Category: How to

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What You Need to Know About Dryer Vent Cleaning

When left unmaintained, dryer vents can cause fires which do not only damage properties but can also be life-threatening. According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, over 15,600 dryer fires occur every year, causing millions worth of damage to properties. The main cause of these fires is the lint in the appliance’s heating element.

Because of this, some insurance companies and fire departments now require dryer ducts to be inspected and maintained on a regular basis. There are a lot of companies that offer annual or semi-annual dryer duct and vent cleaning service in order to help individuals and companies meet requirements and prevent potential issues in the long run.

Aside from fire prevention, a well-maintained vent will allow your dryer to operate more efficiently and promote energy and cost savings. It can also prevent damage to your clothes because of excessive heat, and prolong the lifespan of your dryer because a dirty vent will require the appliance to work twice as hard.

How Dryer Vents Cause Fire

When lint in the dryer vent and ducts affect the operation of the appliance and air flow, drying time becomes longer and the motor tends to overheat. The lint underneath the dryer can then easily catch fire and the air draft can draw the fire up into the dryer ducts. When not maintained on a regular basis, the ducts will also be coated or clogged with lint, thereby causing fire.

Other causes of dryer fires include problems with the thermostat and limit switch, presence of lint inside the appliance, a broken hose behind the dryer, debris that block the vent, or a damaged lint screen.

Signs That Your Property is at Risk of Dryer Fire

Here are some of the signs that your home or establishment may be at risk of a dryer fire:

  • Your dryer ducts and vent have not been inspected or cleaned in over a year.
  • The length of the dryer duct is over 25 feet and air flow is slow.
  • You use the dryer frequently.
  • The duct of your dryer is made of flexible plastic or vinyl, which burns easily.
  • Your dryer has flexible foil ducts that can restrict air flow. It is recommended to use solid metal tubing that has a diameter of around 4 inches.
  • It takes longer than usual for your clothes become dry, particularly those which are made of heavy material.
  • After a drying cycle, the clothes are hotter than usual.
  • When you turn on the dryer, the flap of the vent hood does not open.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Dryer Vent Cleaning Company

When choosing a reliable professional to handle your vent cleaning LV area, it is important to thoroughly understand what the company has to offer. Below are some things to consider before making your final decision:

  1. The experience of the service provider with your type of property

Although all dryer vents have the same purpose, the frequency of usage of the dryer and the requirements for the service will differ. For instance, a commercial dryer used for a laundry facility involves more usage and will require the service to be completed at a certain schedule and in accordance to business safety regulations. Meanwhile, a dryer in a residential property will require the service to be completed according to the unique needs of the occupants. With this, it is important to make sure that the professional has prior experience servicing your type of property.

  1. How quickly the professional can respond

The speed of service delivery is important because delaying the maintenance of your dryer vent can potentially cause hazards to your building or household. It is recommended to choose a company that can quickly respond to short notice requests.

  1. The type of training the professionals undergo

The main reason for hiring a service provider is to ensure that your dryer vent is cleaned by someone who actually knows how to do it properly. Hence, you must choose a professional who has undergone relevant training and is certified to do the job. Otherwise, why not just do it yourself?

Conclusion

Your dryer vent is indeed an important component that shouldn’t be disregarded. While it is possible to clean it on your own, it is more practical and safer to have an expert inspect your dryer and perform the necessary maintenance tasks. Furthermore, a professional will also know if you need to replace certain parts or your dryer altogether and prevent further damage, expenses, or hazards.

RobertCarrLeave a comment

Free blog creation

Are you looking for an easy and immediate way to share your passions and your knowledge with others? Do you love writing and do you think that one day it can become your job? There are no doubts, you need to open a blog and start writing about everything that interests you. How do you say? You are not yet very experienced about the world of computing and the Web and do not have the faintest idea  how to create a blog ? Well, do not worry, even this time you can count on my help. I can in fact provide you with all the explanations you need to succeed “in the business”.

On the Internet there are many possibilities to open a blog, some of which are very easy to use and do not require any technical knowledge from the user. In order to create a blog it is therefore not essential to be perfect connoisseurs of the IT world. In fact, everyone can create their own online space in four and four without any particular difficulty, you have my word.

If you are therefore really interested in finding out how to proceed to create a blog I suggest you take a few minutes of free time and concentrate on reading this tutorial. You just have to choose which of the solutions I am about to propose, you think may be more suited to your needs, subscribe to it and start posting your content. That said, we ban the chatter and start immediately to get busy. I do not assure you that at the end of this guide you will become a blog-star but certainly you will have much clearer ideas on the matter, trust me!

WordPress

One of the most complete and famous platforms to create a blog is WordPress . It is a free and open source CMS (content management system) that can be installed on any Web space and enriched with customized features thanks to the use of plug-ins developed by third parties.

You have two ways to create a blog with WordPress : the one offered by the WordPress.com site, which allows you to create free “pre-packaged” sites on a space offered at no cost (with some limitations, such as the impossibility to install plug-ins or insert advertising in the blog), or the “manual”, which consists of buying a web space and installing WordPress in the latter.

