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Clean your hair dryer’s removable filter

Clean the filter on the back of your hair dryer when it cuts out partway through drying, smells of burning or shows grey fuzz on its back. A clear filter lets air carry the heat out, so the dryer is less likely to overheat and switch itself off.

Step by step

  1. One hand holds a black hair dryer by its handle while the other lifts away its twisted-off filter cap; grey lint is packed into the cap and the mesh behind it.
    STEP 1 OF 3

    Unplug it, let it cool and take off the back cap

    • Switch the dryer off, unplug it and let it cool on a dry counter. Unplugged, it can’t start while your fingers or the brush are near the fan.
    • Hold the handle in one hand. With the other, twist the cap on the back counterclockwise and lift it off.
    • If no cap turns or lifts, the mesh is built in. Clean it from the outside in the next step.
  2. A person brushes grey lint off the mesh on the back of a black hair dryer with an old toothbrush, over a paper towel with the removed cap on it.
    STEP 2 OF 3

    Brush the cap and the mesh

    • Brush the lint off the cap with a dry old toothbrush, over a paper towel.
    • Brush the mesh on the dryer downward, so lint falls off instead of being pushed in.
    • Never poke anything through the mesh. The fan sits right behind it.

    Lint packed deep into the mesh lifts with a vacuum’s soft brush attachment run over the outside.

  3. A person twists the clean filter cap back onto a black hair dryer, with the brushed-off lint and an old toothbrush on a paper towel beside it.
    STEP 3 OF 3

    Twist the cap back on until it locks

    • Line the cap up with the back of the dryer and twist it clockwise until it stops or clicks.
    • Check that it sits evenly and doesn’t wobble. Without the cap, hair can get pulled into the intake.
    • Throw the lint away and store the dryer with its cord loosely coiled.

About 2–5 min hands-on to take off the cap, brush the cap and the mesh and twist the cap back on, after the dryer has cooled.

Practical editorial estimate, not measured. Loose lint is quick; lint packed into the mesh takes longer.

You’re done when…

The cap and the mesh show clean holes with no grey felt of lint, and the cap is twisted back on until it locks.