Home Repair forum - Cloths dryer vents????

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Cloths dryer vents????

benick

2008-02-19, 8:25 pm

A friend posted this question on another message board and I thought I'd ask
here as well...Thanks for any help...

Clothes Dryer "make-up-air"
After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer will
suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I believe I
read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min, which means that
when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your clothes, they are emptying
the rest of the place of warm air several times over, and pulling air down
the chimney as need be, ruining a fire if you have one going.

I'm hoping that the salt of the earth types on AMG can vector me to dryer
make up air venting kits/designs to solve this problem

Our dryer is in a separate laundry room on the first floor, with a window.
When I know it is running, I open the window a few inches and close the
door, and put a draft stopper across the bottom. I think this helps, but
there must be a better solution.

The wife will not stand for putting the dryer in the garage, so don't offer
up those options. What I need is a convenient kit/design for pulling the air
from the outside directly into the dryer, rather than having it suck air
from the general living area.

Any ideas or information?

Thanks

hallerb@aol.com

2008-02-19, 8:25 pm

On Feb 19, 7:43=EF=BF=BDpm, "benick" <ben...@fairpoint.net> wrote:
> A friend posted this question on another message board and I thought I'd a=
sk
> here as well...Thanks for any help...
>
> Clothes Dryer "make-up-air"
> After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer will
> suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I believe I=

> read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min, which means that
> when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your clothes, they are emptying
> the rest of the place of warm air several times over, and pulling air down=

> the chimney as need be, ruining a fire if you have one going.
>
> I'm hoping that the salt of the earth types on AMG can vector me to dryer
> make up air venting kits/designs to solve this problem
>
> Our dryer is in a separate laundry room on the first floor, with a window.=

> When I know it is running, I open the window a few inches and close the
> door, and put a draft stopper across the bottom. I think this helps, but
> there must be a better solution.
>
> The wife will not stand for putting the dryer in the garage, so don't offe=
r
> up those options. What I need is a convenient kit/design for pulling the a=
ir
> from the outside directly into the dryer, rather than having it suck air
> from the general living area.
>
> Any ideas or information?
>
> Thanks

hey theres a energy waster i havent seen addressed.

perhaps incoming air at zero degrees might use much more energy to get
it to drying temp?

other devices like a furnace extract the heat, wheres a dryer uses the
heat directly in the air stream

Calab

2008-02-19, 8:25 pm

"benick" <benick@fairpoint.net> wrote in message
news:yKWdnZCjH9tK6ibanZ2dnUVZ_o6knZ2d@neonova.net...
>A friend posted this question on another message board and I thought I'd
>ask here as well...Thanks for any help...
>
>
> Clothes Dryer "make-up-air"
> After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer will
> suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I believe I
> read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min, which means that
> when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your clothes, they are emptying
> the rest of the place of warm air several times over, and pulling air down
> the chimney as need be, ruining a fire if you have one going.

Build a heat exchanger, so any incoming air is routed around the outside of
the dryer pipe to pick up heat. Just be sure to compensate for condensation
in the dryer pipe.

Chris Lewis

2008-02-19, 8:25 pm

According to benick <benick@fairpoint.net>:

> The wife will not stand for putting the dryer in the garage, so don't offer
> up those options. What I need is a convenient kit/design for pulling the air
> from the outside directly into the dryer, rather than having it suck air
> from the general living area.

You can always simply run an air vent to the dryer in approximately
the right place, and it will help somewhat. But, it'll probably be
a net power loss (air flow when unit off).

There are heat exchangers designed for dryers. The dryer exhaust is
sent out of the house thru something that preheats incoming air from the
exhaust heat.

These are in concept the same things as HRVs (heat recovery
ventilators) used to provide positive air circulation in a house
without dumping too much furnace heat. HOWEVER, standard HRVs can't
tolerate the lint volumes and will plug themselves in no time flat.

The ones designed for clothes dryers are somewhat more complicated
(rotating drum lint traps etc), and are very seldom appropriate for
anything short of commercial laundrymats. They're not cheap at all.
Like $3k or more.

