Do you have any experience in venting a dryer in my situation? This is a real challenge.
My laundry room is located in the lower level of my house, under the front porch. The room would make a great fall-out shelter for there are no windows. The walls are made of concrete block. The north, long wall is completely beneath the ground (no venting possibilities there). The short east wall is against the back end of the garage side wall (this wouldn’t be a good idea, either for it would have to be vented the same length). The short west wall is against earth (impossible). Because of this, I can understand why the builder placed the vending on the south, long wall, which is on the other side of a guest bathroom and hallway.
Problem is, the vent pipe is hidden in the ceiling and is 22 feet long. It is located above the guest bath and family room, and it vents outside (on the walkout side of the house, above the back porch). We were using this original set up until recently when my dryer was not drying the clothes properly. I checked the pipe attached to the dryer and it was almost completely clogged with sopping wet lint–tons of it. I cleaned out the whole pipe that led from the dryer to the vent pipe. I did not even attempt cleaning the vent that leads all the way outside. I imagine it is also choked full of damp lint.
Meanwhile, I bought a temporary kit-a plastic box that I am supposed to keep filled with water and keep the dryer pipe attached to it. If I let the water level go too low, the room fills with too much lint. This whole situation is not too healthy, for lint floats around anyway.
Is there a better way? I think 22 feet to the outside is just too far to vent lint properly, but what is the alternative? I would appreciated any ideas. (No, I can’t buy another house right now.)
Replies
They have new dryers that are designed for long runs and 30' wasn't a problem, GE makes some of them. Price is around $400-$500, depending on the model. Not all of their models are designed for long runs
Here's one, cuts copy and paste it in your address bar
http://products.geappliances.com/ProdContent/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SKUSPECSHEET&SKU=DLSR483GEWW&MASK=Approved%20Models_SalesNet_CustomerNet_Consumer%20Ready
Thanks, Migraine, for the link to a good dryer. I'll keep the link in my favorites until time to get a new dryer. (BTW, I get pretty bad migraines, no joke.)
You can get dryer vent booster fans so that the dryer will work with the existing vent. That is assuming that the venting was isntalled correctly (male/female connections in the right direction, no screws penatrating the duct).
There are also condensing clothes dryers available that don't need a vent.
They are not common nor cheap.
Thank you, Bill,
That is reassuring. I'll have to remove some warped boards to get to the duct. What is the best thing to use to clean 22 feet of ductwork? After it is clean I'll check if it was installed correctly.
A googel on - dryer vent cleaning brush - will find brushes. Usually from the same people that sell chimmery cleaning brushes.Also I thing that 2 1/2 hose on a shop vac might work along with electricans fish tape or plumbers snake. Something to help break of the packed material.Probably need to work from both ends.
What about chimney cleaner's brushes? They should have enough extensions to reach.BTW, we installed the Bosch condensing dryer and matching front load washer. At 1400 rpm the washer really wrings the water out. All in all, it works really well. The condensing dryer adds about $300 to the cost. But I don't want to cause any migranes telling you the total...
Just thinking of the price of new high end appliances is painful.
Yep! Good idea. I like the cheaper method. I'll rig up something with the the shop vac. Also, I could use a painter's pole and screw on a mop.
When we built our house 15 years ago, my builder told me that to keep from having to vent the dryer on the front of the house near the entry, he would have to make a run of about 20 feet to the side of the house and that I sould take that into account when buying a dryer. From day one, the dryer took way too long to dry a load of clothes. In the case of a load of turkish towels, up to four hours. I pulled the vent pipe frequently and cleaned a small amount of lint from the pipe, checked all the filters, and was basically mistified. I verified for the manufacturer that the pipe was a four inch metal type, which was specified. After much grouseing by wife, I finally relocated the pipe to the front of the house behind the rose bed. The same load of turkish towels now takes about 40 minutes.
The bottom line is that although everything was built to specs, the dryer simply did not have the guts to push heavy moisture laden air that far with any amout of efficiency. If you have to make a run that long, absolutely use a mid-pipe booster fan built for that purpose. The manufacturer rep on the phone pointed out that they never claimed that it would be efficient to push the air that far, even if the dryer would eventually do it.
buyer be ware.....
