We would like to move our washer and dryer to a closet in the middle of our
house, so we can use the laundry room space to enlarge our kitchen. The
question is what to do with the exhaust vent for the dryer. This closet
runs right in the middle, under the highest point in our roof, one floor,
hip style roof. The inside ceilings are 8 ft high, couldn't tell you how
high the roof is as I've never been in the attic. I'd be surprised if you
can stand upright in the center however. Given this lack of info, the
appliance sales guy said I might as well hang laundry out to dry on a line,
that the exhaust wouldn't be able to travel up that far well enough to allow
the clothes to dry quickly enough to be acceptable. Running the vent
without going into the ceiling at least would be an extremely involved
process. We can simply go into the ceiling then horizontally out to one of
the eaves, but that would add two more 90 degree turns. Any thoughts?

--
Melissa
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On Sun 06 Mar 2005 07:28:31a, Melissa wrote in alt.home.repair:

We would like to move our washer and dryer to a closet in the middle of
our house, so we can use the laundry room space to enlarge our kitchen.
The question is what to do with the exhaust vent for the dryer. This
closet runs right in the middle, under the highest point in our roof,
one floor, hip style roof. The inside ceilings are 8 ft high, couldn't
tell you how high the roof is as I've never been in the attic. I'd be
surprised if you can stand upright in the center however. Given this
lack of info, the appliance sales guy said I might as well hang laundry
out to dry on a line, that the exhaust wouldn't be able to travel up
that far well enough to allow the clothes to dry quickly enough to be
acceptable. Running the vent without going into the ceiling at least
would be an extremely involved process. We can simply go into the
ceiling then horizontally out to one of the eaves, but that would add
two more 90 degree turns. Any thoughts?

--
Melissa
Please remove (yourshoes) to reply by email

Do you have a basement or crawlspace?


--
Wayne Boatwright
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974

The longer line vent pipe and the more bends in it, the more static pressure
you get, which can cause electric elements to overheat and burn out, not to
mention lint build up. If it's the only way to go, use a dryer vent booster
"Melissa" wrote in message
m...
We would like to move our washer and dryer to a closet in the middle of
our
house, so we can use the laundry room space to enlarge our kitchen. The
question is what to do with the exhaust vent for the dryer. This closet
runs right in the middle, under the highest point in our roof, one floor,
hip style roof. The inside ceilings are 8 ft high, couldn't tell you how
high the roof is as I've never been in the attic. I'd be surprised if you
can stand upright in the center however. Given this lack of info, the
appliance sales guy said I might as well hang laundry out to dry on a
line,
that the exhaust wouldn't be able to travel up that far well enough to
allow
the clothes to dry quickly enough to be acceptable. Running the vent
without going into the ceiling at least would be an extremely involved
process. We can simply go into the ceiling then horizontally out to one of
the eaves, but that would add two more 90 degree turns. Any thoughts?

--
Melissa
Please remove (yourshoes) to reply by email

Melissa wrote:
We would like to move our washer and dryer to a closet in the middle
of our house, so we can use the laundry room space to enlarge our
kitchen. The question is what to do with the exhaust vent for the
dryer. This closet runs right in the middle, under the highest point
in our roof, one floor, hip style roof. The inside ceilings are 8 ft
high, couldn't tell you how high the roof is as I've never been in
the attic. I'd be surprised if you can stand upright in the center
however. Given this lack of info, the appliance sales guy said I
might as well hang laundry out to dry on a line, that the exhaust
wouldn't be able to travel up that far well enough to allow the
clothes to dry quickly enough to be acceptable. Running the vent
without going into the ceiling at least would be an extremely
involved process. We can simply go into the ceiling then horizontally
out to one of the eaves, but that would add two more 90 degree turns.
Any thoughts?

It somehow sounds like your sales guy should stick to sales. It sounds
like he is worried about the fact that the exhaust is going up as opposed to
over. I have heard that one before, but given the the exhaust is warm, it
naturally rises and you could need less, not more effort to exhaust out the
roof straight up than the same total distance in any other direction,
especially if other directions required bends.

You dryer should have specifics about total distance, but most, as I
recall, allow about 50-90 total feet minus 10 feet for each 90º bend. You
should be fine going out the roof.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

Melissa wrote:
We would like to move our washer and dryer to a closet in the middle of our
house, so we can use the laundry room space to enlarge our kitchen. The
question is what to do with the exhaust vent for the dryer. This closet
runs right in the middle, under the highest point in our roof, one floor,
hip style roof.
SNIP

Years ago, it was common practice to run the dryer exh up to
a roof vent. In your case, that's not an excessively long run
and convection will help.

