Cleaning the lint trap

[Pesto]

You should always empty the lint trap on your dryer. If you don't, you run a risk of burning your house down.

I'm of the school of thought that everyone should empty the lint trap before they use the dryer. It's important to do this so you don't accidentally do a load with the lint trap full and kill everyone. If everyone does this, then the work of cleaning out the lint trap just evens itself out with everyone checking the trap once per load, even if we are cleaning up someone else's lint.

Your thoughts?

[Xanthir]

So, I'm confused. You say that you think everyone should clean the trap before they use the dryer. But your poll appears to suggest that you want people to clean the trap after they're done with the dryer. These are different things.

[Pesto]

No, I was just trying to be clever. The poll is formatted as a potential discussion between roommates who disagree on this. Which roommate are you?

[Xanthir]

Clean the lint trap before you do a load. If you don't, you not only run the risk of burning the house down, but your load will take *way* longer to dry than it would otherwise. The incentives are better aligned to make people clean the trap before a load than after a load.

[Lazar]

I do my laundry in a dorm where no one cleans the lint traps, so I always clean it both before *and* after I use the dryer. Everyone else is getting a completely undeserved free lint-ride off me.

[MHD]

Then there's the people who don't use dryers, but have means for air drying clothes and being environmentally friendly...

[++$_]

Before, and as usual for the threads in this forum, this is the only correct answer.

Even if your dryer users clean the lint trap after they dry 95% of the time, everyone STILL has to check the lint trap, because the 5% of the time that they haven't cleaned it, it's inefficient and hazardous. So there is really no reason to adopt a policy of "clean after you dry," because it requires everyone to actually follow a policy of "clean both before and after you dry," which is strictly worse than "clean before you dry."

[Obby]

I clean it both before and after I dry my laundry. I check and/or clean it before so in case someone else didn't clean it, I'm not the guy that burnt the house down, and I clean it after so I can feel secure in my sense of superiority that I'm better than those fuckers that don't.

[Sprocket]

Clean it, one way or another, just don't run the damn thing while the trap is full. Now Clean out the DRAIN when you're finished showering, you lazy ass, and don't just move your girlfriend's wad of hair up the side and leave it there!

[HermanBlount]

I concur with Obby. That's exactly how I think about it.

Now Clean out the DRAIN when you're finished showering, you lazy ass, and don't just move your girlfriend's wad of hair up the side and leave it there!

Why would my GF's hair be in the drain? Presumably, she cleans the drain after every use, otherwise she wouldn't have any grounds to demand it of me. Yes?

[marcel]

The best answer is line drying

Given the use of a dryer though, I am strongly of the opinion that the line trap must be cleaned after using the dryer.
That said, if you are not the only person using the dryer, it is best to check whether it is clean or not before using the dryer.