Proper venting and annual soaking!

My husband was sure that Jim, the appliance serviceman dispatched for our annual washer/dryer check-up, would have nothing to say about detergent preferences. Our tete a tete in the laundry room, he tried to convince me, would simply confirm that our front-loading high efficiency machines were meeting industry standards.   I raced ahead to our laundry room to line up the questionable detergent boxes. And as I waited for Jim, I wondered whether our fluffy towels and dirty gym clothes were sometimes at odds in the suds.  I’d ask him about the upper range of full loads, too —  if he stayed long enough.  Jim rose to the occasion and warned me adamantly to avoid non-exclusive high efficiency detergents. I agreed never to buy the other brand again.  Then he looked inside our dryer, mini-vac in hand, and raved about our venting.  Good unrestricted venting, he  proclaimed, was always short and straight and left no lint behind.  Just like ours!  As I glowed,  he held up our four year old  lint screen and squinted his eyes.   “How often is it soaked?”  I fell off my pedestal. “Once a year,” he instructed me, “in hot and soapy water for 20 minutes. Then wipe it dry with a paper towel.”  That’s when I could hear my husband heading up the stairs — so had our Samsungs let us down?  They’re just fine, Jim reassured him.  Short and straight venting — works every time.