If you do not have special needs and you want to open only a personal blog, the first solution is perfect to start with. On the other hand you do not have to do is connect to the WordPress.com website by clicking here , press the Create websitebutton  located at the center of the web page that is shown to you, indicate the type of blog that you intend to create, choose the appearance of the home page and a theme to be assigned to the entire site and indicate the address you want to assign to your blog. The address will be  [blog name] .wordpress.com.

Then, click on the Select free plan button and fill out the form that is proposed to you by typing your email address, the username and password you wish to use for accessing the service. Finally, click on the Create blog button  and then on the Continue button to immediately access your newly created blog. As soon as you have a minute, do not forget to confirm your e-mail address that you have chosen to associate with the service by clicking on the link in the e-mail that the WordPress team has sent to you.

At this point you should find yourself in front of the dashboard of your blog on WordPress. To start writing a post immediately click on the button  Start an article placed in the middle of the screen. To explore all the other features and to make further changes to your blog served instead of the commands attached to the sidebar located on the left.

In case you have aspirations a bit ‘higher, you must instead proceed to purchase a Web space and manually install WordPress on the latter. Then connect to the WordPress.org website by clicking here and press the Download WordPress 4.x button  to download WordPress to your computer. When the download is complete, you must extract the contents of the archive you just downloaded (eg  wordpress-4.1-it_IT.zip ) to any folder and edit the file wp-config-sample.php with  Notepad  (or any other text editor) following the instructions in the file itself.

After this step, you must upload with an FTP program  (if you have not already downloaded one on your computer you can consult my guide on FTP programs toimmediately fix the WordPress files on your Web space and connect to the page [address of your blog] /wp-admin/install.php to complete the process of creating your blog. Find more details about this operation in my guides on how to create a blog with WordPress and how to manage a WordPress blog .

RobertCarrLeave a comment

How to create a personal blog

A personal blog can be both an important showcase from a business point of view and a space in which to post and share your thoughts. A friend of yours has just opened one, you would like to follow his example but, not being particularly interested in the subject, you do not know how to do it. Quiet, if you want, I’m here. If you have five minutes to dedicate, I can help you create a personal blog illustrating all the solutions you can rely on and pointing out, step by step, all you need to do to open your “space” on the Web and get to know new people.

We assume that today there are many platforms that allow you to create a blog in a simple, fast and above all free of charge without having to worry about more complex practices, such as registering a domain or choosing a paid hosting . The most popular platforms are WordPress and Blogger , which allow a wide autonomy of site management by the user and are always very flexible. Less flexible, but to keep in mind, are two other platforms that have managed to stand out in recent months:  Medium and Tumblr, which are more “closed” than WordPress and Blogger but in certain contexts offer more convenient features to use.

Would you like to know more? Good. So, if you agree, I’ll start to show you the main blogging platforms with which you can create a personal website without having to worry about expenses or other “technical” problems. Enjoy reading and have fun! I bet that, from here to a few minutes, your first posts will already be online, ready to reach a potentially vast audience!

Create a personal blog with WordPress

People who open a personal blog for the first time, generally, do it using the WordPress platform . Are you wondering why he is so loved by people? The answer is simple: extreme simplicity of use and complete customization thanks to many themes and plugins, which are the real strength of this CMS (content management system). Thanks to the additional components, in fact, it is possible to extend the basic functionality of WordPress blogs and customize them according to their specific needs.

It is good to point out that there are two ways to use WordPress : the first, which I will focus on today, provides the opening of a free blog with wordpress.com underline  and has several limitations, primarily the inability to monetize their content through the insertion of advertising banners and the inability to add plugins or custom themes to the blog.

The other way to use WordPress, the most “free” and professional, provides free download of CMS files, then upload to a separately purchased Web space (along with a domain). Performing a custom installation of WordPress, there are no limits on monetization, plug-ins or customization of themes. In fact, it is also possible to subscribe to paid plans of WordPress.com  that, starting from $ 4 / month (with annual billing), allow you to activate the plugin upload and advanced customization of themes, but personally, if you do not intend to exploit the free version of the service, I suggest you resort to installing the CMS on an external space.

Without this premise, let’s move on to action: if you want to try WordPress and create a personal blog with the latter, connected to the site  WordPress.com . Then click on the Start Now button and wait for the following screen to load, where you must select the type of site you want to open. Among the options available to you, choose the first one by clicking on the Start button with a blog .

On the new page that opens,  assign an address to your site , you are asked to type the name of the new blog. When you have made your choice and after typing it in the Enter a name or a keyword , verify that the domain name is available in the free version of WordPress. Then click on the Select item and proceed to the next page, where you have to choose a plan among those proposed. The first option is Free , which you can select by clicking the Start with free button .

You are one step away from creating your first personal blog on WordPress! The last step required is the creation of an account , so you need to type in the rectangle Your e-mail address the email address you want to associate with the WordPress account, under the item Choose a username your nickname and under the item Choose a password what will be your access key to connect to the account.

Once you have completed filling in the required fields, click on the Continue button and then on the item View my website to view your personal blog.

To publish your first post, click on the Write an article button  located at the top right. In the new screen appears the text editor with which you will write your posts. So fill in the Title field with the title you want to give the article and move to the white text field below to write the body of your post.