However.......I would first check with the local bldg inspector
to see if the practice is allowed and what vent terminal
requirements would have to be met. You will (should) be
needing a permit for the closet installation in any event;
there may be more questions to be answered about that.

Jim

We can simply go into the ceiling then horizontally out to one of
the eaves, but that would add two more 90 degree turns. Any thoughts?



Straight up through the roof seems ok to me. Most dryers recommend 25 feet
or less run of venting, subtract five feet of vent for every elbow.
Straight up may get you about fifteen feet, and one elbow.
Greg

"Melissa" wrote in message
m...
We would like to move our washer and dryer to a closet in the middle of
our
house, so we can use the laundry room space to enlarge our kitchen. The
question is what to do with the exhaust vent for the dryer. This closet
runs right in the middle, under the highest point in our roof, one floor,
hip style roof. The inside ceilings are 8 ft high, couldn't tell you how
high the roof is as I've never been in the attic. I'd be surprised if you
can stand upright in the center however. Given this lack of info, the
appliance sales guy said I might as well hang laundry out to dry on a
line,
that the exhaust wouldn't be able to travel up that far well enough to
allow
the clothes to dry quickly enough to be acceptable. Running the vent
without going into the ceiling at least would be an extremely involved
process. We can simply go into the ceiling then horizontally out to one of
the eaves, but that would add two more 90 degree turns. Any thoughts?

--
Melissa
Please remove (yourshoes) to reply by email

all good suggestions. My current Richmond American home circa 1999 has a 5
inch vertical vent for the dryer one 4 inch 90 then 5 inch vertically for at
least 20 feet.
Works fine.

I would think the dryer would be easy compared with putting in the plumbing
especially the drain.

"Wayne Boatwright" wrote...
Do you have a basement or crawlspace?


We are on a slab, otherwise this would be much easier. Thanks for the
replies guys, sounds like that part is workable. Plumbing is our next
concern, so we'll have a plumber out to actually look at the appropriate
places to advise. We have a bathroom that shares a wall with the closet so
access to water and drainage won't be an issue, we just need to find out if
the pipes will accomodate the water needs. I need to investigate this stuff
before we plan further. Hubby is the type of guy to rip out walls and ask
questions later.

We are considering also replacing the washer and dryer. I remember hearing
a couple of years ago commercials that hyped dryers that dry as fast as the
washer can wash. Salesman said those would be the front load washers and
dryers, as they get more water out of the loads. Is this the case? Seems
odd to hype the dryers drying as fast as the wash when it's the washer
accomplishing the deed? We need super capacity 27" or less in depth.
Checked consumerreports.com but didn't really find anything that referred to
drying speed. The pair we have now are fine, but a load takes at least 1.5
hours to dry, often much longer. Given our 6 person family, we generate a
lot of laundry, and it takes forever it seems to get through with the slow
dry time. Ours are super capacity units, the dryer is 5.7 cu ft, the washer
3.2 cu ft, both GE, 3.5 yrs old.

--
Melissa
Please remove (yourshoes) to reply by email

It somehow sounds like your sales guy should stick to sales. It sounds
like he is worried about the fact that the exhaust is going up as opposed
to over. I have heard that one before, but given the the exhaust is warm,
it naturally rises and you could need less, not more effort to exhaust out
the roof straight up than the same total distance in any other direction,
especially if other directions required bends.

True, the warm air will rise, but it won't have enough force to take the
lint with it. Only about 70% of the dryer air goes through the lint filter.
The rest is allowed to bypass the filter...I assume to prevent problems if
the filter is full. This air carries lint with it and will quickly clog the
vent line if the line is too long or too high in the air. The suggestion of
a booster fan in the line would probably help. I sold dryers in AZ where it
is common to run straight up through the roof and I postponed the
replacement of many dryers by telling the customer to simple clean out his
vent line. It would usually be plugged right where it made it's first turn
up into the wall. The worse was of course when the builder put another 90
degree bend in the ceiling to go horizontally out a side wall. Really hard
to clean that out.
Tom.

