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I guess I am assuming that. But yes, I do read up on important, expensive, or complicated things I own; if I didn't have a manual, I found one. If I were responsible for the upkeep for appliances at work, I'd read up on them, too, wouldn't that be part of the job?

And sure, the manual is available online. But that raises the bar a little bit higher as far as taking the effort to read it.

Yup, some of the items we got when we moved into this apartment had some minimal instructions that got lost in the shuffle but most had none. We figured it out as we went and are probably missing important things about, say, the dishwasher, that we're doing wrong.

Can someone explain to me how having "praying parents" compensates for being ditzy?

Lots of highly critical people responding to you. Something else they forget is that over half of the US is at or below a 6th grade reading level, and a fifth are functionally illiterate. They assume education and access to resources are the same everywhere, but it isn't

People would pay good money for that dryer lint. Exceptional camp fire starter.

Very welcome and so glad he checked!

We do, but some lint still makes it through the lint trap and can build up over time. The clogged part was not the regular lint trap, it’s part of the vent exhaust thingy on the outside of the house. That whole thing in the picture was stuffed full of lint.

*their machine (not match)

Well now I'm going to be paranoid that mine has a secret second filter.

And it has a happy ending! 😆

I have a friend who had a house fire from this exact situation. Thankfully it wound up only cosmetic exterior damage, so scary!

Seeing variations of "THIS IS WHY PRODUCTS HAVE MANUALS!" Yes! Reading those manuals is important and good especially when you first get a product. Many are available online! But also, we live in the real world and the world where a person reads the manual for every product they own doesn't exist.

Replaced all mine with the new standards devices.

Common sense relies on shared experience, but we're not all the same person with the same experiences. We all have blind spots.

Ours reached the end of its lifetime about a month ago and notified us with a continual signal. Bought a new one!!

Very true! And a person doesn’t know what they don’t know.

I test our two monoxide detectors every other month. I clean out my dryer lint catcher every single time I use it. It’s important to know how to care for my home and family.

Thanks CPSC! What are you thoughts on combined smoke/carbon monoxide detectors? Don’t those things do best in two separate locations? (Smoke up high/CO down low?)

Thanks for the reminder!

This is such a good reminder. Our old rental had one - only after we had an Incident where one would have been useful. Now I can't remember if we got one when we moved here and when we last checked it, if so. TY for this.

So.. you want me to go push a big red button?! Say no more.

I secretly go into other people's houses and check their CO alarms while they're sleeping. Is that weird?

It's pretty funny, but also sad, how many commenters are judging while also assuming the article is about the front, easy-to-reach lint screen.

Great point. Kind of crazy to look down on someone for not automatically knowing everything that we all may have learned over time, especially younger folks who may have grown up without a responsible involved parent to teach them - thank you for educating and working to keep EVERYONE safe!

I have one on each floor of my house and one in the basement because of you! And I check them a couple of times per year. (I do need to check my dryer exhaust vent, though.)

🫡

A little different, but I was well into my 40s before I learned that dishwashers and washing machines had filters. Certainly less catastrophic potential, but damn, WHO KNEW? (I know my parents didn't, obv)

It's almost like people don't know things they haven't been told before or something

This could be the librarian’s credo.

And then some other people... well. My uncle once siphoned gas from a car using a vacuum cleaner. Cliches aside, I genuinely don't understand how he didn't die. There was literally liquid gasoline sloshing around in the bottom of the canister.

And why we need you and the FTC and the FDA etc.

It's not a bad idea. Unfortunately the US is at present decades into a strong push to defund and reduce public education at all levels. Long after art, music and civics classes have been cut and even gym classes start being eyed, trying to get the powers that be to add something new is a hard sell.

overheard

And lint trap cleaning is particularly easy to miss if you've never had a reason to read the manual, it's not completely obvious (ours is, Mom's isn't), and you go from living where someone else knew and was drying the particularly lint-prone loads to not having someone else quietly clean it out.

You guys are the best. Thank you!

Somebody should share this brilliant idea with property managers. I’ve lived in over a dozen apartments, and nada.

I just want to say I really appreciate this attitude!

you know, you'd think everyone would be aware of that XKCD by now... 😁

A friend’s house burned down because of this. They got out in time but it happened fast. Flames shooting out of the lint holder area.

