venting dryer indoors

In an attempt to reduce my heating bills, and at the suggestion of a friend of mine, I very recently have redirected my electric dryer vent hose from blowing outside the house to inside and positioned it over a small bucket of water which acts as a lent trap. Now all that "paid for" warm air stays inside but naturally the humidity level inside the house has increased. This results in my windows in that part of the house fogging up when the dryer has been running for an extended period but it does seem to dissipate fairly quickly. I wondered if anyone else had tried this and whether or not it had worked out in the long run. I heat with a natural gas forced air furnace. Thanks.

Reply to
Jackie
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Stupid at best.

Dangerous and deadly at worst.

Follow your dryer's installation instructions. Never vent a dryer indoors.

Reply to
Oscar_Lives

First problem: using resistive electric heating for drying. Gas enormously preferable. Much more so: fresh air & sunshine (even below freezing) then a while near the woodstove.

Your idea of a lint trap sound totally useless. You will be spreading all manner of that crap in your house.

With all the moisture you trap in the house, and without monitoring the RH in any way, you should expect to find parts of the house getting punky before long. You'd be amazed where.

J
Reply to
barry

You might avoid this problem by venting the dryer into a plastic trash can full of 2-liter water bottles, with a drain...

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

Note the OP wrote " I very recently have redirected my electric dryer vent" Notice that is electric dryer. I would not say it was stupid or generally dangerous. Had it been a gas dryer then it would have been stupidly dangerous.

That said I would not do it myself, at least not likely. In fact if I wanted to save on energy expense I would replace that electric dryer with a gas dryer. In any case I don't like the idea. Even with one of the "lint traps" very find lint still is going to find its way into your home. That excessive moisture (condensation on the windows) can contribute to mold and structural damage. Finally that lint filter can cause increased back pressure and less efficiency for the dryer. I just don't think the savings are worth the risks.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

I don't care if it is electric, gas, or heated by gerbils rubbing their legs together, it is still stupid and also potentially dangerous to vent a dryer inside.

Reply to
Oscar_Lives

Wrong. Makes good sense if it's electric.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

Hi Jackie,

I believe you can buy a box which fits on the end of a vent pipe which has a filter in. I think these can be bought from somewhere like Betterware if you know of it. One of these would allow you to vent the dryer inside reserving the heat you are after.

Reply to
s.royston

As you have discovered, it will warm your house but at the expense of excess humidity. If you run one load a week, no problem but if you are washing daily, I suspect that the ultimate cost of repairing moisture damage (curled wallpaper, rotted window sills, discolored paint), the additional time cleaning mildew and the cost of air freshners will outweigh the heating savings you get.

Personally, I vent into my garage and use a screen as a lint trap which I clean after each load just like the one in the dryer.

Reply to
PipeDown

That sounds like a canned answer. ;->

Reply to
~^Johnny^~

Why, what mode of potentially dangerous failure presents itself?

As long as the dryer is not in a garage such that the vent passes through the protective fire wall into the house it should be safe. (such a configuration could also pump garage fumes into the house)

Sounds like the dryer is already in the house in some sort of laundry closet.

Reply to
PipeDown

I"ve been doing this for more than 20 years. No problems.

Physically in my case, it would be very difficult to disconnect and connect the vent, and I didn't even think of it until I saw a diverter box for sale that, after an initial installation, made this very easy. It has a 4x4" louver that directs the air to the outside or to the inside. No water bucket is involved but it does have a window screen lint filter that the air passes through before it goes into the basement. It takes several uses before it needs cleaning, and that's undoubtedly because there is another lint filter in the dryer itself. That one whistles when it needs cleaning, or at least when cleaning is absolutely required (I forget which.). They sell a different model diverter at Lowe's, I think it was, by the dryer accessories, a part of store on the other side of the major appliances that I usually don't walk through..

