A smoke alarm and a dryer duct

 I offer a Preventive Maintenance service agreement for rental properties, seniors, disabled folks, and professionals with busy lifestyles. Part of the SA is a monthly PM inspection to keep alarms working, lights changed, filters cleaned, and many other necessary home tasks.

Another useful part of the SA is a locked in rate for other handyman that may come up. Things that may have been part of the monthly inspection or other projects that just come up 

For this customer, the flexible dryer duct had gotten torn and disconnected from the dryer. It needed to be replaced. The customer tried to wrap duct tape around the torn area until I could arrive to replace it.


Tears in flex ducts often catch lint and other fluffy stuff that blows through, eventually creating a blockage that results in clothes not drying properly,  dryers using more energy,  and possibly even causing a fire. So a new flex duct was installed and connected correctly to the dryer and the outside duct. 



One of the things that happens a lot is that people buy low price, low quality, flex vents and make direct dryer connections that require a 90° bend that often results in tearing the thin material.

A good quality flex duct with straight connections to 90° duct elbows on the dryer and the exterior vent helps prevent tears and clogging. 

When that project was completed, I went upstairs to replace a non-working smoke alarm.  Not only was it not working at all, it was only for smoke.   Given that a senior (almost 90 and still independent! ) lives here and frequently has guests in this roughly 85 year old house, a carbon monoxide detector is not uncalled for.


We put in an Aegislink combo smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector unit rated for 10 years that operates on a replaceable, 3 year lithium battery.  I've had good success with these units since I started installing them about 6 months ago.

The customer is feeling a lot more confident having the new alarm installed.

Both the alarm and the dryer duct will be part of the ongoing monthly Preventive Maintenance inspection and testing to ensure they continue to be operational. 

Location: Omaha, NE, USA

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