The labels that tell me these things. I was able to read them when I was three. 99 percent of the time there is absolutely no excuse for intentional stupidity.

This kinda happened to me when I went to college- I knew how to clean the filter on our dryer at home, but the stackable in my apartment has it in the back inside of the drum and I never found it. By the time I found it, that thing was FULL. After that I cleaned it every time!

Then that's on them then. And shows a severe lack of common sense, that's what the manuals are for.

On vacation once the dryer had TWO lint traps, a regular one and a hidden one inside the dryer. From how quickly the maintenance guy opened it up and emptied it, I suspect we weren't the first to not think there would be a second secret lint trap

Momma here to say I post regular reminders about replacing batteries in alarms, the power of vinegar + baking soda, and how to clear a drain without chemicals. I’m a real #MinnesotaDad

My old kitchen grater came with instructions to wash it with benzene to degrease it. No mention that should be done outdoors or away from open flame.

I ❤️you guys.

That's quite the exclusive People managed to secure.

It happens to the best of us from time to time.

The picture made me think she was an archaeologist holding up some fossilized dinosaur skin.

Next up: reminding people that annual car inspections do *not* include an oil change

I love the expressions on the face. especially the right one, you see a portion of , hell yeah i did that. :)

Bad decisions

You can always save people and we have. That is our whole deal.

Stupidity and ignorance are two vastly different things. Put another way: I know things that you don't know. And you know things I don't know. Does that make either of us stupid?

It's not stupidity if they just didn't know. A little more empathy and little less judgement, please.

Ignorance is different than stupidity. Ignorance is not knowing something - a state cured by the sharing of knowledge. Nobody knows anything without learning it first. Stupidity doesn't exist. It's what self-important pricks use to guilt others for ignorance instead of acknowledging their own.

Future Dictionary: Horse: Everyone knows what a horse is. Future Archeology Student: 😭 I don't user manuals: full of useless stuff... until they're not.

Yeah yeah, I cleaned the what felt like 300 feet of dryer vent tubing last month.

She's very lucky her house is still standing.

xkcd.com/1053/

Thank you for everything.

this is my wife

Just Wow...

I don't see small pics real well, I thought these were her panties with a spider on top. Overheard

Thank you for demonstrating compassion instead of judgement ✨

There's the world as it should be and then there's the world as it is. We have to live in the latter.

This is long before the internet. Not all appliances have properly done manuals. We had an espresso machine with no manual, so my ex created one. My ex was talking to company about it, and was emailed one. Ex told the guy to look at who had created the document... my ex was sent his own work. 🤣

I would bet the majority of people being smug about this haven't opened the back of their dryer or cleaned the vent tube in years. I know all about the lint trap but a full cleaning takes a while and sometimes some special tools, and I put it off.

😆😆 I suppose you’re right

I admit that I do get judgy when something should be average common knowledge.

oh BIG same

Eh? I'm referring to the mentality that got trump elected. I thought that would be obvious to even the most dim witted of Americans.

Is always heard that you shouldn't mix reds and whites in the laundry. So my first semester at college I washed some yellows and whites and ended up with yellow socks. I was not happy that this little tidbit of knowledge wasn't passed along as thoroughly.

Overheard

📌

And that's why the hose will need to be cleaned more. Dryers blow, but they don't have thrust. It's easier for a dryer to blow horizontal, than straight up. I hate them on the second floor. I used to work for two moving companies, it's one of the most senseless designs I've seen.

Just deep cleaned the dryer vent line and inside the dryer on new years eve.

lucky her house didn't burn down.

Oh that picture just makes me itch.

It’s also actually important.

idk dude I can get an impressive layer built up in one load just from cat hair coming off my clothes. If she has a pet then across 2 years of use… plausible

WTF where's this second secret lint trap?

Oh yea, there's the lint trap and then there's the thingie in the door where a bunch of lint gets stuck when the lint trap is full and you gatta clear out both.

That's a situational thing,to be honest. It's just easier to say don't do it at all, than to don't do it [in these situations], because gas fumes are denser than air, and fall to the ground.

Fortunately our dryer will tell us when the exhaust needs cleaned out.

See also: xkcd.com/1053/ ("Ten Thousand")

omg, prising that off would be so satisfying though.