There are methods by which you can run the exhaust of dryers
(electric ONLY!) thru a water trap to capture the lint, and meanwhile
keep the air indoors. They work, but can be more trouble
than they're worth.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

HeyBub

2008-02-19, 8:25 pm

benick wrote:
> A friend posted this question on another message board and I thought
> I'd ask here as well...Thanks for any help...
>
>
> Clothes Dryer "make-up-air"
> After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer
> will suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I
> believe I read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min,
> which means that when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your
> clothes, they are emptying the rest of the place of warm air several
> times over, and pulling air down the chimney as need be, ruining a
> fire if you have one going.
> I'm hoping that the salt of the earth types on AMG can vector me to
> dryer make up air venting kits/designs to solve this problem
>
> Our dryer is in a separate laundry room on the first floor, with a
> window. When I know it is running, I open the window a few inches and
> close the door, and put a draft stopper across the bottom. I think
> this helps, but there must be a better solution.
>
> The wife will not stand for putting the dryer in the garage, so don't
> offer up those options. What I need is a convenient kit/design for
> pulling the air from the outside directly into the dryer, rather than
> having it suck air from the general living area.
>
> Any ideas or information?
>

1. Clothesline.

2. I've got a dryer exhaust valve on mine. One position of the flap and the
dryer vent air goes outside. Turn it the other way and it exhausts into the
house.

aemeijers

2008-02-19, 9:25 pm

HeyBub wrote:
> benick wrote:
>
> 1. Clothesline.
>
> 2. I've got a dryer exhaust valve on mine. One position of the flap and the
> dryer vent air goes outside. Turn it the other way and it exhausts into the
> house.
>
>
>
Do you have a lint trap on the in-house exhaust? (like one of those
water-bucket things?) If not, you aren't doing your lungs or your
furnace any favors. Depending on the clothes being dried, you could be
spiking the dust and microfiber count in your inside air bigtime.

aem sends...

Edwin Pawlowski

2008-02-19, 9:25 pm

"benick" <benick@fairpoint.net> wrote in message
> After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer will
> suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I believe I
> read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min, which means that
> when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your clothes, they are emptying
> the rest of the place of warm air several times over, and pulling air down
> the chimney as need be, ruining a fire if you have one going.

First off, the 500 cfm is bogus.
http://www.whirlpool.com/assets/pdf...I/W10100920.pdf
Venting systems for Whirlpool dryers must meet the following

requirements:

¦ The capacity to handle 200 CFM of air for each dryer in the

system.

¦ A back pressure of 0.0" (0 cm) to 0.6" (1.5 cm) of water

column when measured at the connection to the dryer.

From my observations of years of having a dryer, there is not all that much
air sucked out and it has never changed the fire one flicker worth. Try it
out before you go to drastic lengths to solve what is a non-problem.

gfretwell@aol.com

2008-02-20, 3:25 am

On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:43:56 -0500, "benick" <benick@fairpoint.net>
wrote:

>A friend posted this question on another message board and I thought I'd ask
>here as well...Thanks for any help...
>
>
>Clothes Dryer "make-up-air"
>After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer will
>suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I believe I
>read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min, which means that
>when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your clothes, they are emptying
>the rest of the place of warm air several times over, and pulling air down
>the chimney as need be, ruining a fire if you have one going.
>
>I'm hoping that the salt of the earth types on AMG can vector me to dryer
>make up air venting kits/designs to solve this problem
>
>Our dryer is in a separate laundry room on the first floor, with a window.
>When I know it is running, I open the window a few inches and close the
>door, and put a draft stopper across the bottom. I think this helps, but
>there must be a better solution.
>
>The wife will not stand for putting the dryer in the garage, so don't offer
>up those options. What I need is a convenient kit/design for pulling the air
>from the outside directly into the dryer, rather than having it suck air
>from the general living area.
>
>Any ideas or information?
>
>Thanks
>

Way back in the Carter administration when we were savng the world
they said you should put a nylon stocking over the vent pipe to trap
the lint and exhaust it into the house. This brought up the humidity
(good in winter) and saved the heat.
I think a few fires made this less popular ... people never changed
the stocking.
This is actually a bigger problem in the summer than the winter since
you are going to have to heat the air in the dryer anyway (the
thermostat is in the output pipe). When the A/C is on you are pumping
the air you cooled into the dryer and sending it outside, pulling more
hot air in you have to cool.

