Dryer Cleaning Kit Extension Rods - Gardus R3203612 12' Extension Kit for Gardus RLE202 LintEater Rotary Dryer Vent Cleaner Kit, Dryer Vent Cleaning System Extends Up to 12’ with 4 Flexible 3' Rods

We love this tool for keeping dryer ductwork clean. It is easy to use and really does the job, without being too rough on the ducts. It makes it easy to diminish fire hazards with a regular schedule of cleaning, yet be cost conscious.We have it on the semi-annual tasks list, but if you do a lot of loads, you might move it to once a quarter. If you do fewer loads of drying, you might get by with cleaning annually.

I am replacing a older dryer with a front loader that mounts on a 15" pedestal. Because of the additional height, I had to move the wall dryer vent up about 15". In this home, about 10 years old, the vent is a 4" galvenized pipe that runs up an interior wall and vents through the roof, about 17 feet. In all of my previous homes, the vent was straight out a concrete wall and only about 8" long. After I cut the duct, I noticed quite a bit of lint in the pipe. Since I had just purchased this home, I don't know if the accumulation was just "normal" or if the previous owner had just not been consistent in cleaning the dryer lint trap. It was much easier to clean the vent now rather than pull out the dryer later so I order this cleaning system. I had to order the extension kit because I needed more than the 12' of rod included. The quality of this product is excellent and it comes with the best manual I've ever seen for such a simple and inexpensive product. The manual clearly shows how to use the system in different situations. The vacuum adapter fits inside the 4" duct and attached to my shop vac. Virtually no dust was observed during the cleaning. A port in the adapter allows you to run the rod and the brush up the vent, attaching additional 3' rods as needed. The instructions say to tighen each joint with pliers and then tape them so they won't come apart if you accidently have the drill set to counterclockwise rotation. I followed the instructions, but unless you are a total klutz with a drill, you probably don't have to do this. Even so, tighening and taping and undoing took very little time since there are only a few joints. I had my wife start and stop the vacuum as I connected the rods and worked the brush up and down the duct with the whole process requiring less than 15 minutes. I opened my shop vacuum when I was done and was surprised at the amount of lint in there. The manual (and my new dryer manual) caution that if your wall-to-dryer ductwork is either vinyl or thin foil, you should replace it with the semi-rigid flexible metal ductwork readily available at big box hardware store. I wasn't aware of this before. The vinyl and perhaps the thin foil ductwork cannot contain a duct fire. The thin metal ductwork is nice and flexible but the flexibility inherently reduces the diameter of the duct resulting in less air flow and perhaps longer drying cycles. More importantly, when you look inside you see that the coils are big lint collectors. I don't know if I will ever use this system again as I am older and probably won't be pulling the dryer out unless I have to. But if I have to, I will clean the duct while I'm there. Great to see such a product like this that is easy to use and does what it says.

Wife had been complaining about how crummy her dryer performance had become and, of course, I figured it was the dryer itself that was the problem. I finally checked the vent system and it looked like someone had stuffed insulation in the opening. As I pulled it out I realized it was lint and I had caused the problem by neglecting cleaning the vent.I got this kit - easy to assemble, good instructions on how to use and what not to do - and it worked great. Vent tube line now clear and I'm getting praises about how much better the dryer works now. I haven't told her it was probably my fault to begin with.I keep the kit next to the dryer with a note on it saying when I last cleaned the vent.

After watching a video where this product was used, I decided to give it a try rather than hiring a professional. I specifically chose this one because it contains the vacuum adapter that is supposed to help keep things cleaner during the process. The main brush and rods worked great, but the vacuum adapter was just off in size so that I couldn't slip it into or over my duct and ended up cutting my finger on the duct while attempting to get the adapter to work. I know there are cheaper options out there that don't include the vacuum adapter and I wish I would have gone with one of those to save $ and my finger...but otherwise this was an amazing product.

This is an excellent and easy to use product. The whole process from taking parts out of the box to cleaning everything and packing it back took me 30-40 minutes with the cleanup taking the longest.I knew that 12' of flexible rods that come with the LintEater Dryer Vent Cleaning System would not be enough for my application, so I bought an extension pack from the local Lowe's that had the best price for LintEater extensions. I used the total of six rods, which is 18' and I had about 1.5 foot from the drill to the vent and about 1 foot came out on the other side.The manual says that you can clean the vent from the outside or from the inside. I decided to go from the inside thinking that the brush would push loosened lint outside like it looks in the picture on the product page. I used the supplied shop-vac attachment to minimize mess, and it worked well. There was a little lint that the brush pushed to the outside, but there was about 2 gallons of lint in my 5 gallon shop-vac (Vacmaster VWM510 Wall Mount Wet/Dry Vacuum Powered by Industrial 2-Stage Motor with Remote Control, 5 Gallon, 5 Peak HP). I also pulled a half of a lizard from the vent, but I could not find the second half even after running the system through the vent one more time time.The manual suggests using a cordless drill with a clutch, I am sure to avoid damage to your duct, but my cordless drill's battery was dead, so I used a corded drill and it worked fine. You must be sure that the drill is set to turn clockwise or the rods may disconnect inside the duct.Everyone's project will be different, but I strongly suggest using a shop-vac to minimize the mess. Lint looks solid when it is stuck inside the dryer vent, but it becomes very dusty when loosened. I also found that although it is tempting to connect all rods from the start, it is not convenient to use the system with too many rods outside the vent because you end up standing with the drill too far from the vent and the rods create a slack and then twist together similar to how a twisted rope would twist together when you fold it in half. I started with two rods and connected each next one when all but 5" of the system had disappeared in the vent. Additionally, the shop-vac attachment is designed for a 2" hose, and the manual does not recommend using smaller diameter hoses to avoid clogs, but my shop-vac has 1 1/4" hose, so I used duct tape to seal the hose against the shop-vac attachment and the 21' hose did not get clogged.Overall, this is a great product and, if you want to clean your dryer vent, I suggest you give it a try.