Small pieces of material fibres from your clothes, dust and other fine debris find their way to the lint filter, which is usually to be found as part of (or located near to) your dryer’s door.

Keeping the lint filter clean and free from build-up, helps the air flow properly through your dryer, preventing it from overheating and helping it to dry your clothes faster, using less energy.

As a safety mechanism, most dryers have a “thermal cutout” feature which will disable the dryer if a sensor determines that it is getting too hot, for example, as a result of restricted airflow, caused by lint build-up. Keeping the filter clean will help prevent this from activating.

Condensing and heat pump dryers have a device whose function is to convert the steam generated when your clothes are dried, back into water which is can be removed from the dryer.

The heat exchanger on a condenser-based dryer is usually located at the front base of the dryer, behind a door. The heat exchanger is often released with a latch and you can then remove the heat exchanger ‘cassette’ by sliding it out toward you.

Clean the cassette by removing the dirt and fluff by hand and residual build-up can often be released by rinsing it under a tap. There is nothing electrical, so this is perfectly safe and the cassette’s are designed to handle heavy moisture like this in any event.

A clean heat exchanger will help your dryer operate at peak efficiency.

Some condensing dryers also have a paper air flow filter that is designed to filter and control the air intake. This is often located near the heat exchanger on the front base of the machine.

Gently remove and clean the concertina filter by hand or replace it if necessary with an approved part. Do not rinse this one under a tap as the paper construction may damage the filter.

You probably know this is necessary but the water that is condensed by the heat exchanger is collected in many dryers in a plastic container which needs to be emptied as often as every drying cycle.

Although your machine will often buzz or beep to remind you of the need to empty this reservoir, it will sometimes carry on ‘drying’ even if the reservoir is full, giving the impression that everything is fine.

Stop the dryer and pull out the reservoir (it looks similar to the handle for a detergent drawer on a washing machine) and carefully carry it to a sink or drain where you can empty the water, before returning it to the machine.