Dryer vent - looking for options

Hi folks,

Hopefully I’m in the right location here…

I’m having a really hard time with my dryer venting, and was hoping someone would have a few suggestions. Basically my dryer is in the middle of my basement, and therefore has a pretty long run of the older (white) accordion ducting. I’ve heard that particular accordion ducting isn’t safe, so I’m interested in upgrading it and making it right.

If you look at the attachment you’ll see two diagrams. The first view is as if you’re looking at the washer and dryer head on. You’ll see that the ducting goes all the way to the right about 15 feet or so, as well as “up” so it outputs by the deck. If you’re looking at dryer head-on, I’m not really sure if the ducting travels through the wall, or behind the wall, and I’m not really sure at what height it is. I just know it’s a long run with old ducting.

The second view in the attachment is just a bird’s eye view to give you another view of the situation.

Overall I would love to move the dyer to the other side of the basement and then vent it right out the wall (only a few feet). That would involve moving the gas line, though, and I’m sure that would be way too much work (even for a pro). My second option is to replace that ducting with the proper type, but I’m just not sure how to figure out where the old one runs, or how to remove it and replace it with the right ducting.

Any tips would be great!

See attached.

Thanks!

 

Ideally you'd want to run the duct straight up with one right angle fitting. You should use 4" metal duct. Since this is a long run it will require a yearly cleaning to de-lint it.

 

Moving the dryer to the other wall is not a hard thing to do. All you need to do is re-rout the gas pipe. A few feet won't upset anything in terms if pressure loss or flow. As it stands now where does the gas line feed travel to the dryer? Is it running over head then down to the dryer or along a wall. Show us the path of the gas line from where it enters the house (at the meter).

 

PJMax - thanks. Is the 4" metal ducting rigid (not bendable) and smooth inside? Or is it a metal version of the plastic accordion one I have now?

Norm201 - See attached for the updated drawing. You'll see that I added the gas meter to the outside of the bird's eye view. That's where the meter is on the outside of the house. Does that mean it's where the gas initially comes into the house? If so, I'm assuming that the gas pipe runs from there, across the entire basement in the ceiling, and then down to the dryer. Our basement is "finished", so I can't see the path of the gas supply line. Looks like it would be easy to move the dryer to the other side of the basement and have it be just on the inside of the wall where the gas meter is on the outside of the house. The problem is now the washing machine will be on one side and the dyer on another. I'm sure the wife would LOVE that haha.

 

The 4" duct that PJ mentioned is rigid, in 4' sections, and easy to work with. One end is crimped and the other straight, so they just slip together, one end inside the next, and you can buy the correct foil tape to seal them together at the same local hardware or big box where you get the duct. You don't want to use screws to connect them as they provide something for lint to collect on. As far as bends, the elbows are sectional, and can be twisted to accommodate your specific situation. A question though. You said that what you have is flexible, but that you can't see how it is routed, so are you sure that it is flex all the way, or is it maybe rigid, with flex for the final connection?

 

Yes that is where the gas enters and most likely travel across the ceiling. You could easily put the dryer on that wall and reduce the length of gas pipe. But as you said the washer would need to be moved. So that is not a viable option. Besides with a finished basement extensive work would be needed.

 

What are anyone's thoughts on a booster in-line fan. We have one on our dryer, but it came that way.

 

Regarding whether or not the old type of tubing is used just at the visible part behind the dryer, I'm not really sure. When you look behind the dryer you'll see the old tubing, and when you look at the output vent on the deck you can see the old tubing (as much as you can see looking into the house). If I had to place a bet I would say it's probably the old tubing the whole way since the house is from about 1988.

 

Just to make everyone cringe a little more, here are two pics of the current setup. You'll see in the first picture the tubing coming out of the dryer, going around in a loop, and then going up towards the wall. Then in the second picture it goes up to a height (just shy of the top of the dryer) and it goes into the wall.

 

Hose in picture is a code violation.

 

Are your clothes not drying properly, or are you concerned about fire?
Reducing the length or rerouting the duct might not be necessary.
I doubt if the duct in wall is flex.
I see nothing wrong with the flex behind dyer. I would remove it from the wall fitting and inspect the duct that leads into the wall.
I would guess the duct is steel and only needs cleaned occasionally.
Installing a flex line inside the wall would be harder than installing rigid duct, and wouldn't make much sense.

 

Plastic duct is a fire waiting to happen. Replace with the hard medal duct. Will make dryer work better and be safer. For connect from duct use either foil duct that looks like your plastic or preferred is the hard flexible type.

 

Ok, so the good news is that the ducting going through the wall appears to be metal. Good call on that one! I pulled out the dryer, took the front off for easier access, and cleaned out a TON of lint buildup. I also bought one of those cleaning tools that you put on the end of your drill, and cleaned out the entire ducting all the way to the outside vent. Again, got a TON of lint removed. Very impressed with that tool.

I bought a new installation kit from Home Depot that comes with the metal flex ducting, along with the adapter on the end to attach to the end of the dryer and attach to the duct coming out of the wall. The problem is that the duct coming out of the wall is somewhat "smooshed". It appears to be a 4" duct, but because it's smooshed in there, I can't get the new duct to go inside it (as per the directions). It's more like 3.5" instead. I've tried bending it and pushing it in, but the piece I'm connecting to is only sticking out of the wall a little bit. So not only can I not get the ducting to go inside it, but I also can't get the clamp around it because I simply can't get to it. I might have to just cut away some of the sheetrock.

Do they sell an adapter that would go from the 4" flex pipe to the ~3.5" duct in the wall? Maybe that would be my best bet. I could push the adapting piece a foot or so into the wall ducting, then it would be easier to attach to that.

Thanks!

 

John, yes there is an adapter. Might be hard to find. I wish you went with all ridged ducting instead of the flex stuff. But the metal flex is the next best thing. What would it take to remove the thru the wall piece and replace it?

edit...Do a GOOGLE search on Dryer vent ducting reducer.
edit ...do an image search

 

Thanks for the reply Norm.

Ran to Home Depot over lunch and picked up a metal 4" to 3" reducer piece. It weird because the "smooshed" ducting in the wall isn't quite 3", it's more like 3.5" because of it being pushed. Hopefully I'm not breaking any code that says all of the ducting has to be 4".

I also picked up a 4-inch x 2-foot piece of aluminum ducting. I thought if I was able to push that into the existing piece in the wall, that might serve as a better connection point than what's already there.

Oh, and to your comment about replacing the ducting in the wall, I don't think I have to do that anymore. Originally I couldn't tell what type of ducting in the wall. But now I know that it's rigid ("unflexible"?) ducting, so it's good.