EDIT: I’ve attached a rough map of the situation. The laundry room is the little room in the middle. The red dot is where the dryer vents into the garage.
My house is weird. Built mid-1970s. Upper Midwest.
One of the weird/annoying things about my house is the fact that the clothes dryer vent opens up into the house’s attached garage rather than venting outside. This is an electric dryer, so the vent is just hot wet air – nothing like CO or anything.
Ideally, I’d like the dryer to vent to the outside and not turn my garage into a stagnant humid swamp every time I dry clothes (most days, actually, because I have many children). But the laundry room isn’t situated in a way that makes outside venting easy. It’s on the main level, right in the middle of the floorplan. No basement access, so I can’t add ductwork through the floor. No usable ceiling access either.
What options do I have to make this mess annoying? Add venting to the garage somehow?
They’re not without tradeoffs, but ventless dryers (aka heat pump dryers) have made a lot of strides the past few years. They tend to take longer than traditional dryers I believe, but use 30% less electricity overall, and don’t need a vent. There’s an $840 tax credit in the inflation reduction act that covers them, but as far as I can find it hasn’t been rolled out yet.
I have a Miele washer/heat pump dryer combo. From my experience, the dryer is about the same as what I’m used to from a conventional dryer (~45 minutes), but the washer takes a lot longer. As I understand it, the washer does a more thorough spin cycle so the dryer has to do less work.
That said, I have been very happy with mine.
I’ll look into this. I’d prefer to not replace a functioning appliance, but its been a few years since I checked into ventless, so it’s good to know that there is a potential tax credit.
They also make these little boxes that are designed to be attached to the vent on regular vented dryers that can’t actually be vented outdoors through normal means.
https://www.amazon.com/VIWINVELA-Indoor-Bucket-4-Inch-Proflex/dp/B09JZ1N5KB
This looks quite promising. Thanks!
TIL that ventless dryers exist. Interesting, thanks.
That is all we have in France, and I believe in Europe. I have never seen a dryer vent outside of on videos.
They barely exist in the US. Europe is far ahead in this regard. In Europe you won’t even find one of those extremely wasteful vented dryers in most shops.
I did some research on the US market for ventless dryers. The pricing is terrible but if climate matters to you, you will take the hit. One thing that really disturbed me is among the few that are available in the US, only a couple of them is not part of the #internetOfShit. So if you want a dryer that does not connect to the network options are very limited. All the non-discontinued Miele models are “smart”, but this one might be worth a look because it’s 110v and not designed to be on a network. Some Whirlpool ones are wifi-free (this was the biggest one I found but it requires 220v). And indeed it’s hard to find ventless dryers in normal sizes. Most are ½ the size of vented dryers.
(edit)
If you don’t find a suitable ventless dryer, consider putting a dehumidifier in a closet & make that the drying closet. You could perhaps rig up a drain so you don’t have to empty tanks of water.
A floorplan or photos would be helpful if you want a precise answer. Refer to you dryers manual for maximum vent length, but typically you can extend the vent around 25-30ft to get it to an exit point. The roof is an option but less ideal. Typically a gable end of the house is best.
They also make ventless condensing dryers which are in supposed to very efficient but have long drying cycles. I’ve not heard the best reviews on them, but do your own research.
More generally speaking try to limit your dryer use. It just adds wear and tear on your clothes and costs money to use. Hang dry when you can. I personally partially dry and then hang as it makes clothes largely wrinkle free.
More generally speaking try to limit your dryer use. It just adds wear and tear on your clothes and costs money to use. Hang dry when you can.
That’s really the best answer.
Note as well that if air drying is not an option, the ventless dryers are much gentler on clothes than vented dryers because they don’t run at high temps. So clothes last longer.
Slightly more serious thought, what about installing your washer and dryer in the garage, making it a shorter run for ventilation and such?
Seconding this. Ive got both of mine in the garage with a tube running underneath the crawlspace under the kitchen and exhausting out of the back of the house.
My thoughts exactly - Move the washer/dryer, make the laundry room a closet or small office.
Thanks for the suggestion. Not going to work in our situation. At least not for a decade or more when I possibly have more time and money to make that kind of change to layout. (Also the garage is currently at capacity with all of the kid gear out there.)
I’m betting the garage might have originally been a carport. In the short term you could leave the garage door cracked a few inches to vent it. Perhaps set up a box fan in the garage to run while you run the dryer in order to circulate the air. Regardless, you’ll get a mild amount of air mixing through natural convection with the garage door cracked, but a fan would help. Rerouting it will take someone handy or a contractor.
