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Thread Number: 90295
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Dryer vents |
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Post# 1148705 , Reply# 1 5/14/2022 at 10:32 (706 days old) by DADoES  (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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 Those water trap things don't work. Best exhaust route is shortest/straightest as possible. Dryers should be installed on an exterior wall for a direct-shot to outdoors. The blower wheel on F&P SmartLoad is at the exhaust port on back of the dryer. My exhaust route is so short that I could reach through the outside exhaust hood and touch the blower if not for the angle of access caused by the hood. | ||
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Post# 1148707 , Reply# 2 5/14/2022 at 11:25 (705 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Those various bucket filled with water devices are still on market. As noted already they are largely ineffective. You'll have lint dust all over, not to mention venting fumes from whatever your drying into your living space. This in particular chemicals from laundry products including scent/perfumes. If you use dryer sheets that just ups indoor pollution another notch.
Another strike against venting dryers indoors is it raises indoor moisture and heat levels. You may want the latter during cooler times of year, but increased moistness can lead to various health and other issues. Have never found modern plastic traps on dryer exhaust flimsy. But then again haven't looked in ages. You can always seek out NOS things on eBay or elsewhere instead of today's largely made in China or Mexico offerings. | ||
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Post# 1148708 , Reply# 3 5/14/2022 at 11:41 (705 days old) by supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.) |
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My dad had the bright idea of heating the garage in the winter by rigging a kind of diverter box with a flap to direct the dryer exhaust into the garage. You guessed it: So much moisture condensed there was water running down the walls and the inside of the garage doors. And of course everything was covered in lint. Didn’t last long!
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Post# 1148715 , Reply# 5 5/14/2022 at 17:13 (705 days old) by philcobendixduo (San Jose) |
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Inside Wall
My washer and dryer are, by necessity of house design, on an inside wall in the laundry room.
On the opposite wall is a window so at least the laundry room itself HAS an outside wall. The dryer vent inlet is located at the bottom of the inside wall, travels up the wall, then across the ceiling to the outside where it vents above the window. The room is small so the distance doesn't affect drying time. When I first moved into the house, the screen over the vent outlet was completely blocked up with lint. A stupid design, really, as there was no way to easily remove the screen for cleaning. I ended up permanently removing the screen so the vent pipe is open to the outside. I've only had one "critter" find it's way in that way. A bird LONG ago got in there and made it's way all the way to the dryer end of the vent. I wondered why my cat was always so fascinated with the dryer. When I took the vent apart to clean it out, I found the lint encrusted, dried bird. The outside vent is metal and is "stuccoed in" so it can't easily be removed or replaced so I just live with it as is. | ||
| Post# 1148718 , Reply# 6 5/14/2022 at 18:38 (705 days old) by mark_wpduet (Lexington KY) | ||
for those of you lucky enough to live in a house where the your vent is on an outside wall..I'm happy for you...Try living in a house where the dryer vents through the roof...and the roof cap is at almost the very TOP of the roof of a very steep pitch. And this house was built in 2004.
I've said this before on here..Years ago I read a post on garden forum trying to find solutions about dryer vents getting clogged that vent through the roof. A lady responded and she said they lived in a condo and they had the same awful problem as mine...she said they use a nylon paint strainer and put it into the piece that connects the back of the dryer to the wall (sort of like lining a trash can bag)..I've been doing this for at least 7 or 8 years now..But my dryer is easy for me to get behind and it doesn't push right up against the wall..the piece that connects from wall to back of dryer pops off/on easily but is secure, I take the paint strainer that catches all the lint...vacuum it, put it back (takes me maybe a total of 5 min's) I do this after every 4 loads. The entire vent run has stayed clean for years. Clothes dry pretty fast..The first thing I said to the lady on the blog was...don't you worry about a fire? She said she was more worried about lint build up causing a fire than a paint strainer..I bought a pack of (5) 1 gallon paint strainers years ago and I think I'm on my third one.. Keep in mind I'm the only one doing the laundry and I'm careful about always keeping it clean. Having to do this is ridiculous but it's much better than dealing with an entire vent run clogged with lint and a roof cap that can't be accessed. I can't even believe any code allows a dryer be vented through the roof. Oh Oh...and get this...when I first realized my whole vent run was clogging was about 6 mos after living here...I thought it was my dryer..two guys showed up to fix it and said my vent was probably clogged..they told me to have someone clean the dryer vent run...they started to leave and came back...I think as they were backing out of the driveway one of them decided to get up on the roof to check...I said ok...he got up there and said that not only was it clogged, but they didn't even have a proper dryer vent roof cap up there..that the builder put a bathroom exhaust cap..Got that replaced for FREE..but it doesn't even matter if you have a proper dryer roof cap...
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Post# 1148725 , Reply# 7 5/14/2022 at 20:18 (705 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Clothes dryer venting Dryer vents can cause a lot of problems with dryer performance, and extend drying time and cause the dryer to wear out much faster.
It’s actually very little fire risk with modern dryers even with bad vents.
The two warning signs people should be concerned about with any clothes dryer is if the dryer is gotten extremely noisy or if it’s taking two or three times as long to dry clothing the dryer needs to be repaired maybe the vent needs to be cleaned.
