Tried using a shop vac to speed up a dryer vent cleaning... bad idea

I was cleaning out a dryer vent last week on a job in Austin and thought I'd hook up my shop vac to suck out the lint faster. Well, the suction collapsed the flexible metal vent hose in on itself and I couldn't get it unclogged for 45 minutes. Learned the hard way that shop vacs are too strong for those cheap vent kits. Any of you guys run into this issue with certain vent materials?

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2 Comments

lane.joel3mo ago

Read somewhere that those flexible foil vents are basically just glorified aluminum foil and can't handle anything more than a standard leaf blower. Had a buddy in San Antonio try the same thing with a rigid metal vent and his shop vac worked fine, no collapse. Guess it really depends on what the vent is made of, those cheap flex kits are garbage for heavy duty cleaning anyway.

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nora1843mo ago

Glorified aluminum foil" - yeah, that's exactly what they are. I swear some of those flex vents are thinner than the foil in my kitchen drawer. Tried using a shop vac on one once and it sounded like I was crumpling a soda can. Your buddy in San Antonio had the right idea with the rigid metal vent though. Those things can actually handle some suction without folding in on themselves. It's like the difference between trying to vacuum a couch cushion vs a cardboard box - one's gonna collapse, the other just sits there and takes it. I think the real joke is people who buy those cheap foil kits thinking they're getting a deal, then wonder why their dryer vent looks like a crushed accordion after one cleaning. You get what you pay for, I guess.

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