dryer’s lint filter looks like. Well …. the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn’t go through it at all!
He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that’s what burns out the heating unit. You can’t SEE the film, but it’s there. It’s what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free … that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box … well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen.
This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very longtime (and to keep your electric and gas bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!”
Drew
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Well, never being one to believe forwarded emails-even ones passed on in complete good faith-I decided to check this out at Snopes.
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Snopes basically checks the validity of all those different internet rumors & stories that float around and then give them either a true, false or unsubstantiated type rating. I ALWAYS check Snopes before I forward anything on!
So according to Snopes this email has been floating around (pretty much verbatim to what I printed above) since 2005 and it is TRUE. I would actually recommend that you click on over and check out the relevant article “Dry Cleaning” because it gives you some neat info on how the dryer works and why this is true!
The oddest thing in my junk drawer is a gadget that chopsticks snap into, so kids can use the chopsticks.
sorry, posted onthe wrong one. You can remove both of these 🙂
Thanks for posting. I saw this about a year ago and realized that the same stuff was on my clothes as well! Now I just opt not to use dryer sheets! In fact I don’t use fabric softener at all. A couple of tennis balls in the dryer for sheets and towels, splash of vinegar in the rinse or wind drying takes care of most of my clothes!
It makes sense-ever use too much fabric softener? The clothes come out with a sticky feel to them. This is also the reason towels stop being absorbent-they build up from the dryer sheets coats the fibers so they can’t suck up water. This is really good advice-thanks for sharing!