While many one and two story residential properties aren’t equipped with dryer vent exhaust fans. Properties and condo buildings with four or more stories typically employ a dryer vent exhaust fan installed at the top of the main dryer vent exhaust duct.
What many fail to realize is although you may clean each individual unit’s dryer vent, each unit’s lint is being deposited into a main exhaust shaft where an exhaust fan on the roof pulls the moisture, heat, and lint out of the main exhaust system. This creates the vulnerable point in the system by “clogging” the fan itself, making the exhaust fan completely useless, causing it to overheat, burn out and require replacement. Buildings with this type of dryer vent exhaust system should have the main shaft and exhaust fans cleaned annually.
In the majority of cases, the scheduled cleaning of the fan and shaft equate to a significant savings over fan replacement and individual unit cleaning.