Hi,
This is great--widely opposed and entrenched viewpoints on a seemingly simple issue.
I stand in the middle. I had the exact same initial reactions as the annual vent-cleaning doubters, and MAY have considered forging some docs myself, owing to the idiocy of paying a guy $70 (estimates in Fairfax county, as I recall) to come and do it. In the end the condo assoc helped me find a guy that was only $45. I had to do it they said b/c doing it myself was not good enough.
We chatted while he checked my work. I have an engineering background so I thought I'd see what he did that I didn't. Answer--NOTHING!! Still, it was a bargain just to get the big brother off my back. Both he and I, incidentally, took off the sheet metal panels to vac up the stuff in the nooks and crannys. It could be a half hour job in front of the dryer, for a conceicious pro.
More interestingly, it's a long story, but he told me of insights to much of the kinds of corruption others had a gut reaction to suspect. Even worse, he said he'd been approached to 'fake it' by one ass'n mgmt co right here in good old Fairfax county. Apparently they'd done something like forget to send out the annual notices and need some cover(?), I don't recall the exact details.
The lint is extremely flamible. The ducts, which vary enormously in cost and quality, won't generally contain a fire. A spark in the wrong place could trigger the darn thing. The risk is real. On the other hand, cleaning the screen on every load does the task and I have no doubt that for many duct geometries you might go years before a risk. The dryer and its duct system is extremely hampered by constrictions (even 10%), a major consideration.
I met a guy later with an utterly corrupt 'chimney sweep' company. He told me all he did was take a battery powered leaf blower and send a jet down the duct for 30 seconds. It might work, franky, and might be better than nothing. On the other hand, it could tear a flimsy duct, or send a clog to a bad spot.
Another bit of advice after a lot of research: Dont use the cheapo plastic ducts. Try to get the aluminum ones. They may not meet code in FX county and may even have become scarce in hardware stores as a result. Even better are the sheet metal stove-pipe ones, but they tend to be impractical when it comes to modern hookups (tight spaces).
In the case of our condo, a roofing job had left my dryer duct disconnected! All the lint for year had settled in the attic. The state of repair/mainentence etc of many buildings is pretty low.
I just got layed off after 23 years as a professional writer. It occured to me more than once to start doing this. If you have ideas and want to help back me write to this email address:
bbb.am2442@gmail.com
Rick