HeyBub

2008-02-20, 9:26 am

aemeijers wrote:
> Do you have a lint trap on the in-house exhaust? (like one of those
> water-bucket things?) If not, you aren't doing your lungs or your
> furnace any favors. Depending on the clothes being dried, you could be
> spiking the dust and microfiber count in your inside air bigtime.
>

Yes. There's a little screen over the hole. Have to clean it every two or
three loads.

As for spiking the dust and microfiber count, you may be right.

I don't care.

Worry about things like that are for pussies.

Blattus Slafaly £ ¥ 0/00 :)

2008-02-20, 9:26 am

benick wrote:
> A friend posted this question on another message board and I thought I'd ask
> here as well...Thanks for any help...
>
>
> Clothes Dryer "make-up-air"
> After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer will
> suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I believe I
> read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min, which means that
> when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your clothes, they are emptying
> the rest of the place of warm air several times over, and pulling air down
> the chimney as need be, ruining a fire if you have one going.
>
> I'm hoping that the salt of the earth types on AMG can vector me to dryer
> make up air venting kits/designs to solve this problem
>
> Our dryer is in a separate laundry room on the first floor, with a window.
> When I know it is running, I open the window a few inches and close the
> door, and put a draft stopper across the bottom. I think this helps, but
> there must be a better solution.
>
> The wife will not stand for putting the dryer in the garage, so don't offer
> up those options. What I need is a convenient kit/design for pulling the air
> from the outside directly into the dryer, rather than having it suck air
> from the general living area.
>
> Any ideas or information?
>
> Thanks
>
>
Install another 4" dryer vent through the wall but put the louvers on
the inside behind the dryer. If any vacuum is produced in the room or
house, the louvers will open and let in outside air which will be
indirectly sucked into the dryer inlet. There will be some mixing with
room air so it won't be so cold. I also let some of the heat exhaust
blow into the house which helps with the low humidity winter air. Some
people put a nylon hosiery on the end of the pipe to catch the lint and
let it blow into the house in the winter.

--
Blattus Slafaly ? 3

7/8

CDET 14

2008-02-20, 9:26 am

On Feb 19, 6:43=A0pm, "benick" <ben...@fairpoint.net> wrote:
> A friend posted this question on another message board and I thought I'd a=
sk
> here as well...Thanks for any help...
>
> Clothes Dryer "make-up-air"
> After reading about it, I have come to realize that a clothes dryer will
> suck the warm air out of your living area in very short order. I believe I=

> read the internal fans are in the range of 500 ft3/min, which means that
> when they run for 45 minutes or so to dry your clothes, they are emptying
> the rest of the place of warm air several times over, and pulling air down=

> the chimney as need be, ruining a fire if you have one going.
>
> I'm hoping that the salt of the earth types on AMG can vector me to dryer
> make up air venting kits/designs to solve this problem
>
> Our dryer is in a separate laundry room on the first floor, with a window.=

> When I know it is running, I open the window a few inches and close the
> door, and put a draft stopper across the bottom. I think this helps, but
> there must be a better solution.
>
> The wife will not stand for putting the dryer in the garage, so don't offe=
r
> up those options. What I need is a convenient kit/design for pulling the a=
ir
> from the outside directly into the dryer, rather than having it suck air
> from the general living area.
>
> Any ideas or information?
>
> Thanks

What's wrong with opening the window?
You need 100 cubic inches of opening for the make-up air to be
sufficient.

Alisa LeSueur
Certified Dryer Exhaust Technician
http://CleanYourOwnDryerVent.com

LinkBot