Never install a screen over the dryer exhaust outlet

In a perfect world “exterior dryer vents should not be fitted with vent screens”.
We often find “exterior dryer vents fitted with mesh vent screens” that are “blocked on the inside / backside of the vent screens” with “thick blanket / layers of dryer lint” (and blocked screens eventually choke & block the dryer ducts)
We strongly recommend that exterior dryer vent screens be permanently removed to prevent dryer lint build-up on the vent screens and, to allow the dryer ducts to vent safely and efficiently (without any restriction) out to atmosphere.
Dryer lint “will be produced during every normal drying cycle” and “dryer lint particles will enter the dryer duct”.
If exterior dryer vent screens are to remain in place and dryer lint particles become trapped on the exterior dryer vent screens”; *this is not the fault of our professional dryer duct cleaning work*.

Excerpt: From the 2009 INTERNATIONAL MECHANICAL CODE
504.4 Exhaust Installation:
• Dryer exhaust ducts for clothes dryers shall terminate on the outside of the building and shall be equipped with a back-draft damper.
• Screens shall not be installed at the duct termination.
• Ducts shall not be connected or installed with sheet metal screws or other fasteners that will obstruct the exhaust flow.
• Clothes dryer exhaust ducts shall not be connected to a vent connector, vent or chimney.
• Clothes dryer exhaust ducts shall not extend into or through ducts or plenums.

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