Tom,
How did your installations deal with cleaning lint from the duct?
Tom Baker

Tom wrote:
It somehow sounds like your sales guy should stick to sales. It
sounds like he is worried about the fact that the exhaust is going
up as opposed to over. I have heard that one before, but given the
the exhaust is warm, it naturally rises and you could need less, not
more effort to exhaust out the roof straight up than the same total
distance in any other direction, especially if other directions
required bends.

True, the warm air will rise, but it won't have enough force to take
the lint with it. Only about 70% of the dryer air goes through the
lint filter. The rest is allowed to bypass the filter...I assume to
prevent problems if the filter is full. This air carries lint with
it and will quickly clog the vent line if the line is too long or too
high in the air.

I agree that too long is bad, lint or no lint. I really don't see how
longer is worse for lint, other that it means more to keep clean. I really
don't see how high has anything in this. Assuming the total length is not
too long and there are not too many bends, up or over is the same concerning
lint. In fact up might be even easier to clean if it were to fall back down
so you could clean it out at the first bend; but of course it does not, you
still need to clean them.

The suggestion of a booster fan in the line would
probably help.

I have one on mine since the total distance and minimum number of bends
is beyond that specified by the manufacturer.

I might also add here that the specs for duct length is based on solid
metal pipe, not that corrugated junk or worse yet the flexible plastic
stuff.

I sold dryers in AZ where it is common to run
straight up through the roof and I postponed the replacement of many
dryers by telling the customer to simple clean out his vent line. It
would usually be plugged right where it made it's first turn up into
the wall. The worse was of course when the builder put another 90
degree bend in the ceiling to go horizontally out a side wall. Really hard
to clean that out.

I agree. I have to disassemble part of my line in the basement for
cleaning. And you are right, I would expect most of the lint to be at the
bends. It is a shame that most people don't know they need to service these
things. Maybe even worst that they don't know enough at the time of
installation to consider the problems of maintaining them at that time.

Tom.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

Melissa wrote:
We are considering also replacing the washer and dryer. I remember
hearing a couple of years ago commercials that hyped dryers that dry
as fast as the washer can wash. Salesman said those would be the
front load washers and dryers, as they get more water out of the
loads. Is this the case? Seems odd to hype the dryers drying as
fast as the wash when it's the washer accomplishing the deed? We
need super capacity 27" or less in depth. Checked consumerreports.com
but didn't really find anything that referred to drying speed. The
pair we have now are fine, but a load takes at least 1.5 hours to
dry, often much longer. Given our 6 person family, we generate a lot
of laundry, and it takes forever it seems to get through with the
slow dry time. Ours are super capacity units, the dryer is 5.7 cu
ft, the washer
3.2 cu ft, both GE, 3.5 yrs old.

1.5 HOURS! Isn't that about twice as long as normal?

You may need an additional dryer.

Melissa wrote:
"Wayne Boatwright" wrote...

Do you have a basement or crawlspace?



We are on a slab, otherwise this would be much easier. Thanks for the
replies guys, sounds like that part is workable. Plumbing is our next
concern, so we'll have a plumber out to actually look at the appropriate

Make a simple drawing and go to your city building department. Mebbe
they will have some good free advice.

places to advise. We have a bathroom that shares a wall with the closet so
access to water and drainage won't be an issue, we just need to find out if
the pipes will accomodate the water needs. I need to investigate this stuff
before we plan further. Hubby is the type of guy to rip out walls and ask
questions later.

Would your kitchen remodel work if the w/d were left where they are?
Could use the closet for pantry space and not go to extremes with an
iffy installation?


We are considering also replacing the washer and dryer. I remember hearing
a couple of years ago commercials that hyped dryers that dry as fast as the
washer can wash. Salesman said those would be the front load washers and
dryers, as they get more water out of the loads. Is this the case? Seems
odd to hype the dryers drying as fast as the wash when it's the washer
accomplishing the deed? We need super capacity 27" or less in depth.
Checked consumerreports.com but didn't really find anything that referred to
drying speed. The pair we have now are fine, but a load takes at least 1.5

That's a darn long time to dry a load of clothes. Stuffed tight? When
I did laundry for 5, my dryer time was about 30 min., sometimes 40. I
would have been doing laundry 24/7 if a load took an hour and a half. Is
the vent clean and clear?

hours to dry, often much longer. Given our 6 person family, we generate a
lot of laundry, and it takes forever it seems to get through with the slow
dry time. Ours are super capacity units, the dryer is 5.7 cu ft, the washer
3.2 cu ft, both GE, 3.5 yrs old.

--
Melissa
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