Why You Should not Vent Your Dryer within the Attic (2024)
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With residence upkeep, some shortcuts can result in massive issues. A type of shortcuts is venting your garments dryer into the attic. It could appear handy, but it surely violates constructing codes in most cities due to its hazards.
Let’s additional discover why venting your dryer within the attic is a nasty concept.
Potential Points With Venting a Dryer within the Attic
As conventional garments dryers run, they push out sizzling, moist air stuffed with lint. Venting the air into the attic can create an ideal storm of issues that compromise security, structural integrity, and even your well being.
Lint is very flammable. Only one spark from the dryer or electrical system might trigger the dryer or system to burst into flames, and in an attic, the fireplace might unfold all the way down to the remainder of your own home.
In response to Nationwide Hearth Prevention Affiliation (NFPA) studies, there are millions of dryer fires annually, and lint buildup causes a couple of third of them. Even the slightest breach in protocol might remodel your attic from a peaceable cupboard space to a tinderbox in ready.
When moist air from a dryer enters an attic, it might probably severely injury your own home’s construction over time. The surplus humidity can result in these harmful, generally yucky issues:
- Rot in roof trusses and decking
- Mould and mildew progress
- Insulation deterioration
- Warped wood buildings
- Metallic fastener and part corrosion
Past structural injury, moisture accumulation can influence your own home’s electrical methods by corroding wiring. That may each disrupt your family actions and additional enhance the chance of a hearth.
Venting a dryer into the attic can have an effect on your own home’s air high quality. As exhaust out of your dryer circulates, it will increase humidity ranges and places extra lint in your family air. If mould grows from locked-in moisture, its spores can flow into by way of the air. Every downside is usually a nightmare when you’ve got allergy symptoms or respiratory issues.
How To Vent Your Dryer Correctly
The one secure and code-compliant solution to vent a dryer is to your own home’s exterior. This ensures the expulsion of all the warmth, moisture, and lint from the home, the place they gained’t trigger additional issues. It additionally makes the dryer extra environment friendly and lowers your vitality payments.
There are two essential choices for exterior venting: exterior wall venting and roof venting. Every methodology has a set of procedures and issues, and also you’ll have to decide on primarily based on your own home’s format.
In case your laundry room has an out of doors wall, minimize a 4-inch gap and set up a normal dryer vent hood with a damper. Don’t minimize by way of electrical wires, pipes, or structural framing. Use inflexible metallic ductwork to attach the dryer to the vent hood.
It’s possible you’ll must vent by way of the roof if you happen to don’t have exterior wall entry out of your laundry room. This methodology is a little more advanced however will be simply as efficient.
Select a location on a sloped floor so moisture can run off correctly, and set up a specialised roof vent cap to stop leaks. Run inflexible metallic ductwork, with correct help and insulation, from the dryer to the roof cap.
Seal all roof penetrations totally to stop leaks, and caulk across the vent. You don’t need exterior moisture to enter your own home by way of residual gaps.
Correct Dryer Vent Set up
Whether or not you’re venting by way of a wall or your roof, comply with the following pointers for correct set up:
- Use inflexible metallic ductwork. Use solely inflexible metallic, by no means versatile plastic or foil vents. Metallic ductwork is much less liable to punctures or collapses. By no means use versatile plastic or foil vents, that are much less sturdy.
- Straight and brief wins the race. Hold the vent run brief and straight, ideally below 35 toes. Longer vent runs enhance the possibility of lint buildup and blockages.
- Lower down on elbows. Every 90-degree flip reduces airflow and places extra pressure on the dryer motor. It’s, subsequently, finest to reduce using elbows.
- Use tape to seal. Seal joints with metallic HVAC tape—not screws, which may catch lint. Correct sealing strategies assist preserve airflow whereas additionally stopping potential hearth hazards.
- Set up a damper. See that the outside vent hood or outlet has a functioning damper to stop backdrafts, cease pests, and preserve temperature management in your house.
- Use booster followers as wanted. Longer vent runs or installations with a number of turns might require a duct booster fan to keep up airflow.
- Don’t dent the vent. Don’t use dented ducts for a dryer vent set up since they might hurt wholesome airflow.
Dryer Vent Security Ideas
How you employ your dryer and construct your vent system impacts your security. Observe the following pointers for essentially the most risk-free expertise:
- Clear the lint entice. All the time clear the lint entice when utilizing your dryer. It’s a easy behavior that forestalls fires and protects the equipment’s lifespan.
- Examine retailers and hoods frequently. Particles or snow can impede airflow by way of retailers and vent hoods. Examine them at the least twice a yr.
- Clear your vents yearly. Clear all the vent system at the least annually. Even if you happen to all the time clear the lint entice, there can nonetheless be clogs of lint that cut back airflow and enhance hearth danger. You are able to do the job your self or rent an expert dryer vent cleansing firm—in line with Angi, the service can value anyplace from $103 to $184.
- Hold flammable supplies away. Flammable objects reminiscent of laundry detergent, cleansing provides, and free garments can pose hearth dangers, so hold the realm round your dryer away from them.
- By no means depart the dryer unattended. Don’t run your dryer when nobody’s residence or whilst you’re asleep. Fixed supervision will allow you to intervene if any points come up throughout a cycle.
How A lot Does New Dryer Venting Value?
The precise value to put in or change dryer vents varies with the vent system’s location and complexity. Nevertheless, Angi says most jobs value between $140 and $600.
Whereas the value tag could appear costly, view it as an insurance coverage coverage. Preventive measures to vent your dryer correctly will let you keep away from the extreme prices of fireplace injury cleanup, mould remediation, or equipment restore.
FAQs About Venting Dryers
How do I clear my dryer vent?
Detach the dryer vent the place it connects to the dryer and use a dryer vent brush to scrub lint from all the size of ductwork—vacuum free lint with a hose attachment. Clear your vents at the least annually. In the event you’re uncomfortable with this course of, ask your HVAC contractor if they supply this service when performing your annual HVAC tune-up.
Can I vent my dryer into the storage?
No, venting a dryer into the storage is harmful, similar to venting into the attic. All the time exhaust dryers outdoor.
What are the indicators of a clogged dryer vent?
Indicators embrace garments taking longer to dry, sizzling air escaping the dryer cupboard, and lint accumulating across the vent hood outdoor. An expert can affirm if there’s an obstruction in your vent.
What’s the most size for a dryer vent?
Examine your proprietor’s handbook, however don’t exceed 35 toes in complete developed size. Calculate size, including 5 toes for every 90-degree elbow. Preserve velocity with inflexible metallic ductwork.
How do I set up a dryer vent by way of the roof?
Use a vent designed for roof venting. Set up on a sloped roof floor. Use silicone caulk to seal across the pipe penetration by way of the roof deck.
Can I vent two dryers collectively?
No. Every dryer wants its personal 4-inch diameter vent from the machine to the outlet. The one exception is a typical manifold on the very finish.
