How often should you replace your hair dryer? The need to replace your hair dryer does not necessarily have to do with how long you have it.
Some hair dryers can last for years, yet others may go kaput after a few short months of use.
Most women and men that use hair dryers don’t realize how dangerous they are if they’re not cared for properly.
Reports of hair dryers catching fire while in use surface all of the time. No, this isn’t the kind of news that makes headlines, yet it happens.
Although many people like to push all of the blame off on to hair dryer manufacturers, user error is to blame as well.
I once read an investigative report that was done on a young lady that claimed due to manufacturing errors her hair dryer burst into flames leading to her home burning down. By the time that I reached the end of the 48 page report, it was clear that she was to blame for the fire.
Through intense questioning investigators found out that the hair dryer was old, overheated and shut off all of the time. Not just that. While using the dryer, when it shut off from overheating, she said she never turns the hair dryer off or unplugged it from the power outlet. She said that leaving it on and plugged in allowed her to know when the hair dryer cooled down because it would just come back on.
Normally, she said that she was always near the hair dryer when it cutoff. She told the investigators that she would just put on her mascara and pick with her eyebrows while waiting for the hair dryer to come back on again.
The day that the fire happened, she unexpectedly had to drop her children off at school, was running late for work and forgot that she set the hair dryer down on a towel on the bathroom counter because it overheated. The hair dryer turned back on when no one was home.
It is with out a doubt a good thing that no one was home or hurt battling the fire. As she said though, “I would have just thrown out the cheap old blow dryer if I knew that one day I would come home to nothing because of it”.
If you don’t know how often you should replace your hair dryer, below are some tips that can help you.
Old Hair Dryers – Older hair dryers do not have many of the safety features that today’s hair dryers have. In fact, many of the safety features in today’s hair dryers were added because of reports of them catching fire.
Most modern hair dryers now have a safety switch built into their plugs. In the event your hair dryer starts to overheat, this switch is automatically tripped and the power is cut to the hair dryer.
Many older hair dryers do not have this feature. This is why many people with old hair dryers also complain about the power cord on the dryer getting hot or in some cases melting. Newer hair dryers that have a safety plug, allow it to interrupt the power to the hair dryer to prevent this from happening.
Dirty Hair Dryer – Every time that you turn on your hair dryer it sucks in dirt, dust and whatever debris that happens to be floating in the air.
If your hair dryer turns off within minutes of starting to use it, the small filter at the back of it needs to be cleaned. What is happening is the hair dryer is suffocating because it can’t suck in clean air to blow over the coils inside of it.
This causes the metal coils inside of your hair dryer to get blazing hot, which in turn trips the switch on the plug. Older hair dryers don’t typically allow access to the filter or they don’t have one at all.
If your old hair dryer does not have a filter to catch all of the dust that means that it is all collecting on the inside of the hair dryer. This is why you smell something burning every now and then when you turn on the hair dryer.
- Rather than trying to take the hair dryer apart to attempt to clean it out, replace it.
- If you keep the filter clean on your dryer and it still overheats and turns off, replace it.
Hair dryers are not that expensive. It’s always a good idea to research and read reviews for products that you buy today, See Reviews Here.
I hope that these tips have helped you to better understand the importance of hair dryer maintenance. No matter how reliable your old hair dryer has been, if it doesn’t have a safety plug or a filter that you can clean, get rid of it.
I know that some hair dryers are expensive and that $10 hair dryer may be pretty tempting but it’s not worth the risk.
You should replace your hair dryer even if you regularly clean it, once every 3 years. Clogged or dirty hair dryers that blow extremely hot air can actually damage your hair rather quickly as well.
