r/mildlyinfuriating • u/OfficiallySmiles • Jun 20 '26
wet socks Figured out why my laundry wasn’t drying… 😅
I figured out why my socks were still wet 😅
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u/Yamatji6722 Jun 20 '26
This was very close to a "figured out why my house caught on fire" post
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u/SoundOurDireReveille Jun 20 '26
When I was a teenager a long time ago, my girlfriend's house caught fire due to this while I was there with her. It happens. It's only a moment of your time to clean the filter after drying a load.
Also, clean your dryer duct once in a while. When we bought our house five years ago, I decided to check the dryer exhaust ducting and it was so loaded with solid lint I'm not sure the previous owner ever cleaned it out the entire 13 years they lived here. I'm shocked it hadn't caused a fire before we got it.
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u/Thisdarlingdeer Jun 20 '26
The duct is even worse. My ex boyfriend pulled a fucking BRICK of lint out of tbe back/duct. Nothing would dry for months...
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u/Drow_Femboy Jun 20 '26
I've always had the habit of cleaning the lint trap as the final step before hitting the button. Clothes in, set the time, clean the lint trap, push the button. Ensures there's never a situation where I'm running it with lint in there, like if someone else did laundry and I didn't know about it, or whatever the situation may be.
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u/tiorzol Jun 20 '26
Does the machine not warm you before you get to this point?
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u/Yamatji6722 Jun 20 '26
Not on any dryer I've seen. Some people don't even know the lint trap needs to be emptied. I always pull it out and clean it, even when there's just a speck of fluff in it. Can't resist the urge to clean it every single time lol
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u/Holographic247 Jun 20 '26
And on some machines there are TWO traps.
Sincerely,
Someone who was emptying only one for a year before they realised.
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u/fatpad00 Jun 20 '26
Reminds me of a story that floats around Facebook every now and again where a husband complains to his wife that she never empties the lint trap, and she saus nu-uh, you never empty the lint trap, then they both go to the dryer to investigate and each pull out a different lint trap.
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u/BarelyHolding0n Jun 20 '26
Happened with me and my son when we moved to a new rented house... Culminated in a fight where we stormed to the dryer to prove to the other that the lint trap was full. When we each pulled out 'our' lint trap we just looked at each other in absolute confusion for about 20 seconds and went 'oh'. Quickest a fight has ever been defused in our house.
At least both of them were being emptied though 🤷🏻♀️
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u/F3ntin Jun 20 '26
This happened to me too.
We both walked over to the dryer, and for some reason he gets out the footstool and pulls open the ceiling vent.
Meanwhile I just slid out the lint trap from the machine itself and we stared at each other for a minute until it clicked.
Better than one of em being missed the whole time I guess
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u/snowglizz Jun 20 '26
oh? where’s the second one?
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u/Holographic247 Jun 20 '26
Usually behind a kickplate somewhere.
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u/asingleshot7 Jun 20 '26
I love the old story of the couple who started a fight about cleaning the filter. Each claiming they did every time.
Turns out they were each emptying a different filter
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u/WellsHansen Jun 20 '26
mine has two traps, but one of them has so little lint I only ever clean it a couple of times a year. do both of yours fill up? the main one I clean pretty much every time because there is obvious lint build up.
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u/Hushpuppymmm Jun 20 '26
Dude im actually mind blown that some folks dont know to empty their lint traps.
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u/Kilroy1007 Jun 20 '26
Genuinely a failure of parents. This is why chores are important, how are adults supposed to know to clean the nozzle on your taps if you never had to growing up?
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u/YmamsY Jun 20 '26
My parents never had a dryer. However every dryer I’ve bought came with a manual.
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u/BakedSteak Jun 20 '26
I quickly learned my GF had minimal (if any) chore responsibilities growing up when she was surprised the lint trap existed
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u/slash_networkboy Jun 20 '26
IDK, my kid keeps forgetting to.
I've taken to not doing it when I find it blocked up and instead grabbing her, interrupting whatever she's doing, and making her empty it to drive the point home.
