What makes lint

Finally, a heating mechanism within the dryer called an open-wire element creates an air stream that sweeps through the garments, blowing the lint off and trapping it in the lint screen.

Reduced airflow resulting from lint buildup can cause the appliance to operate at elevated temperatures and overheat. The U. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 15, fires associated with clothes dryers occur annually.

Try one of our ten fun and creative ways to put that lint to good use. If you keep hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, or any number of similar creatures that might live in a terrarium or custom hamster cage, then you already have a quick and easy way to retask a great deal of monthly dryer lint. Normally, you would have to buy things like pine shavings for your rodent friends to burrow, nest, sleep, and occasionally soil.

Have a compost pile? Composting is one of the best possible ways to use otherwise useless things, like carrot stems, apple cores, and eggshells.

If you make dolls, stuffed animals, or dog toys by hand at home or are considering doing so, dryer lint makes a fantastic source of soft and infinitely free stuffing. Once you have spun the dryer lint, you can start making any yarn or thread crafts you please. You can even make strands of different colors by washing color-separated loads and collecting the colored lint after each round.

For a large multi-colored supply, clear out the lint trap housing and vent for extra lint to work with. Almost everyone has paper mache at least once in their life by mixing glue, water, newspaper strips, and whatever your frame is. Of course, the newspaper is flat and somewhat unwieldy once dipped in the glue and water mixture. Instead, consider making a slight fluffer and more moldable paper mache project using dryer lint mixed with glue and water instead. Leaving the lint in the lint trap on subsequent loads further explains how socks may randomly appear in a different load.

This is due to the wave function hitting the lint in the trap and converting it back into a sock. By far the most sensical, and most boring, is the idea that lint is cloth fibers from the clothing. During all that tumbling in the washer and dryer the clothes get knocked around. This causes the fibers to break down and eventually fall away from the clothing.

After they fall away from the clothing the fibers get jumbled around in the dryer until they eventually make their way to the exhaust vent, which pushed the air through the lint trap where the lint is caught. With the cloth fibers theory it is very important to clean out the lint trap after every use of the dryer. This is because the lint is a very dry and flammable fabric.

If too much builds up in the lint trap it has the potential to catch fire, burn up the dryer, burn down the house, and scare your kitten.

It is not good to scare your kitten. Blend the lint with a generous blob of petroleum jelly and keep it in a sealed plastic baggie.

The flame from a single match will ignite it and the lint will burn for ample time while you add wood to your fire. Just soak the sweaters in some hot water, wring them out and place them in the dryer.