Keeping your dryer vent clean is essential. Not only will it ensure your machine runs efficiently, but it could also help to prevent a house fire. But hiring a professional service technician to clean your dryer vent can be expensive. As a result, many people nowadays opt for a DIY dryer vent cleaning kit.
At HY-C, we manufacture a dryer vent cleaning kit called LintEater under our Gardus brand name. It consists of extendible rods that attach to a brush head and a drill. Simply run the kit through your dryer vent with the drill turned on, and it will force out lint that has built up over time.
With so many dryer vent cleaning kits on the market today, it’s natural to wonder which one is right for you. So in this guide, we’re going to take a deep dive into LintEater. And while we are the manufacturer of this product line, we’re going to keep our review as objective as possible.
We’ll cover both LintEater’s pros and its cons to help you decide whether or not it’s the right dryer vent cleaning kit for you.
3 Pros of the LintEater Dryer Vent Cleaning Kit
1. It Features a Unique Auger-Style Brush Head
The brush head of most dryer vent cleaning kits come with bristles that line up vertically. This design works well enough — until it doesn’t. The vertically aligned bristles wind up creating a kind of “wall” in which lint can get clogged, preventing the kit from operating the way it’s supposed to.
LintEater, on the other hand, features staggered bristles. This auger-style shape cleans efficiently, maximizing the brush head’s sweeping surface area while providing enough open space for lint to move down and out through the dryer vent.
The bristle heads themselves are relatively gentle, too, ensuring they won’t damage the walls of your dryer vent, no matter which kind of material the vent is made from.
2. It Features Flexible Nylon Rods
Some dryer vent installations are straightforward, running straight out through the wall behind the dryer. Other installations are complicated, with many twists, turns, and ninety-degree elbows to work through. As a result, dryer vent cleaning kits need to be able to bend to clean from all angles.
Most other kits on the market utilize plastic connector rods. These rods don’t offer as much give. They’re relatively stiff, and they maintain the possibility of cracking or breaking and winding up stuck deep within your dryer vent.
LintEater’s connector rods, on the other hand, are made of an ultra-flexible nylon material. This material allows the kit to bend and flex, navigating the tight twists and turns of any dryer vent setup without breaking.
For longer dryer vents, you can buy additional rods to reach through and clean out the entire system. Or, depending on the length of your vent, you can pick the LintEater kit with the perfect number of rods. Which leads us to our third pro…
3. There Are Four LintEater Models Available
We’ve covered this before in our LintEater comparison guide, but we’ll touch on it briefly here. We manufacture four LintEater kits to serve a wide variety of dryer vent systems:
- LintEater
- LintEater Pro
- LintEater Jr.
- LintEater Pro Jr.
The non-pro models feature rods that screw into each other, while the pro models come with more secure button-link attachments.
LintEater and LintEater Pro come standard with 12 feet of reach, while the Jr. models offer 3 feet of reach for shorter dryer vents. We also offer extension kits for all four models should you require additional reach.
This versatile selection ensures that no matter how your dryer vent system is configured, there is a LintEater model that can help you clean it.
2 Cons of the LintEater Dryer Vent Cleaning Kit
1. It May Become Disconnected During Use
This is not limited just to LintEater. This problem is fundamental to any dryer vent cleaning kit. But it’s still important to understand it.
Dryer vent cleaning kits are rotary cleaning tools. They rely on the power of a drill to replace good old-fashioned elbow grease. The kits’ extension rods connect with each other to provide enough reach to clean the vent system, and sometimes, the rotating force can cause the rods to become disconnected.
To combat this issue, our LintEaters come with two rod connector options:
- The standard LintEater comes with screw-on connector rods
- The LintEater Pro comes with button-link connector rods
In theory, the screw-on rods may become disconnected more easily, especially if you run your drill in the opposite direction of the threads. The button-link system is designed to snap securely in place and handle the rotating force in either direction — clockwise or counterclockwise.
Despite these designs and their intentions, we’ve heard feedback from customers about disconnects with both connector styles. These disconnects are rare, but not unheard of.
To help reach LintEater rods which may have become disconnected deep within the dryer vent, we offer a retrieval tool. This spiral, spring-like tool attaches to the rods in place of the brush head. It wraps around disconnected rods, allowing the user to pull them back out.
2. It Costs a Bit More Than the Competition
LintEater was the first residential-use dryer vent cleaning kit to hit the market. At this point, though, it’s not the only game in town anymore. Brands like Holikme, Bluesea, Sealegend, Eastman, and plenty more have developed kits of their own.
Like LintEater, these brands offer their kits in several configurations. Let’s take a look at the pricing of each comparable kit next to the original LintEater:
|
Kit |
Price |
|
LintEater (12 feet) |
$34.99 |
|
Holikme (15 feet) |
$12.99 |
|
Bluesea (12 feet) |
$17.99 |
|
Sealegend (25 feet) |
$19.95 |
|
Eastman Lint Wizard (12 feet) |
$23.99 |
As you can see, LintEater’s price is the highest on the list. Why is that?
The answer comes down to unique features and premium materials. We touched on the auger-style brush head, a feature unique to LintEater. We also touched on the nylon cleaning rods (as opposed to plastic). These drive the price up significantly.
All told, in the dryer vent cleaning category, LintEater is the premium option. It commands a higher price tag because it’s made of better materials, offers a better design, and, as a result, it’s far less prone to damage, malfunctions, and errors. From an operational and materials standpoint, it’s top in its field — and its price tag reflects that.
And, to be clear, the margin of difference isn’t that wide. Between LintEater and the lowest-priced alternative option, there’s only a $22 difference. It’s not like choosing between a $10,000 car and a $30,000 car; the effect on your pocketbook will be minimal.
As a consumer, it’s in your hands to find a balance between cost and quality. And luckily for you, when it comes to dryer vent cleaning kits, there are plenty of options.
Should You Get a LintEater Dryer Vent Cleaning Kit?
And there you have it: an in-depth review on LintEater. From the materials to the features to comparative price points, you’re now an expert in all things LintEater. But should you get one for yourself?
At this point, it should be clear that LintEater is the highest-quality option in its class. There are cheaper options available that will also get the job done.
You need to decide how important having a hassle-free dryer vent cleaning experience is to you. Spending a little more ensures easier cleaning and more consistent results. Spending a little less will save you some money, but your kit may not hold up or perform quite as well. Only you can decide which option is right for you.
If you’re interested in getting a LintEater for yourself, the product locator below can help you find one online or in a store near you.
But whether you want a LintEater or not, be sure to clean your dryer vent, either with another DIY kit or with the help of professional services. A clean dryer vent can help prevent house fires and save lives, and more than anything else, that’s what we want for everyone.