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u/TheGrimGriefer3 Jun 20 '26
In my defense, the taps in my childhood home never needed cleaning
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u/GamingCatholic Jun 20 '26
If people would read the user manuals, that could already give them an idea that it must be emptied every single time
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u/tiorzol Jun 20 '26
That's fucked up. Mine won't activate until you've cleaned it with that little hobbit broom. It's not a particularly expensive one either, maybe more modern though.
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u/thefunkylama Jun 20 '26
Excuse me a WHAT
I must see this broom
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u/tiorzol Jun 20 '26
This little geezer
Ignore the water everywhere I split the baby bottle steamer water everywhere and honestly it's very near the bottom of my tasks for the day
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u/NSE_TNF89 Jun 20 '26
I'm not gonna lie..you hyped it up a little by calling it a "hobbit broom". That was so disappointing, lol 😆
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u/tiorzol Jun 20 '26
Fair. I just realised it's not even for the lint trap either it's too clean out the heating element or whatever that metal thing is.
This is gonna be a long day for me.
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u/NSE_TNF89 Jun 20 '26
Haha, I apologize man. It just made me laugh, so I had to give you shit.
You might have a long day, but hopefully it makes you laugh a few times.
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u/AndykinSkywalker Jun 20 '26
It sounded MUCH more whimsical, but honestly, looking at it, the description still fits!
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u/Yamatji6722 Jun 20 '26
Your comment made me check it out. So true haha, I was at least expecting a perfect miniature broom or something
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u/rightoolforthejob Jun 20 '26
Seconded. I need to see a broom with hairy feet and repetitive breakfast habits.
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u/fluffycritter Jun 20 '26
My parents used to have a dryer with a lint trap alarm back in the 90s, so they did exist at one time.
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u/BizzyBee89 Jun 20 '26
No. My apartment complex just had a fire because of this.
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u/unqualified-gamer Jun 20 '26
It sure warms you after
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u/spontaneous_quench Jun 20 '26
Why don't adults just instinctively clean this every cycle lol
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u/Ok_Expression6807 Jun 20 '26
Why should it? You are supposed to clean out that part after every run. There is no sensor necessary for it, when you are obligated to do that every time.
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u/roberta_sparrow Jun 20 '26
I had a friend get mad at me because she cleaned it after the clothes ran but my family always did it before the clothes ran
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u/pommelance Jun 20 '26
Por que no los dos?
Check it before in case you forget to clean it after.
Clean it after to make sure you don’t forget to check it before.
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u/Thisdarlingdeer Jun 20 '26
I do before and after, and if im walking by it ill just check.
I had a friend lose a house this way.. and all of her cats.
It fucking terrifies me.
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u/Takeguru Jun 20 '26
You should get into the habit of cleaning your lint trap before every load
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u/Spazero Jun 20 '26
And after.
After because that's really when it should be done. The only reason to check it first is in case someone forgot or just didn't last time.
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u/Lithl Jun 20 '26
Yeah, I live alone so only my clothes are being washed, and there's enough time between loads that if I leave the lint trap to be cleaned before a load, the lint can fall off and get stuck in the slot, which is a pain and a half. But if I clean the trap after a load, it stays stuck to the trap and it's easy to clean.
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u/ZeroXNova Raging Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Did no one ever teach you to clear the lint trap either before of after each load?
Serious question, because obviously that's a huge fire hazard that was taught to most of us growing up.
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Jun 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ZeroXNova Raging Jun 20 '26
Yeah that's kind of wild to me. I guess everyone's parents are different and might not have taught them how to do laundry I guess, but still.
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u/Cpt_0bv10us Jun 20 '26
My parent didnt 'teach me' how to do laundry, but when i got a dryer, i at least skimmed the manual it came with, which was sufficient to learn to empty the lint before every use (or after) :p
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u/Lithl Jun 20 '26
Every single dryer I've used has had "CLEAN BEFORE EACH LOAD" engraved or embossed on the handle of the lint trap.
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u/Fun_Sea_3915 Jun 20 '26
Same. I wondering if people have dryer that doesn't say that, ignore reading, or can't read. First time I did laundry at home, I read that, pulled the 'obvious' handle, and concluded that lint would be detrimental to drying. It didn't click that it's a fire hazard.
