Dryer vent hose is filling up with water!

low dip in exhaust line, condensation will fill line.

i found this out after replacing a leaking water supply line to the washer. a month later the dryer quit working but it ran well with the exhaust disconnected.

i reached in the line looking for lint and got soaked when i pickedup the line a little to make cleaning easier.

i had accidently created a drip loop in the line

Reply to
bob haller
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There is a limit to how long a drier vent should be too, regardless how well sloped and insulated.

Reply to
clare

The rigid metal and tape duct is smoother, unlike the flex stuff that has a ragged inner surface.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

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. .

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

On a rental that my relative owns they asked me to go over to find out why the tenant's dryer was filling with water.

Someone had connected two dryer vents together. So the moisture was coming from the other dryer and condensing. I had to convince the owners that they had to run a separate vent to the outside, even though it was a pain to do this.

Reply to
sms

25 feet maximum with fixed ducting according to
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. Less than half that if and when flexible ducting is allowed.

According to

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the length varies from brand to brand, and 2 elbows cuts the distance allowed in half over a straight pipe, The maximum ANY manufacturer allows is 90nfeet straight, 45 with 2 elbows, and 20 feet with 3 elbows using an "A" vent, and only 60 and 35 with a "B" vent, - down to 45, 20, and 15 with semirigid metal flex line. Thats on a "commercial" GE Electric.

I've always been told "as short as possible,,no more than 15 feet vertical, and no more than 25 feet total with 3 elbows" as a rule of thumb and best practice.

Mine has a 45 and 2 nineties and about 7 feet of rigid aluminum, with taped joints and no screws.

Reply to
clare

Not recommended by ANY drier manufacturer that I'm aware of - particualarly from basement to roof of a 2 story house!!. You can likely get away with it from the main floor of a low pitched roof on a single story house - but again - not recommended.

Reply to
clare

ncben108 - I am having the same problem. The laundry room was real humid; so I checked the exhaust hose thinking it had been torn. The exhaust line was fine, so I took it off thinking it was clogged with lint, there was some but not as much as I was expecting; additionally, it was damp and wet. I vacuumed out the dryer exhaust and the lint catcher in the front of the dryer. I then washed out the exhaust line to thoroughly clean it. I then got a shop vac and sucked out the vent in line in the laundry room expecting more lint. Much to me surprise I sucked up about a gallon of water. I then went outside to the vent and sucked the line from that point. I ended up sucking out another 15 gallons of water!

Once I got all of the water out of the exhaust vent I then went back to the laundry room and starting blowing the vent with the shop vac. Everything seemed to be clear at that point. I have now reconnected everything and it seems to be running fine.

I have been reading different forums during this process and I suspect my dryer line is too long; it is at least 15 feet from the dryer to the exhaust vent outside of the house. Also, there are at least four 90 degree turns from the dryer to the outside vent. With that said, I read that if you have 90 degree turns and 15 feet or more of dryer exhaust line, then one will need to get a booster fan.

Good Luck.

Here is the reference I used :

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When is a dryer exhaust necessary?

According to some dryer installation instructions and local building codes, booster fans should be added in the dryer duct run when the length of duct exceeds 25 feet with no bends, 20 feet with one bend or 15 feet with 2 bends. With an existing system you may find that drying times are far longer than the dryer manufacturers instructions give, this may indicate that you have an duct run longer and more restrictive than your dryer can handle. Installing a Fantech dryer booster in the duct line will relieve the excess pressure in the duct allowing the dryer to operate as designed.

Reply to
john

Have you considered insulation? If you can keep the inside of the pipe above the dew point of the air flowing thru it, it shouldn't condense.

