Gardus D1203615+ D3203612 LintEater System And Extension Kit
by Smarthome Technologies
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List Price: Our Price: $35.81 You Save: $13.09 (27%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Gardus D1203615+ D3203612 LintEater System And Extension Kit
Customer Review: Easy to use, works very well, much less expensive than paying someone to do it.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Linteater" works quickly, easily, and very well. Our dryer's duct is less than 9 feet long, so it only took about 10 minutes to do the job. A fair amount of lint came out, but considering that the duct hasn't been cleaned in over 14 years, we probably were lucky that there wasn't more, and that the duct wasn't clogged.
The instructions are really clear, and the 7 minute DVD shows just what to do. Two things to remember are to ONLY turn the rods & brush clockwise (otherwise, they'll unscrew inside the duct), and to get the current extension rod almost completely into the duct before attaching the next one.
The instructions also said to work from the outside towards the dryer, and to remove the duct from the dryer in advance, then connect a shop vac to pull the loosened lint into the vac as you work from the outside.
I did work from the outside, but was concerned about leaving a shop vac running inside the house while I was outside. So, I left the duct connected, made sure the dryer was OFF, and just reamed out the lint. Pushed the brush and three rods in until there was resistance (presumably inside the dryer), running a cordless drill at low-moderate speed all the way.
After removing the brush and rods (still turning clockwise), I turned the dryer on AIR (not heat) to flush out the loosened lint. By the time I got back outside, about a gallon of lint was on the ground. Tossed the lint into the trash, put away the LintEater, and was done.
Maybe using the shop vac would have made the duct even cleaner, and maybe this approach won't work on a longer duct or one with more angles (this duct only has two right-angle turns), but the results seem great, and it only took 10 minutes.
Regarding the $40 price: the package came with a lot more than I needed for this job, but the alternative would have been to hire someone.
"By coincidence", there was a flyer at our front door today, from a service offering to clean the dryer duct... for a lot more than $40. Our home insurance company's current "helpful hints" booklet came a week ago and warned that dryer duct fires were one of the more common causes of home damage. (Who knew?) That's why I got the LintEater, and can't help but think the cleaning service got the same flyer.
Each time the duct is cleaned, an outside service would charge for it, but future cleanings with this LintEater will be free... if I can remember where we store it.
Customer Review: Worked like a charm.
Summary: 5 Stars
My dryer vent vents through the roof. If you have a similar setup, you know that this is a very bad idea. From time to time, I've had to get up on the roof and clean out the vent the best that I could. My homemade solution was to cut a hula-hoop in half and stick it as far into the vent as I could and spin it around to loosen the lint. This worked OK but I was limited by how far I could reach. Eventually, my solution stopped working and the dryer was taking forever to get the clothes dry. It got so bad that I eventually just unhooked the flexible hose from the dryer and ran it just open at the back. The clothes dried quickly but I also heated the house and blew lint everywhere. Obviously, this was not a long term solution.
I searched Amazon for a lint cleaning system and this one was the highest rated. I actually went to Lowes where according to their online site, my local store had 6 on hand. When I got there, they were nowhere to be found. After much looking, the store associate told me that they went "off stock" and they didn't have them anymore. Thanks a lot online site.
I ordered from Amazon and a few days later, my Linteater showed up a few days later. Today, I put it to the test. The first thing I had to do was borrow a cordless drill from my buddy. I have a regular drill but the directions recommend a cordless model with an adjustable clutch chuck. I went up on the roof and started augering. I was doing fine when I hit something solid. I couldn't tell if I had hit the bottom or something else. I went inside and run the brush up the wall and quickly hit something solid again. I put on the de-clogging and sent it up the pipe. It didn't pull anything out like the directions say it does but it did manage to poke through my lint clot. I ran it through a few more times and could see daylight in the pipe so I knew I was making progress. I ran the brush back through and went all the way up to the top of the pipe. SUCCESS!! I hooked the dryer back up, turned it on, got back up on the roof and hot air was blowing out like crazy.