Did you say use a mid-pipe booster fan ? Does that mean installing it halfway down the very narrow duct?
I'll have to look at the difficult option of option of running duct through the cinder block to the back of the garage and up and out front. It would be more efficient as it would be the same amount of elbows as now, but a shorter distance (a devil of a job though).
Please tell me this is an electric dryer
Don't be venting a gas dryer like that.
Could be lethal.
You don't mention if this is rigid pipe, I assume it is
by the fact you were able to clean it out.
How many elboes do you have att. to this 22'
You need to add approx. 5' per elbow.
If you can't shorten the vent run by going out your porch
the alt. would be to make this a monthly mant.
item and clean regulary and maybe add a vent booster.
Don't you worry. It is electric.
The aluminum vent hose coming from the dryer has one elbow, then the hose goes four feet over and six feet up into the opening. As far as I know there is only one hidden elbow inside the wall which leads to the long duct work. In other words, the duct is a straight 22 1/2 ' except for the entrance to the duct, where there is, hopefully just one elbow.
To reiterate what others have said:
First, length is not necessarily a problem IF you have solid (not flexible) ducting and IF you minimize the number of elbows (my father in law always said that 4 elbows = a block).
Second, it sounds like too much lint is getting past your dryer's filter - is it intact, properly installed and cleaned after every use? Do you know if both dryer heating elements are working? A dryer limping on one element will take forever to dry.
Finally, after addressing the above, consider getting a front loading or high efficiency washer - they wring more water out of the clothes and make the dryer's job easier.
Bill.
thanks, Bill.
I like the idea of a washer that wrings out more water. This one certainly does not.
The dryer works pretty well, now that I cleaned out the choked up vent and dryer and attached the awful interior water box (it really does work as far as allowing the dryer to to an ok job, but there is too much flying lint). We always clean out the filter. I believe it is blocked up in the elbow that leads to the vent. I'll see for sure when I tear it apart. It will be nice when everything is all back together with a new booster fan.
Your laundry room is under the front porch?
What material is the porch? How does it act as a roof over the room below? Is the porch large enough to completely cover the laundry room? Is the venting wall common with the front wall of the house? Is the house frame or block? How far off the ground is the porch deck? Got photos??
One of the sides of the porch is not the street side and porch decks are not usually flush with the ground. Do you have enough deck height to run the duct to the underside of the porch deck and then out to that side?
Can you penetrate the porch deck from below, assuming the deck is under cover, and build a small chase near the outer edge next to the house wall to conceal the duct for a very short run to the side? Disguise the chase as a planter or a permanent bench on the porch.
I live in a rancher with a ground level front porch, made of concrete. The ceiling of the laundry room, which is similar in shape the porch above, is covered with nice-looking, continuous ceiling tile (meaning, I cannot easily pull one down to do anything without messing up the whole look). However, I believe if I were to remove the ceiling I would see bottom of the concrete (the porch).
I didn't realize, until I read your post that, not only the front and the west side but the east side may be against earth, rather than the back part of the garage. This I will have to investigate further. If so, then I could cut through and vent along the east side. If that could be done, I wonder why they didn't do that when the house was built. The venting distance would be so much shorter and more efficient.
Maybe the answer is there are already two pipes near that area for oil filling and venting coming from the ground nearby (about six feet away)?
It would be a pain to do, but I could go through the earth and drill in on the north side. It would be major, bringing electricity to that side (the ceiling is in good shape and do not want to touch it), too. Right now the dryer is on the other side of the room (south side wall), llined up neatly beside the washer, then sink. But leaving it where it is now would mean venting crossing the room-that would shorten the room height (not good).
> it was almost completely clogged with sopping wet lint--
Good thing it was wet. The cruise ship "Ecstasy" fire was caused by a long run full of dry lint. At the very least, you need to re-design this to add a booster fan and make access easy for regular cleaning. If you ever feel like putting of the cleaning chore, burn a little lint. If it's dry and fluffy enough, that can be the inspiration you need. ;-)
-- J.S.
True. I hope two sides is enough.
I might add that dryer duct should never be installed such that it can't be accessed from several points for cleaning.