A Drier Dryer

When we got our inspection report back on the house one of the things that was mentioned was that the dryer vented into the attic and that was bad. When I looked at where the dryer and the vent hole were I realized that the reason in vented into the attic was because if it went straight out the wall it would vent inside the house. We hooked the dryer up to the vent hole and the dryer took a super long time to dry any clothes. I did a little research online and found out that every dryer has a stated length that it can vent. I had no idea. If the vent hose is too long the moist air makes the dryer very inefficient and can really impact how long it takes to dry clothes. It turns out that having a dryer in a place to where it cannot easily vent to the outside is not unheard of. Then I found out a lot of other things. Those flexible hoses. Those are bad. They catch lint. There are some 20 deaths a year from dryer lint fires. I also found a couple of sites where the dryer was vented into the attic, but hose would terminate out the roof. Then I found an inline fan that would boost the air and lint out of the hose and supposedly out of the house. This isn’t completely standard stuff. I found some sites where the commentators claimed that an inline fan was strictly against building codes and the guy at home depot had never heard of them. But the guy at home depot reccommended a flexible hose and said we had to move the dryer so it would vent to the outside. I didn’t know who to believe. I went up into the attic to see what was going on and here is what I found.

I found the dryer hose just laying on the attic floor like the inspector had said. I also saw the fan that was in the laundry room venting up and out the roof. Now this was a change from the original build. For whatever reason the dryer vent used to be in another location and I found that.

 

This seems like a professional job because it is smooth pipe and vents out the roof. The wiring next to the old dryer vent seems like a hack job. I believe that the wiring was installed after the house was built for lighting that was added in the living room. You can see where the laundry room van and the dryer vent come together to exit the roof. Now I will have to reroute that dryer vent about 3 feet to attach to the new dryer vent. But because of what I read I am going to add an inline dryer fan that will boost the airflow and take care of the lint. The proof will be in how much lint gathers at the back of the dryer and how fast the clothes dry. I am also going to have to add an outlet in the attic where I can plug in the dryer fan.

This is the inline dryer fan booster that I bought through Amazon. It is not cheap, $250. They have a pretty compelling video that shows how they not only boost the air, but eat all the lint. The other options would require more diligence in cleaning out the ducts. I had never heard that cleaning out the dryer duct was something that should be done reguarly if not at least once a year. More information on this dryer booster can be found by searching their name which is the Lint Buster.

So finallay here is what we do now until I get this installed. The dryer just vents into the laundry room. This turns the room into a sauna. It is the only way to get the clothes dry in a reasonable time now. The garage door is open to try and help, but now that the temperatures are getting into the 90s I need to get this installed sooner rather than later.

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