PSA: Dryer Vent Safety

[ellyssian]

This PSA is brought to you by nhmetalchick and the letter bee...

• The modern house designers and builders are morons. Refer back to this point often - you're very likely to have situations that break most, if not all, of the four design specs that follow and make the last point difficult.


• Dryer venting needs to be very short - enough to get up to ground level (if below ground) and out. Shorter is safer. Ours is about 20 feet or more, twice the recommended maximum


• Site dryers against an outer wall. Ours is nice and cosy, dead center, hence the 20' vent


• Dryer venting needs to be made of metal - those old vinyl hoses don't cut it. Ours is a heavy pipe, which is not ideal, but given the location, retrofitting something else would be very expensive.


• Dryer venting needs as few twists and turns as possible. Aim for none. Flexible metal hose is sometimes necessary, but not desirable. Ours goes through a short run of flexible metal hose to the aforementioned pipe, which has a couple serious contortions before a long straight run.


• Clean your dryer vent at least once a month, whether it needs it or not. Unless you don't use the dryer, or, perhaps, if you run it without any fabric-based items inside it, it will need it.

The lint trap on the drier catches only a small portion of the lint from each load of laundry. The rest goes out the vent. It is moist, and clings to the walls of the smoothest pipe - the flexible hoses will catch obscene amounts of the stuff. Animals like mice like to nest in vents - cages on the vent exit will prevent some from entering; automatically opening and closing doors will prevent others.

If the vent is ideal (a straight metal pipe about a foot long), you can clean it with a simple brush. If not, I recommend something like the LintEater System and Extension kit - which happens to be exactly what we use. It attaches to any drill and, combined with a vacuum or the dryer itself will make relatively easy work out of the job.

A couple of caveats: when you're spinning a long set of extension rods in or out of the vent, do not let them touch vegetation. The stuff will get tangled quickly, and, in addition to getting yanked out by the roots and leaving bare spots, it is a pain to clear off and cut free. The kit comes with a guard for the dryer to protect the blower from the brush so you can leave the dryer in place and not ruin the motor by jamming the brush into it. In my experience, this provides a very efficient lint trap which will plug up your venting in about, oh, three weeks. Completely plugged up. Which is what you're trying to avoid - I would advise not using it and doing the extra work to unhook the drier and use a vacuum (we use a cheap, under-powered shop vac and it does the job quite well.)

EDIT: added the ideas and energy tags to help track the discussion silme brought up about condenser dryers

Comments

[wisedonkey.livejournal.com]

Yet another win for raised foundations (assuming no basement).

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

thanks for the info. I thought cleaning the trap regularly would be enough. guess not.

[nhmetalchick.livejournal.com]

I should of also added in the post that the bees nest was in the actual vent thats attached to the house, they didn't make their way into the actual hose part, just sitting pretty right where the hose meets the outside vent. Our hose is only about 3 1/2 feet long!!! So just a simple yet careful check of your outside vent on your house to check for something should be sufficient. Also, just another litta PSA, another mom from Jess's football team was telling me she had a BIRDS NEST in hers! Yup, same thing, she had a fire.

[silme.livejournal.com]

We have a condenser dryer, so no more need for a dryer vent! :)

I really wish I'd had one of these in dry, dry Colorado. It would have made more sense there, what with the dry climate. But here it's good since it would be a pain to vent our dryer where it's located.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Interesting. They're still not used over here in the US - found some good information on them here (more for my reference and that of anyone else in a technological backwater... =)

[silme.livejournal.com]

They really should be used in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, etc. You know, all those arid states with mountains. :)

What I have to do is remember to clean out the condenser every so often. The water goes on plants.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I think a combination one - that could use both air and water cooling could - and should - be well integrated in the ideal new home.

I would use water cooling in the summer, integrating it completely into the system so that instead of pumping the now-heated once-cold water into the waste system, you feed it into the hot water system. It would gain particular efficiency when used at the same time as a hot-water wash, providing an immediate use for the water; otherwise it would need additional storage that could then feed into the hot water heater in place of cold water.

The air cooling should be integrated directly into the larger HVAC duct system only when it is in heating mode - thus saving a bit of energy on the cost of heating the air.

The actual condensation should be exited to a greywater/recycling system along with the water outflow of the washer.

You would, of course, still have to clean lint out of the mechanism; that is unavoidable, at least with our current fabrics.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Oh, I clean out the lint filter. We have a condenser unit that drains into a pan of sorts, and it needs to be emptied when it is full.

We barely use the heat since it's so warm here. If it goes down to freezing, people here think it's really cold. I think it's finally an acceptable temperature. Yes, I'm nuts. I love cold weather. I abhor heat and humidity. (I was not good in Philly summers pre-A/C. :)

[elaine-today.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the PSA. I try to keep a typed list of household common sense, tips and contact people for reference. This just made my job easier :o). Hadn't thought about the meeces.