The lint in the pipes itself does not cause fires in the vent tubing lint will not burn in the vent pipe. Having a dryer vent go through the roof is no l worse than a long horizontal vent in fact it’s actually better to go straight up.
It’s obviously better to have a short vent going through a wall with a minimum amount of tubing.
If a dryer vent goes through an attic or a crawlspace the outside of the pipe must be insulated with at least a couple inches of fiberglass insulation. A vent through an attic or wall or crawlspace should never be anything but rigid metal pipe no flex metal.
I would not recommend putting any type of filter in the exhaust line unless it’s a large filter with a large filtering area, it just causes too much air restriction.
The Best thing to do if you want to keep the vent clean is to not clean the lint filter so often only clean it every 2,3 or4 loads once you have a fine layer of lint on the filter it. filters to and three times better than it does when it’s clean.
John L | ||
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Post# 1148737 , Reply# 8 5/14/2022 at 23:05 (705 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Being so frigid in the winter here and having experienced frozen laundry in my dryer once with an outside vent. Since I have a window beside my dryer and now I put the vent out the window with a board covering the rest of the window when on. An extra step but no cold air ever is entering the house when the dryer is not in use.
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| Post# 1148747 , Reply# 9 5/15/2022 at 10:01 (705 days old) by iej (.... ) | ||
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I’ve been petty happy with my Miele heat pump dryer so far. Seems to be the way forward as a technology for drying. Some of the earlier ones weren’t great but it’s maturing as a tech. | ||
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Post# 1148748 , Reply# 10 5/15/2022 at 11:56 (704 days old) by ozzie908 (Lincoln UK) |
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@iej | ||
| Post# 1148765 , Reply# 11 5/15/2022 at 15:13 (704 days old) by iej (.... ) | ||
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Yeah, the Miele has been impressive. I’ve had it since 2017 and its energy use is excellent and the results are as good as I was getting with a vented Miele at tiny fraction of the running costs. It’s extremely gentle too. I could trust it with very shrink prone t-shirts. | ||
| Post# 1148773 , Reply# 12 5/15/2022 at 16:18 (704 days old) by Maytag85 (Sean A806) | ||
Once upon a time Frigidaire made condenser dryers back in the 50’s and 60’s here in the US, reason why they probably went away was they got quite hot when drying, and didn’t do too well in warmer climates like the southwest. Gas and electric vented dryers with 37,000 btu burners and 8000 watt elements would run circles around Frigidaire condenser dryers and certainly run circles around modern heat pump and condenser dryers.
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Post# 1148776 , Reply# 13 5/15/2022 at 16:27 (704 days old) by ozzie908 (Lincoln UK) |
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@maytag85
I think you may want to see what it costs these days to run an 8000 Watt dryer its why vented dryers over here are dying out as they just cost too much to run. With todays increases in energy bills I like a heat pump dryer as its gentle you dry anything in it and I manage to keep my bills down to a more manageable level as line drying is not guaranteed ... Oh and I do have a Huebsch gas dryer thats quite a few years old which I do use in the winter as it dries larger loads quickly, But it lives in the shed and depending on the weather I don't go down there.
Austin | ||
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Post# 1148777 , Reply# 14 5/15/2022 at 16:31 (704 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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My AEG condenser dryer is basically useless good part of year.
NYC weather from about late spring through summer and into autumn is either moist and damp, or warm (hot even) and muggy. Either way not sort of weather indoors conducive to running a condenser dryer. Another member who long since stopped posting would run his AC during warmer weather which solved those issues. Just prefer to use the Whirlpool vented dryer instead. Our home economics lab at school had a matched washer and dryer set. Cannot recall brand name but dryer was water cooled condenser. Was fascinated by the thing since had never heard of much less seen such a dryer. Mother and everyone else one knew had big old gas heated vented dryers. Home eco teacher lamented having to use said dryer during water shortages, but she didn't have a choice. Way school was built home eco lab didn't have access to an outer facing wall where W&D could be installed. It's been years but wonder if that set is still there... Over years have let several Miele heat pump dryers pass without even taking a nibble. Just don't see the point really. Do not dry many loads via machine aside from towels and some personal garments. Dress shirts along with bed or table linens are ironed either by hand on on one of my ironers. | ||
| Post# 1148785 , Reply# 15 5/15/2022 at 17:58 (704 days old) by Maytag85 (Sean A806) | ||
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Reply #13
When I am referring to dryers with 37,000 btu burners and 8000 watt elements, I am referring to Whirlpool/Kenmore gas and electric dryers made from the mid 50’s to early 60’s just like the Frigidaire Filtrator dryers. A majority of gas and electric dryers from about the mid 60’s and on have been 22,000 btus and 5600 watts and that’s what most dryers are today.
Heat pump along with condenser dryers may cost less to run that a 5600 watt electric dryer but still aren’t as cheap to use as a gas dryer. Gas dryers are probably the cheapest dryers to run since they at most will only pull 500 watts which is used to turn the drive motor along with the igniter, gas valve coils, timer or control board. | ||
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Post# 1148786 , Reply# 16 5/15/2022 at 18:33 (704 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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