Clean Out Your Vents
Consider this your PSA to clean out your vents. I was reading Apple News, and there was a headline about the toilet paper test. What is the toilet paper test, you ask?
Get up right now and go into any bathroom with an exhaust fan. Turn it on. Take two squares of toilet paper and stick them to the vent. If the toilet paper sticks, you’re okay. If it is a little loose or falls, you’re not.
We vacuum our vents, so I didn’t think I actually needed to test anything, but I wanted to see if it worked. We went into the first bathroom and turned on the fan. The toilet paper stuck firmly until we turned off the fan. Yay! We are awesome home owners. We went to the second bathroom and tried it again, and this time, it took a few tries to get the toilet paper to stick. And even when it did, it felt loose.
We ended up taking the fan apart and cleaning everything out inside, too. Better safe than sorry because these fans can cause a fire. So go try the toilet paper test yourself.
3 comments
I’ve never tried the test (although I’ve heard about it!) — but I do try to make a point of vacuuming off the bathroom fan cover at least a couple of times during the year. It’s amazing how much dust collects up there!
OMG I’m going to do that right now. I am so paranoid about dryer fires, and now the bathroom fan can try to kill me? Thank you for letting me know!
Mine kindly makes horrible noises at me when I need to clear the dust and lubricate it. Our hvac vents look pretty clean, but it’s probably time to clean the return air covers again. I just bought a tool to clean my dryer vent – I used it on the dryer, but I need to get the outside one. And I need to pull out the fridge and vacuum that. Maybe next weekend…