Product review (5 stars): 5 stars isn't enough to rate this product! It's saved me A LOT of money!
This review is for Gardus RLE202 LintEater 10-Piece Rotary Dryer Vent Cleaning System

Weve been paying $75 per visit for the service guy from the appliance store to come every 4-5 months and clean the flexible duct thats routed in a less than optimal manner due to location and a variety of road blocks from the dryer to the outside wall.

We knew the time was coming for a cleaning when clothes didn't dry very well and right near the end when it REALLY needed cleaning, there would actually be water on the floor under the dryer.

I had to use some vacation days or lose them and was recently at home for the first time when he came. I watched the process and thought, *I* should be doing this if thats all it is!

I did my research, LintEater is pretty clearly the way to go and made my purchase. Youve got to love Amazon Prime!

Like with ANY product, you have weigh the number of positive reviews against the handful of bad ones. The bad reviews are likely from people who are mechanically challenged or didn't read the manual or watch YouTube videos to get an idea of how the process works.

The pictures of the twisted rod? Someone had one of more of these: Speed too high, clutch too high or didn't use a clutched drill at all, pushed against an impassable bend or obstruction on the vent pipe.

Disconnected or broke in the vent pipe? The rods cant come apart if you run the drill ONLY clockwise. Thats simple physics they simply cant come apart IF you use clockwise ONLY. The brush head broke or stripped out is going to be like the twisted rod; speed too high, clutch too high or didn't use a clutched drill at all, pushed against an impassable bend or obstruction on the vent pipe.

- CLOCKWISE ONLY for both going into and back out of the vent tube!

- My cordless drill is a Ridgid model R82005 3/8. The clutch goes from 0 to 16.5. It has a switch marked 1 & 2 for overall speed. I set the clutch to FOUR and the speed to ONE. You're not drilling holes or driving screws... you're not going as hard and fast as you can. Slow and easy wins this particular race.

- I put red Loctite thread locker on the threads attaching the rotary brush head to the rod AND to the set screw.

- As I added each section, I tightened them against each other with a pair of pliers on each section. THEN, I wrapped electrical tape a couple times around the joined sections. This is all just common sense insurance against disaster.

- The female ends of the rod that go into the drill chuck aren't knurled, but I had no problem with them spinning in the chuck. Slow speed and minimal torque are probably why this was not an issue.

NOTE: I didn't think Id need the extra rod extensions, but I do and came back to order them. To get this done for now, I had to do half from inside the house and half from outside.

- INSIDE the house, vent pipe disconnected from the dryer, I used the vent insert in the vent pipe end with a Ridgid 6HP shop vac and the cleaning tool rod through the provided hole in the insert. This worked fantastically well; I had to clean the vac filter a couple times due to all the lint.

- OUTSIDE the house, I didn't bother with the vacuum, figuring the birds would get whatever lint they found or the elements would just break it down pretty quickly. Turn the dryer ON to blow out the loosened lint as you clean the pipe, wear googles or something to keep the lint dust out of your eyes and off you go!