Reply to
mike

This is an issue I have been working on. We bought our house in 2013, washer and dryer same. They are in basement and the basement is very cold in summer with AC running; somewhat leaky AC duct will be addressed soon, as well. Couple of times I found small puddles in dryer drum when it was empty; dryer filter screen is kept pretty clean, but was wet when I found the puddles. Didn't make sense, and I wondered if cold basement caused condensation, but that didn't make sense for the dryer screen. The dryer duct is a fibber-mcgee installation that goes between furnace (close) and out behind our gas meter. Dryer is electric. Finally took off the louvered cover outside and cleaned out lint I could reach; not much lint there and the louvers moved with air flow, so I thought it looked good....curiosity finally got the best of me and I started taking apart the rigid metal vent duct, untaping joins and......I was astonished at the load of lint. The duct had 3 ninety-degree turns and travels about 10-12 feet total. My shop vac was about 1/3 full of lint!! I didn't think of checking the duct before the dryer was installed, but the installers should have. Installation instructions for our dryer recommend METAL, rigid or flexible, ducting with no tape on joins. The lint is obviously years old, and the inside of the ducts covered entirely with stuck-on lint, so had to brush, vacuum and then wash them. Spent a pile of money for metal tape (before I read the instructions) and the ducts need to be wrapped with something because they are not made tubular; flat with flanges that connect together to form tube. The horizontal section nearest the exit is most loaded with lint and hardest to reach....dimwit put up drywall behind furnace which blocks access to the last turn and 3' of duct. Today is the day, I guess, that I cut a hole in the damn drywall to finish cleaning the duct. I've never seen dryer duct with anything approaching the amount in this. Also caulked around the duct exit, which I think is where the water entered....but I'm thinking that when a dryer cycle finishes, the duct is full of humid air that would condense very quickly without being able to flow freely when cool-down cycle runs. Maybe.

Reply to
Norminn

If you have that much lint in the external ducts, consider how much lint yo u may have on the internal ducts of the dryer. Granted, 2013 isn't that lon g ago, but with the restricted airflow you probably have, you may also have lint built up inside the dryer itself.

I've pulled the duct work out of my dryer a few times over the years and cl ean it out. You'd be surprised how much can get built up in there. The mois ture can also cause lint to adhere to the squirrel cage blower and get cake d on. Before we switched to a front loading washer that almost dries the cl othes by itself, the blower-adhered lint was much worse.

Since the blower gets exposed when you pull the duct work, it easy enough t o check. Maybe not so easy to chisel off, but easy enough the check. ;-)

Reply to
DerbyDad03

clipped

Thanks! I already checked the dryer and it is clean as a whistle. House is 38 y/o and my guess is that the ducts have never been cleaned. With several right angles, and going up to get out, it appears the air flow (logically) is worst at the top. On my way to the store to get a brush; $12.98.

Reply to
Norminn

I don't expect any reasonably sized vacuum can create enough air flow to do much good. I stuck a leaf blower down the hole and blew lint out of the duct.

Might blow apart the joints if you have a lot of bends and lint stuck in there.

Reply to
mike

john wrote in news:883b3$55ac1a21$cf3aab60$ snipped-for-privacy@news.flashnewsgroups.com:

My electric dryer was vented with one right angle up an interior wall, then out the roof, for a total of about 15' straight up. It took hours for clothes to dry, and I'd have to go on the roof and clean the top of the stack at least once a year of lint.

Last year I bought a new dryer, and vented it it with one right angle, and then horizontally about 10', with a slight slope, and out the front wall of the house, over a flowerbed. Works great. And, when you come up the front stairs, you get the fresh smell of fabric softener.

Reply to
Boris

replying to ncben108, Lee wrote: Did you figure a way to fix this problem? I have the same problem going on.

Reply to
Lee

Lee,

Why are your clothes so wet? Check the spin cycle of your washer.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

replying to David L. Martel, Lee wrote: My dryer vent line is getting water in it. It goes under the slab of the house and then back up again to vent out to the yard. The line did not use to fill with water. But now it does I am not sure what's going on. I was trying to find out if there was some type of product or sow thing to line the inside the pipe with to keep the water from getting in there. Or do u think it's the washer not wringing out the clothes enough and the condensation form the clothes could be my problem u think. I need a new washer?

Reply to
Lee

Under the slab is a good way to introduce condensation. I'd check to see that the vent is clean and you have good air flow. I'd check the washer too. Could be something as simple as a worn belt and it is not spinning as fast as it should.'

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

replying to clare, av8r4christ wrote: Hi everybody I just read through this thread and was having the same problem. Problem solved:

1) The metal vent pipe had a spot in it where it "dipped down" and the water would collect there. More water=longer time period for dryer to get the clothes dried 2) The outside vent had a metal screen on it, and that metal screen had 2" of lent all over it. We could never see it, because the lint was on the inside of the vent.

Problem solved. Special thanks to all you geniuses that have helped.

Reply to
av8r4christ

Lent would have cleared up on Easter Sunday.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

replying to Mitch, Redwing1 wrote: Your dryer vent hose is too long. You have created a P-trap in your line. It will especially happen more frequently in cold weather. No one sprayed water down your vent. This is a real issue and it can start fires. Shorten your hose and try to keep your hose in line with the exhaust opening

Reply to
Redwing1

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