Situation is, the dryer is in the kitchen and there is no vent to the outside – simple enough?
However, this is on the way interior of a condo unit, built in the shell of an old school- rough granite block exterior walls 12″-18″ thick + there are no units vented through the side – every units exhaust fans go through roof.
It looks as if the dryer vent was omitted form the plans in the first place. There was a cheap bath exhaust fan in the ceiling of the washer closet/pantry, but when when we opened it up, the fan was gone and the 3″ flex duct completely clogged with lint. Possible, but I doubt that the 3″ line was originally a dryer duct converted to fan. Without being able to see that far, the duct could have terminated between the floors… IN any situation, it would be prohibitively expensive to run a new duct with a boost almost 50′ vertical feet +the horizontal run.
Owner has a cheapy “lint trap” attached to the dryer exhaust – she lives alone so while it is not an ideal situation, it could be alot worse in terms of moisture and dust.
Anyone have a lead on a better lint trap?
Replies
In my experience Vents are the biggest challenge in converting old buildings for reuse...
there is no good way to Not vent a dryer... around here even on very high end units they often go with common laundry rooms on each floor for this very reason...
On my condo project it was the most challenging and most inspected/questioned issue...(all venting)
the option is a non venting washer dryer unit that extracts a high percentage of the water.. (they sound like a jet engine winding up) they extract at very high rpm... then pump the water out...
Your issue is not the lint.. that can always be trapped/filtered and the bigger the surface area the better... but they need to be cleaned after each use... which no one does which then results in back pressure and leaks and longer dry times..
the issue is moisture... how do you dump pounds of water into a closed space... I'm guessing they would run the bath ceiling fan at the same time as the dryer try'n to expel the moisture via the bath fan... which would explain the lint in the vent pipe
the only way is to vent it to the outside... somehow some way...
p
Had the same problem in a Manhattan highrise. They make a waterbucket trap that works OK. Not as good as direct venting but better than a place full of lint.
I saw those at HD and the instructions said only for electric dryers.http://dallasmartin.shutterfly.com
That's great news because it's an electric dryer. :-)
Seriously I didn't see a mention of a gas dryer in his post.
Edited 11/28/2009 5:22 pm ET by RobWes
I don't know if it was mentioned. If it was I missed it.http://dallasmartin.shutterfly.com
Here's a lik to what Ponytl is talking about:
http://askomidwest.com/
Kind of a glorified dehumidifier, I guess. But no vent needed.
I think they're more energy efficient than conventional dryers, but am not certain.
I looked into a condensing dryer for a customer who wanted to install it in a commercial building. We decided that based on up-front cost and operating cost (they consume less power, but for a much longer period), we were better off taking the extra trouble to vent through the roof.
In hindsight, it was relatively easy to vent through the roof. We were thinking about avoiding it because we thought we had no way to get up there. But then, my customer realized that he had a skylight that was removable and we accessed the roof that way.
Who paid off the inspector when the place was built?
Hopefully it isn't a gas dryer.
I have seen people use something that looks like a nylon stocking as a lint trap... don't know if it was something bought/made for the job or if it was an actual stocking.
The dryer exhaust really needs to go outdoors.
No, no gas in the building. The building was done in '92. Agree it should go outside, but it is kind of late now...
Back in the 70s when we were talking about squeezing every drop of energy out of your KWH dollar they said you should put an old nylon stocking on the dryer vent hose. In the winter you were also adding humidity to the house. Obviously in the summer that wasn't a great idea.
My ex-wife did that and ignored it for a year or so. She ended up with a perfectly stuffed pair of panty hose.
I've used the panty hose trick to show people that they really didn't need a new dryer. One load of wet towels dried in a normal cycle is usually all it takes to convince them that just the vent needs cleaned.In my house, I've been able to convince everyone that cleaning the dryer screen trap AFTER EVERY LOAD also makes a huge difference.