I'm having an issue with my dryer vent and where it's being vented to, It's a first floor laundry that vents into the attached garage, no access to an outside wall and can't go up through the second floor to vent. The issue is that it fills the garage area with all kinds of lint and it's getting all over everything, only good thing is that it does put some heat into the garage. Does anyone know of a system that would work to solve this or someone have a DIY project that used to solve a similar issue??
Looking for Suggestions on Dryer Vent Issue.
- Thread starter LFP57
- Start date
I presume it is electric because venting a gas dryer into a garage would not be ideal. I would suggest looking at an indoor dryer vent. Many different ones available at most hardware stores and online like amazon.
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GreensvilleJay
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um, you have a garage door...car gets in and out, can't you knock a 4" hole in that wall ?
2 - 45 elbows are better than one 90 elbow. be sure to use metal duct tape on every joint.
whatever the distance use SOLID tin and NOT corrugated plastic flexipipe (accordian, expandable, whtever they call it !
Flexipipe is a HUGE fire hazard..
You can buy 'secondary' lint traps, 6by6by6 box with lint screen which will help. Some use 'water traps', just be sure to keep ADDING water.
2 - 45 elbows are better than one 90 elbow. be sure to use metal duct tape on every joint.
whatever the distance use SOLID tin and NOT corrugated plastic flexipipe (accordian, expandable, whtever they call it !
Flexipipe is a HUGE fire hazard..
You can buy 'secondary' lint traps, 6by6by6 box with lint screen which will help. Some use 'water traps', just be sure to keep ADDING water.
It's a four car attached garage with a portion of the upstairs floor direcctly above the garage wheere the dryer vents., I'd have to go the length of the garage in either direction and up at least eight feet.
Yes, it's electric, I think this would would perfectly, wasn't aware that they made these, thanks.
Might have a gander at the manual for your dryer...
Dryers (gas or electric) need to be vented outdoors at least because the water vapor is generally damaging to buildings.
People are inclined to forget to clean the filter in that plastic crap Amazon doo-dad shown above.
A leg off of your wife's panty hose taped to the end of the vent pipe. When it fills, remove and install a new one. It will catch all the lint. Very effective and very inexpensive.
North Idaho Wolfman
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So the Builder / remodeler really messed up.
I personally wouldn't want all the moisture pumped into my garage!
When I built my house the 2 walls that were up against the back of the dryer and the equipment room are double 2x6 walls.
This didn't create a lot of dead space since they are only about 4 foot each, they allow the dryer vent a direct run outside while still allowing plumbing to follow a normal route.
And on the equipment wall this allowed the horizonal drains to run and the vertical pipes to run without interference.
Inspector called me out on it and I had to explain, after explaining he was impressed as no one does that.
Made installation of everything a breeze, and the dryer vent is super efficient.
I personally wouldn't want all the moisture pumped into my garage!
When I built my house the 2 walls that were up against the back of the dryer and the equipment room are double 2x6 walls.
This didn't create a lot of dead space since they are only about 4 foot each, they allow the dryer vent a direct run outside while still allowing plumbing to follow a normal route.
And on the equipment wall this allowed the horizonal drains to run and the vertical pipes to run without interference.
Inspector called me out on it and I had to explain, after explaining he was impressed as no one does that.
Made installation of everything a breeze, and the dryer vent is super efficient.
That is too restrictive and will cause the flow to slow to a point the lint just drops out of the air in the pipe causing a fire hazzard. Many people that try tricks like that at the minimum have serious smoke damage.
I'm the second owner, the original owner had the house built and you're correct, it was really a bad idea to place the laundry room where it is. Without some major renovation, I'm stuck with what I have and that is to vent into the garage. I may not be able to prevent mosiure going into the garage, but at least, I can stop all of the lint.
Our first house (bi-level) had the laundry that shared a wall with the garage. The wall behind the washer and dryer was the wall that separated the garage from the basement.
On the garage side of the wall we had a 3-way "valve" in the garage with a device similar to the one in a previous post. With gas heat the house was way too dry in Winter, and moisture was never a problem. From that, I ran a 4" PVC up and across the garage and out through the block/brick wall on the end of the house. I maintained a slight slope toward the wall in case of condensate in the exhaust. Never noticed any. That was probably because the 20-some feet of PVC through the garage only carried exhaust in warm weather.
Our neighbor has a setup with old nylons as mentioned above. We've known them for about 35 years and they haven't had any issues.
On the garage side of the wall we had a 3-way "valve" in the garage with a device similar to the one in a previous post. With gas heat the house was way too dry in Winter, and moisture was never a problem. From that, I ran a 4" PVC up and across the garage and out through the block/brick wall on the end of the house. I maintained a slight slope toward the wall in case of condensate in the exhaust. Never noticed any. That was probably because the 20-some feet of PVC through the garage only carried exhaust in warm weather.
Our neighbor has a setup with old nylons as mentioned above. We've known them for about 35 years and they haven't had any issues.
Really should be vented to the outside with metal duct. Have tried to recover the heat and moisture in the winter. Then witnessed several dryer fires nearby. Isn’t worth the risk.
We live in the woods so mice are always a problem. Screens on discharge were a must. Have noticed newer dryers throw more lint and requires vent and screen cleaning more often. Switched to dual door vent over a year ago. Improves air flow, helps keeps vent line cleaner, no screen to clean so saves energy, time, money and safer. So impressed added this to the bathroom fan also. Could tell it improved bathroom ventilation. Seals from outside much better.
We live in the woods so mice are always a problem. Screens on discharge were a must. Have noticed newer dryers throw more lint and requires vent and screen cleaning more often. Switched to dual door vent over a year ago. Improves air flow, helps keeps vent line cleaner, no screen to clean so saves energy, time, money and safer. So impressed added this to the bathroom fan also. Could tell it improved bathroom ventilation. Seals from outside much better.
GreensvilleJay
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re:
I'd have to go the length of the garage in either direction and up at least eight feet.
4 car garage ? 2x2 or 1x4 style ? Either config should be simple to pipe.
I must be missing something,so a picture would be nice but vent is already in garage so running 30-40' parallel to the common wall, then 4" hole to Mother Nature seems the simple,easy,safe,clean proper solution
I'd have to go the length of the garage in either direction and up at least eight feet.
4 car garage ? 2x2 or 1x4 style ? Either config should be simple to pipe.
I must be missing something,so a picture would be nice but vent is already in garage so running 30-40' parallel to the common wall, then 4" hole to Mother Nature seems the simple,easy,safe,clean proper solution
Unless it's at least 16ga and encased in calcium silicate, metal duct may as well be made from tin foil. Never saw a dryer vent fire but it would need to start in the dryer (no heat source anywhere else). If that's the case, the first thing to go would be any ducting that connects to the dryer.
My DILs family had half of their house burn up from a dryer vent fire when she was young. It was because of flexible line. Apparently it sounds like a chimney fire when it took off fueled by lint and pressurized air until the pipe melted. Lint is highly flammable. We save ours to start woodstove fires. I blow my vent out with my m18 blower every once in a while and even with smooth steel pipe a bunch always is blown out.