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Q. No matter how high a heat setting I use on my dryer, it takes 20-50 minute cycles to dry, even the smallest amount of clothes. Any ideas why my clothes do not dry at normal settings?

A. Drying is all a matter of heat and airflow. If you are missing one or the other, you cannot dry anything. The fact that you can eventually dry your clothes means it has something to do with airflow. Your vent is most likely restricted or plugged up. The vent should be four-inch vent all the way to the outside and the vent outside has to be big enough also. Never use flexible plastic vent on a dryer - it just causes lots of problems. Use ridged flex aluminum or ridged four-inch elbows and straight vent pipe to vent your dryer. The dryer vent should not exceed forty feet in length. Each 90-degree elbow equals five foot of vent. Most often the flexible plastic right behind the dryer is either to long and coiled all over, or it is crushed almost flat behind the dryer. Put a four-inch elbow on the back of the dryer so the dryer cannot get too close to the wall.