Generally indoor humdity is insufficient in the winter, especially or at least iirc if one has forced air heat. Unless your situation is different, iIt would be better to have a humidifier connected to the furnace, because that could give adequate humidity all of the time. The higher humitidy is good for wood furniture (that is, very low humitidy is bad for it, leads to cracking), good for some people who have certain respiratory problems iirc, and it also makes one feel more comfortable, so that the thermostat can be set lower for the same feeling of comfort.

FTR, I iive alone and don't use the dryer that much When I do use it, I only use the temperature one notch above unheated air. The air still seem quite hot to me. Some day I'll have to compare it to the higher temperatures.

My impression is that hotter air is likely to remove the permanent press feature of permanent press clothes, maybe permanently. The shirts and pants certainly don't look good if they have gotten too hot.

I put all of the permanent press in one load, and only dry one or two absorbent items, like a towel or an item of underwear, at the same time in order that the permanent press not dry too quickly. That is, not dry completely before I have time to take it out.

I have a dryer that can turn off based on how damp the clothes are, so I set it for a little less then totallly dry.I take the clothes out then, because I think I get a better result that way. Although they feel dry when they are warm, when they cool they feel damp a bit, but p-press dries in just a few minutes.

Then usually I dry the remaining towels, socks, underwear, sweatshirts, blue jeans, etc. separately, because they dry at the same speed, and I usually take them out a bit early also and let them dry from the shower bar. When I had a washer but no dryer, at my previous apartment, I did all the drying this way, and the towels came out rather stiff, but by the second use, they felt pretty much the same as if they had been dried in a dryer.

(BTW, this house has no gas, but I doubt one would save money switching to gas unless the dryer required replacement anyhow.)

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.

Reply to
mm

What is the danger with an electric dryer? Too much humidity? Too much warmth? I give up.

Why is it stupid? Only because you think it is potentially dangerous, or for some other reason?

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.

Reply to
mm

I want to thank everyone for the responses. I had hoped to generate a discussion but had not anticipated such a divergence of opinion. My overall impression is that my actions may have some merit as long as my dryer use is not excessive. We probably do a couple of loads every other day. Of course I considered safety issues before diverting the vent indoors and decided it posed no threat since the dryer is no more than a large electric heater with a blower fan. My plan is to try it for a while and keep a close eye on things. If the indoor humidity becomes excessive or lint becomes a problem, I can simply reattach the hose to the pipe venting outdoors. I plan to do this in any event as soon as the weather warms up and it is my hope is that winter does not linger for long here on the US eastern seaboard.

Also, thank you all for the suggestion on alternate ways to dry clothes as well as other energy saving tips. Unfortunetly I am stuck with what I have right now and will try to make the best of it. Sooner or later I know I will need to replace my dryer and I will need to decide whether gas or electric dryers are more efficent and cost effective at that time. I suppose I will cross that bridge when I get to it. Thanks again.

Reply to
Jackie

Why?

Why?

Never vent a gas dryer indoors. Venting your electric dryer will

Add extra humidity to an otherwise wintery-dry house. Reduce your heating costs. Will add some lint to your air despite the water trap, so you may have additional dusting chores.

Reply to
Phisherman

Wow, dude! You just hung this poster out to dry!

Reply to
~^Johnny^~

When we first got married, we lived in an apartment. I wanted to get my wife a washer and dryer, but there was no place for them except in the kitchen. There was no vent outlet for the electric dryer, and we had to unplug the cooking range to plug it in. When we ran it, the windows in the entire apartment looked like you turned hoses on them. Water ran down the walls and on the floor. It was like we were in a steam bath. The only way we could run the dryer was to open the door and all the windows. It can be done, but it's not very smart.

Reply to
Dick

But evaporating the water takes about 10X more heat energy than you save with a lower thermostat setting.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

The exhaust from a dryer, electric or gas, comes from air blown over the heating device. If a flame starts from lint blowing over the heating device, that fire is ejected out the exhaust pipe. If there is anything flammable anywhere near the exhaust, you've got yourself a homeowners claim at best and you can guess the worst.

Reply to
Michael Keefe

not too bright are you

you've probably had the same color car through 7 different cars just a guess

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