Overall, I'm very happy. Read the directions. Don't bother with the DVD, it doesn't really add anything if you've read the directions.
Customer Review: Pricey, but effective
Summary: 5 Stars
Like another reviewer, I recently purchased a Bosch dryer. I got the dreaded "E01" error code most times that I dried clothes. Based on the recommendations of other Bosch owners, I purchased this lint removal system.
My duct system is almost exactly 27 feet, and the end of it leaves the house about 18 feet off the ground. I definitely needed to buy the system with the extension kit. (I actually climbed up to try to pull off the louvered cap, but it must have been caulked on, in addition to the screws holding it to the house.)
My house has only been lived in 4 years (it was a model prior to that), and I'm very careful to clean the lint filter on my dryer. Even so, I was able to clean enough lint out of my ducts to fill a good size stuffed animal!
Unfortunately, the LintEater system didn't make it the full 27 feet down my duct, so I had to climb in the attic and pull apart the section where the LintEater was getting stopped. It turns out that the original ductwork installers got lazy when they worked on my house. Most duct sections are fully open on one end and then slightly taper at the other, so that they can snugly insert into the next section. Well, my builders must have run out of tapered pieces, so they just smashed one end until it would fit. So, where I should have had a 4" opening, it was crushed down to maybe 1" square!
Granted, the LintEater alone couldn't fix my problem. But it still cleaned my ducts far more thoroughly than I could have done without it. Plus, it helped me find exactly where in my ducts the blockage was.
Highly recommended!
Customer Review: Good beyond belief
Summary: 5 Stars
There are very FEW products that I have seen in my lifetime that do exactly what they say they will do, much less do it better. I bought this kit based upon others reviews. It was a good thing that I bought the extension kit as well, not knowing how long my dryer exhaust system was. Well, it was a very good thing that I did, because it turned out to be 24 feet long--exactly what the kit and extension could reach. I followed the directions exactly, including putting duct tape around the joints in case I inadvertently reversed the drill instead of keeping it moving forward and pulling back on the drill to withdraw the device and extensions. I didn't do that, but it gave me piece of mind in using the kit since they had even thought of this. Surprisingly, the kit worked perfectly and exactly how they instructed you to use it. I got a HUGE bag of lint out of the pipes--and I mean HUGE. I didn't know that I even had a problem before, except my old dryer didn't dry very well. No wonder. It was when I got a new Bosch dryer that has a sensor on it that stops it if the pipe is clogged, to prevent lint fires. It just stops and gives you the error code for the problem. Brilliant!! After unclogging the pipes, which took all of about 10 minutes for the 24 feet, dryer problem over. Every homeowner with any amount of piping to exhaust their dryer should own one of these, both to prevent lint fires and to keep their dryer working efficiently and giving it a long life.Customer Review: Well Worth It
Summary: 5 Stars
We bought our house last year and put in a new washer and dryer when we moved in. I must say that the lint trap in the dryer is merely for decoration. There is all kinds on lint getting by and into the ductwork. Also, the W/D are located on the second floor of the house and vents a couple of feet from the roof line. To top it off, the dryer vent is directly over the air conditioning unit. So there is not a good place to locate a ladder to clean from the outside. Which brings us to the Linteater system.
This really does the job. It has an attachment to hook up to the vent and allow the shop vac to suck out the loose stuff from the inside. Then is also has the ability to have the brush extensions feed through the attachment to allow the brush and the vac to work together. Our duct has 2- 90 degree turns which the Linteater navigated with no problem. I pulled A LOT of lint out of the duct with the system.
So after using the Linteater, we do not have to use a second or third dryer cycle to get clothes dry and I can do this safely from the inside of the house. This is one of the best purchases I have ever made to help with home maintenance. Very happy.
Delivery from the seller took about 1 week with standard delivery. All pieces were in good condition on arrival. Good experience overall from start to finish.