Soon after businessman Tommy Levi joined Dryer Vent Wizard (DVW) in southern Tennessee, it wasn’t long before people were calling him a “wizard.” DVW is a fast-growing North American franchise that specializes in dryer vent repair, replacement, alteration, cleaning and maintenance for residential and commercial clients.
“I was driving my service van in Chattanooga when another vehicle started honking and motioned me to pull over,” said Mr. Levi. “They wanted to know what kind of services I provided. When I told them about my business, they said, ‘You’re a Godsend. We were just on our way to Lowe’s to figure out a way to fix our dryer vent’.”
Mr.Levi offered to follow them back to their house to check out the problem. “They had a brand new washer and dryer, but it was vented into a garbage can in the basement,” said Levi, who returned later to vent the dryer through a basement window to the outside. “It solved their problem and prevented a potential fire hazard. That’s when they understood why we’re called dryer vent “wizards’.”
On one of Mr. Levi’s first service jobs in Chattanooga, he was called by a new homeowner whose dryer vent had not passed inspection. She told him the problem was a pair of panty hose underneath her house. Oddly enough, someone had vented the clothes dryer through a hole in the floor that connected to pair of panty hose under the house to collect lint.
“Actually, the lint was going right through the panty hose and spreading underneath the house,” said Mr. Levi, who got rid of the panty hose and utilized the proper materials to install a dryer vent that met all the recommended codes.
Mr. Levi provides DVW services to residential and commercial customers throughout southern Tennessee, including Chattanooga, Cleveland, Columbia, Cookeville, Murfreesboro, Signal Mountain, Spring Hill and Tullahoma, where he and his family are longtime residents.
Much of his time is spent educating customers about the importance of regular cleaning and maintenance of dryer vents for energy savings as well as fire prevention.
According to Mr. Levi, many people are unaware that PVC pipe, foil and vinyl vents are just as much a fire hazard as the pantyhose, garbage cans and other unusual means he has discovered that have been used to vent dryers and collect lint.
“Less than 25 percent of the jobs I do are for preventative maintenance,” said Mr. Levi. “I’ve found that the majority of dryer vent exhaust systems are not up to code and need vent line repair or replacement.”
All of the materials that Dryer Vent Wizard uses, which include rigid metal vents, are code compliant to reduce the risk of fire and increase dryer efficiency.
“What we do to help people stay safe in their homes is not magic, though I don’t mind being called a wizard,” said Mr. Levi, who recommends customers set up an annual inspection and cleaning. “The benefits of energy savings, dryer efficiency and fire prevention far outweigh the investment.”
Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mi., Dryer Vent Wizard is a member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). DVW’s 70 plus franchisees serve more than 9,000 communities throughout the U.S. and Canada. For more information and to learn more about franchise opportunities, visit www.DryerVentWizard.com or call 866-498-SAFE (7233) in the U.S. and 866-395-SAFE (7233) in Canada.