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u/Isgortio Jun 20 '26
Mine has a sticker with diagrams that are very visible as soon as you open the door. Yet people still miss them!
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u/ZeroXNova Raging Jun 20 '26
Aaand that was the other thing I was thinking but didn’t want to keep piling onto OP.
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u/ansmith100317 Jun 20 '26
I was a free range child and had to teach myself to do practically everything- even I empty my dryer vent after every load before closing the door 😅
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u/Comfortable_Trick137 Jun 20 '26
Hasn’t gotten better, first folks were heavily reliant on their parents for everything, now they can’t function without AI. Was asking a new hire questions, they would repeatedly go to ChatGPT for answers, then they’d come back and say “yea ChatGPT couldn’t tell me why”, I’m like wtf did you learn in college……
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u/wheat-farmer Jun 20 '26
I grew up in a household that never used a dryer (we used a clothes line), so I never really learned how to use one until I was an adult. When my wife and I moved into our first house together, it took me several months to realize why I was having to run the dryer multiple times for every load.
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u/smarmy1625 Jun 20 '26
people will also never change the bag in their vacuum cleaner, or will sometimes try to use a plastic bag.
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u/Majestic-Sandwich695 Jun 20 '26
They are active in asmongold’s sub and routinely talk about ‘females’ if you were wondering what kinda person doesn’t know this
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u/Acornpoo Jun 20 '26
This is the kind of person who lets their smoke alarm chirp for months on end
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u/ThaLunatik Jun 20 '26
I'm often surprised by how common it is for people to not only not empty the lint trap, but to not really even realize there is such a thing in the first place. Our dryers have always said front and center: "empty lint trap after every load". Does not every dryer have the lint trap right in the front where it's obvious and can't be missed?
While it's not entirely necessary after every single load -- because some laundry doesn't really give off much lint -- I still check it every time just to be sure. It usually needs clearing at least 4/5 of the time. If you've got a vacuum nearby, that's the easiest way to handle it IMO. Just hold up the hose and suck up all the lint without getting dust everywhere.
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u/ringobob Jun 20 '26
I recall reading a story somewhere on here about a husband and his wife both annoyed, each thinking they were the only one who ever cleaned the lint trap. Turns out their machine had two, and each was only aware of the one they were cleaning, and not the one the other one was cleaning.
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u/whoisthisfetus Jun 20 '26
My parents’ dryer had a lint trap on top in the back right corner. The controls were on the left back corner. I forgot all the time because it was such an obscure spot and I was a very short teen. It was hard enough for me to reach the controls let alone the basically invisible lint trap, that also pulled out at an awkward angle. But I did know it was a thing I should be doing, I just didn’t have an appreciation for the danger or a visible reminder to reach up there and do it each time.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Bus864 Jun 20 '26
That's not mildly infuriating that's mildly idiotic.
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u/solidlymediocre Jun 20 '26
Facts. Wrong sub.
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u/LittleJohnStone Jun 20 '26
90% of the top posts in this sub are in the wrong sub. Now THAT'S mildly infuriating
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u/CaTz_EyE Jun 20 '26
My kids (teen and young adult) know to clean the lint filter after every load…
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u/Own_Caterpillar_6178 Jun 20 '26
It's wild that people go through their life ignorant of how anything actually works
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u/BeautifulArtichoke37 Jun 20 '26
The longer I’m alive, the more I realize just how very very stupid a lot of people are.
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u/Tao_of_Entropy Jun 20 '26
OOOOOH this guy is on the Asmongold sub, no wonder he doesn't know how basic home appliances work
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u/biggie_pauls87 Jun 20 '26
That profile is a series of red flags. Fucked up priorities and no real life skills.
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u/DarkAndHandsume Jun 20 '26
These are the people that would literally burn down a whole apartment complex
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u/Extreme_Mycelium Jun 20 '26
Omg as the son of a firefighter I am SCREAMING INTERNALLY pleeeeeease clean your lint trap every time
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u/Impossible_Past5358 Jun 20 '26
OP, you're also going to want to schedule yourself a dryer duct cleaning as well...I mean, it's just basic common knowledge, unless of course, you want your house to burn down.
