The Why & How of Cleaning Your Hair Dryer

Have you noticed that a hair dryer could be weaker and louder after a period of time? It is broken? No really. Actually, you should consider cleaning the hair dryer first when this problem occurs. Today, I will show you a few reasons why we should clean the blow dryer vent on a regular base and we will learn how to clean it correctly.

Why You Should Clean Your Hair Dryer

Weaker Airflow

We know that most of the hair dryers have a motor with a propeller in the back end, which is also the place where the dryer filter locates. If the filter is blocked by the debris of dirt and hair, a blow dryer’s drying capability can be affected significantly as it does not have enough airflow to push out.

Louder Noise

Besides airflow, a hair dryer with clogged vents can be very noisy because airflow can not go through the dryer’s components smoothly. If the dryer has a clogged filter, the air can only be aspirated into the dryer through some tiny holes, which will produce high-pitched sound because of high-speed airflow.

Serious Hair Damage

When there is no enough airflow in the internal body of your hair dryer, the hair dryer gets super hot. That is not a good thing when it comes to blowdrying. High heat can destroy your hair finish and cuticles, making them lose proteins and nutritions. Moreover, the hair dryer will be malfunction easily if the internal temperature is too high.

How to Clean Different Types of Hair Dryers

How to Clean Traditional Hair Dryer

Unplug and remove the filter. For conventional hair dryers, their motors usually are located in the back of the dryer body. In this step, you can twist the filter to see if you can remove it, or you can use a screwdriver pry it open. When you remove the filter, you will see there is much lint built up on the vent.

Use water to clean the filter. You should rinse water from the inside of the filter to the outside of the filter. Because all the debris will come out and will not stay in the filter inside.

After cleaning the filter, you probably will see the inner screen is still dirty. You can use a small brush or toothpick to get the dirt out gently. If you have a hand vacuum cleaner, that is even better.

When the filter is dry, put the filter back. Do not directly blow-dry your hair. Turn it to high speed, wait a few minutes until the dryer pushes all the debris from the outlet before start using it.

For advanced cleaning, you can open the hair dryer with a screwdriver and clean every part that has lint or debris.

How to Clean Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer

For Dyson bladeless hair dryer, the steps are slightly different. They put their motor inside the dryer handle, so the filter is at the bottom. To prolong Dyson Supersonic hair dryer’s life, the first step is the pull the filter out.

And you will find the filter cage can be open, all you have to do is a gentle pull. Then clean the filter cage with running water and let it dry.

If you think the filter still has debris left, clean it with a small wire brush and wash it again.

Finally, you can clean the bottom part of the handle with a soft cloth if there is any visible debris.

Ps: I personally do not recommend you to disassemble Dyson hair dryer since the internal structure is way complicated than regular blow dryers. If you open the hair dryer, you might find it is hard to assemble again.

Besides Cleaning It, What Can I Do to Maintain My Hair Dryer’s Condition?

How to organize your hair tools can also impact your blow dryer’s lifetime. Do not put your blow dryer near a damp place. Otherwise, the moisture in the air can sneak in the blow dryer inside, causing the electronics damaged.

You should not place your dryer under the sun either. The high heat sunshine will degrade electronics quality and performance. And it will also make the coating of your hair dryer faded.

If a hair dryer has not been used for a long time, it’s recommended to turn on the dryer once a month. This is for cleaning the dirt and for drying the moisture in the dryer. The method can protect the motor from aging and moisture. Then you will not have to worry about motor performance decline.