Kind of a two part question here…
My Dad’s house currently has a dryer that is vented out the roof of a one level ranch in the suburbs of Chicago – straight up from the laundray room, through the attic and out through the shingles. Well the cap on the roof keeps getting clogged and he wants an alternative. He had a guy out that recommended running the vent straight to the garage (which is right next to the laundry room). This is the easiest, least obtrusive run to make. He also recommmended some form of top for a five gallon bucket that the vent hose runs into that catches all of the missed lint. My first question, is anyone familiar with the bucket and lid that this guy is talking about?
Second question, does anyone have any issues with running a dryer vent into the garage?
Replies
you do not want to vent it to the garage... check the weight of a load of wet laundry... then check the weight of the same load AFTER it dries in the dryer...
thats how much water you'd be dumping in the garage...
and the water is just one issue... the lint would be everywhere
now... lots of dryers are vented out the roof without problems...
you need volume of air and as little as you can to slow it down on it's way out... the speed and volume helps to keep the lint in the air stream...
I have a commerical coin-op laundry tenant and all of their vents exit the roof... they flashed the vent pipe with the normal pipe/vent roof flashing brought the pipe aprox 16" past the roof line and then did a 180 (2 90's) no other type cap... i can't see this ever clog'n up
p
I agree, no to venting it in the garage.
You can't vent it thru an outside wall?
The laundry room is smack in the middle of the house- hallway to the north, bedroom to the east, foyer to the west and garage to the south. Any attempt to run the line out the side of the house would either be unsightly or result in way too many bends in the run.
“The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds..” – Hume
Hummm.... that is a novel idea. Dumping the moist dryer exhaust into the garage so that you have a (sometimes) heated garage and a moldy garage - possibly all of the time...
The best place to vent a dryer is out a gable end. The length restrictions on a dryer vent pipe is roughly 25' and is reduced by ~5' for every 90 degree turn and ~2.5' for a 45 degree. And BTW - don't use that cheap plastic flex duct for dryer vents. Use min 4" hard duct or that heavy metal flex duct which actually isn't very flexible.
The existing setup through the roof would work fine if he had a better vent assembly on the roof. Google for "dryer roof vent" or similar. Don't get one with a screen on it. The trick is to get a setup that will keep critters out like birds and squrills, but at the same time, not clog.
Through the floor, through the crawl and out the wall?
It's on a slab, no basement, no crawl. Otherwise that's probably the direction this would have gone.
This is a Del Webb Sun City developement in Huntley, IL. Mass-produced homes. “The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds..” – Hume
I agree that going into the garage is probably bad, but I know of at least one case that it created no problems. The woman did have a leg from panty hose over the end of the run to catch the lint. There were no problems with humidity in the garage. This was one person living in a condo.
On the other hand, last week I cleaned out a dryer vent that was going up into the attic then another 90 to the gable (but a bit far...). The vertical portion of the vent was dense packed with lint...no air had gone through that pipe in quite awhile.
Sometimes maintenance is a good idea.
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
>>The vertical portion of the vent was dense packed with lint...no air had gone through that pipe in quite awhile.<<
Sounds like maybe the lint started building up at the 90? I wonder if 2 45s would have worked better?
"Sounds like maybe the lint started building up at the 90?"Yeah, I think that is the case. There was a lot of lint in the 90 which probably slowed the air flow enough to prevent the lint from even getting up to it after awhile."I wonder if 2 45s would have worked better?"Maybe. Couldn't have been worse.By the way, I cleaned it out using a cobweb brush. Brush fit tightly into the four inch duct and the handle extended. The bristles were a bit on the soft side, so it took a few times through.
Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
Same exact deal here, with a condo I closed on Wednesday, for my daughter. I'm researching booster fans. This might be your best solution, too. No re-routing of the duct.
http://www.fantech.net/dryer_boosting.htm
This outfit looks promising - anyone out there familiar with their line ?
Greg
it will make everything in your garage rust
If it's just the cap that keeps getting clogged, I'd get a different cap. Though it's unsightly, running the pipe up through the roof and into a 135 degree bend will probably result in the least restriction.
Venting into the garage is only reasonable if the dryer is used infrequently, and rarely for back-to-back loads. But it's probably OK given those restrictions, and provided that lint control of some sort is done. (Also, you don't want to store any valuable tools, etc, in the garage.)
You could presumably go up into the attic and over through a gable, though into the garage and along the wall to the outside would be preferred, for shorter distance and avoiding as much vertical climb. If you can't find an alternative that's short enough then the Fantec booster fan is probably the best solution.
And, as was said, never use the flexible duct, especially the plastic stuff.
J,
Our house was built with the dryer vented into the garage. I put up with the lint for about 2 months and that was enough. I just went up the wall in the garage to the ceiling and then out to the side of the garage and out through the wall. The total run is probably about 15' and we have no problem with it getting clogged or anything. I do run a brush through it every year or so, but really do not get much out of it. It has been like that since 1979 with no probems. It does not seem to make any difference in the performance of the dryer.
Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md