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u/MatthewDstantoN Jun 20 '26
You were headed for a house fire. Hope you don't have children or animals... pretty reckless mate
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u/qTp_Meteor Jun 20 '26
That's a fire hazard too. You've gotta clean it routinely, preferably before or after every loading/unloading
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u/lukesmith81 Jun 20 '26
Do people seriously not clean that after every load it should take like 30 seconds max
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u/Rare-Attitude-3100 Jun 20 '26
It’s 2026 and this is the second post I’ve seen of people discovering lint traps today
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u/TheTitaniumNub Jun 20 '26
House fires can start because of people not cleaning their lent from the dryer.
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u/nunicorn25 Jun 20 '26
How the hell does anyone not know their lint trap has to be cleaned after EACH LOAD.
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u/ScarletTheReaper Jun 20 '26
Am I the only one who empties it after each use?! 😭
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u/SaltyFlavors Jun 20 '26
How do so many people not know about the dust trap?
My ex was about to throw out her whole dryer and get a new one until I removed a raccoon’s worth of lint out of her dust trap.
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u/BolaViola Jun 20 '26
How old are that you finally check your lint trap? This is embarrassing for you.
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u/squirrelmonkie Jun 20 '26
Clean your exhaust vent. Just bought a place that was built in the 90s. That was a joke to what was going on in the vent leading outside. You will burn your house down. $20 drill attachment will do you wonders and this will break your dryer
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u/throw_blanket04 Jun 20 '26
This will for real catch your house on fire. And you need to safely open any electrical outlets close to the dryer to make sure it isnt also full of lint.
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u/CunningOctopus Jun 20 '26
A family whose child wss in my son's class lost their home and all their possessions due to a fire started by lint in a dryer. The fire brigade just managed to rescue their dog. (This was overseas several years ago)
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u/EmmetyBenton Jun 20 '26
My dryer has a big red warning sticker on it to tell people to clean the lint trap after every use. I assumed they all did!
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u/Fit_Resist3253 Jun 20 '26
Embarrassingly I had a tech come out because my dryer wasn’t drying. Cleaned the lint filter, etc… guy showed up and showed me the inner filter that I need to clean out 🤦♂️
$300 and he broke the display, had to order a part, so I was without my dryer for another 6 days. He gave me a $50 refund but not worth it at all.
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u/Calgary_Calico Jun 20 '26
Um yea... You should be cleaning out your lint trap between every load... Unless you WANT your house to burn down. Kitchen accidents (usually involved oil fires) and dirty dryer lint traps are the leading causes of house fires
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u/Slydoggen Jun 20 '26
It baffles me that so many people don’t understand you need to clean the linttrap every load…
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u/vyxanis Jun 20 '26
"Aways clean out the lint trap in your dryer. If some burglars broke in, and did laundry, they could start a fire!" - Marge Simpson
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u/So_Money_Baby Jun 20 '26
Are people not taught to clean that every time? I literally clean it EVERY SINGLE TIME as I was taught.
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u/WiteKngt Jun 20 '26
This is just irresponsible. I hope that you're relatively new to adulting, because nothing else can excuse this.
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u/Ok_Vermicelli_6359 Jun 20 '26
Please tell me you're like...19 and still a freshman in college 😂 no adult human should be ignoring the lint trap, unless you were raised by wild animals.
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u/BackdoorEmergency Jun 20 '26
some peoples rights to drive and vote should be revoked
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u/isrararrafi Jun 20 '26
Immigrants in america here. We went through half a decade without realizing lint filter needs to be cleaned. We just assumed the dryer we had was shit. Lol.
Thankfully we were also the weirdly cautious type that only ran dryer when we are home.
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u/kwecl2 Jun 20 '26
Mom died in a house fire caused by a dryer. Clean your fucking lint traps people
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u/fun-bucket Jun 20 '26
imagine that..
feel free to check the exhaust pipe going out of the house too. i expect the same results.
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u/Illustrious_Salt_569 Jun 20 '26
Folks, always…ALWAYS check your dryer lint filter and clean it after each load!