When feasible, I leave the garage door open to help with air flow. I think my garage door opener has the ability to set alternate opening “programs” so maybe I can set one that gives a few inches of opening. That would mitigate most of my concerns with leaving the garage door open.
Do not vent your dryer into your garage, unless you want a fine layer of lint on everything in there. My old house did that and I HATED it.
I’d be more worried about mold than lint.
You’re just not giving us enough info to help you out.
My immediate suggestion as im reading the post would be to extend a vent straight up through the roof of the garage, but then you claim there is no easy way to vent outside.
Without sketches of the layout of the house and/or photos I’m not sure how we can help. Is there a window in the laundry room? Can you set up a flexible vent that goes out there?
I’ve uploaded a rough layout. Straight up is the second floor of the house. No windows in the laundry room.
Now I am even more confused… why can’t you go north from the laundry room? (assuming up is “north” in your picture).
Looks like that image is the dryer itself, right? It is on an outside wall (even if the wall itself has no window). That wouldn’t just be a solution, it would be the preferred solution because you can keeping the ductwork as short as possible (less condensation as the air cools and dew forms on the inside of the vent.
The other option would be a “U” shaped vent which went into the garage as shown with the red dot, and then a 180 degree bend to go out the exterior wall of the garage. 180 degrees is not ideal, but looks like it could be done in a short distance.
Nice hatchwork in the picture, BTW
Oh crap, I can see how lousy my drawing is. I tried to keep it simple but it’s so simple that it’s misleading.
North of this drawing is a whole bunch of additional rooms. It’s not an exterior wall.
Oh! That changes everything. So are there more rooms “north” of the garage? You can’t just add a 90 degree elbow and go through that wall?
Link to a floor plan? Pic of the wall in the garage with the vent?
My parents have a similar setup. They eventually switched to an interior venting system (link is an example only, not necessarily a recommendation).
It condenses the humid air, so you have to empty the reservoir and clean the lint filter after every use, but it’s a lot cheaper than a remodel just to add some ducts to the outside.
Said it replying to someone else, but easiest solution bar none (based on the fairly limited info) is to move the washer and dryer to the garage, and make the laundry room a closet or small office.
Could you replace your existing dryer with a ventless dryer? Then you wouldn’t have to worry about running ventilation - you would instead periodically empty a container of water from the dryer. I’ve been using a ventless dryer for a year or so (my house also has limited options for proper ventilation), and it’s been great so far.
If I had your problem, I think I would look at 3 potential solutions.
1, vent-less dryer is obvious, but pricey 2. heavy duty dehumidifier, a quick amzn search suggests you can get something in the ~$100-$200 range 3. build an enclosure to run the vented air through a container with calcium chloride pellets, this should reduce moisture. maybe couple with #2, the pellets don’t remove moisture, they trap it, so it will evaporate eventually.
A spin dryer can remove a lot of moisture from a load, but they are typically small. Never seen a family sized one, so I wouldn’t recommend that… you’d need 2 or 3 of them for large loads with cottons. If this does appeal use laundry alternative, panda isn’t quite as high a value. I’m single and I only use the spin cause I hang everything, no dresser. only takes 3 mins for ‘mostly dry’ clothes. Some people use clay (cat litter) on thier garage fllor to soak up oil, this would also absorb the moisture, but it will still evaporate over time just like the Calcium Chloride.
A ventless (heat pump) clothes dryer would be the simplest solution. It’s not necessarily the cheapest though.
How about something like a pet door opening in the garage door. Run the vent along the floor of the left side of the garage
so there are rooms to the “north” of the laundry room, but is there anything to the north of the garage?
just punch a hole through the “north” wall of the garage, and run vent duct out that way?
edit: my house is laid out the same and the vent just goes up into the rafter space, and then out one end of the house.
Venting into the garage is going to lead to a very bad time (mold, lint, ect). Honestly, it may be cheaper to just go with a heat pump based dryer. They are far more energy efficient, areeasier onyour clothes, and don’t need a vent at all. Now it’s not all sunshine and roses, they are more expensive than traditional models, take longer to dry, the collected water needs dumped out afterwards, and don’t heat your clothes up (so no hot towels or wrinkle releasing). That said, I think it would be the best compromise for your situation.
