Alternatives to Dryer Venting

Dryer Venting

• Ideally, your clothes dryer will be in a laundry room located along one of your home’s exterior walls. A short length of exhaust ducting will connect to the back of your dryer and run through the wall to a vent on the exterior of your home. In an older home, you might have to choose a place for your washer and dryer that is far from an exterior wall and a convenient way to vent the dryer. It could be expensive and challenging to run the duct work through your home’s wall, which can cause you to look for alternatives.

Alternatives

• Alternatives to dryer venting include using a lint trap on the dryer or installing a vent bucket. A lint trap is a screen or bag that connects to the exhaust pipe on your dryer. It catches the lint blown out of the pipe so it doesn’t scatter around behind the appliance. A vent bucket is a bucket that connects to a length of flexible exhaust ducting, which in turn connects to the back of the dryer. Damp air and lint are blown through the ducting and into the bucket.

Dangers

• These alternatives to dryer venting offer serious disadvantages. They violate manufacturer’s guidelines for installation and could void the appliance’s warranty. They do not remove moisture from the laundry area, so your home will be at an increased risk for mold and mildew growth in or near the laundry room. If lint escapes from either device, it can become a fire hazard as it builds up behind the dryer.

Considerations

• Dryers start fires in hundreds of homes in the United States every year. Mold and mildew can be expensive to remove. Dryer venting alternatives might be tempting, but they hold too many risks to be good options. Instead, install metal duct work in as straight a path as possible to an exterior wall so your dryer can be vented properly.