[minor hijack]
Am I the only one who uses a plastic vent hose rather than the tin foily (etc) variety? It’s also a pain in the nether regions to install properly, but it doesn’t fillet one’s fingers during installation…
[/minor hijack]
And then, from the pipe, you heard this faint meowing sound…
My father, the engineer, has rigged up their dryer so that it can either be vented outside (for three seasons of the year) or, by routing the pipe through a cupboard next to the dryer, into the room during the winter (hey, why waste the heat?) He uses a furnace filter for the end.
I, OTOH, do not own a dryer, and drape my clothing over the radiators. But even if I did, my technical skills are such that I can just about, with the help of some competent friends, assemble Ikea furniture. Suffice it to say I am not looking forward to becoming the proud owner of a clothes dryer.
My question, then, is how come my belly-button lint is ALWAYS blue? Even when I’m wearing shirts of any other color?
I believe this may qualify as more rage. Further bulletins as events warrant.
I can’t even read two of your goddamm sentences without laughing.
You got a mailing list I can get on?
Serious man…
Betcha I ain’t the only one to ask…
:::snort::: Ya know, I may not write as purdy as yuins, but at least I can fix a dryer vent when it needs a fixen. Good golly I’d hate to see the fuss ya all make when your tub drain clogs.
Aghris, I too own a condenser dryer. Easy to come by in Europe (I’m in the UK), but IIRC, all US dryers are air-vented. Although condenser dryers eliminate the hassle of venting, there are some reasons why you don’t see them in the US. They’re slower and less energy efficient than vented dryers - not a good thing, when you consider an American dryer is double the capacity of a European one. Gas-heated dryers are popular in the US, too, and need the outside vent in order to duct the fumes out of the house.
Put it this way - I wouldn’t buy another condenser dryer again, because it’s too slow. Next time I’ll buy a US vented dryer, and make the effort to install a proper vent duct for it.
FairyChatMom, plastic hose may be less of a pain (literally) to install, but metal venting is safer. Plastic will burn, metal won’t. The safest option all round is to use rigid metal duct, fasted with clamps and duct tape. It won’t collect lint as easily, being smooth on the inside, and therefore poses less of a fire risk. I used to work for Whirlpool, and some of the stories I heard about dryer fires when I started with them scared the life out of me.
So you don’t need to do that with electric dryers? Whew! I was reading everyone’s posts about venting their dryers into the house with horror, having been fully warned by the workman who installed our new dryer (and discovered a leak in the vent of the old one) about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.
So you’re supposed to clean the vents too? 
InternetLegend, it’s essential to vent gas dryers outside (because the vent acts as a flue), and strongly recommended that you vent an electric dryer outside, too. It is possible to vent an electric dryer indoors, providing you don’t mind the lint, moisture and heat accumulating inside your home. Personally, I wouldn’t consider it - dryers are designed to be vented to the outside, and work best this way.
And yes, you really should clean your dryer vent! Check it a few times each year, and clean out any lint deposits. The best way is to use a rope to pull a big bunch of rags through the duct, taking the lint with it. Not only will you reduce the fire hazard, you’ll also ensure that your dryer works more efficiently.
When I was living in an apartment and getting seriously tired of lugging laundry down to the communal laundry room only to find that the apt. complex had welded my favorite gate shut (no lie) and I had to go the long way around, I bought one of those combo machines that has a washer and dryer in one housing, one atop the other. Whereupon I discovered that although my apt. had hookups for a washer and dryer, there was NO vent hole. The complex recommended that we go to the local emporium d’improvement du maison and purchase a “water trap” (I think that’s what it was called - this was years ago). This thing is basically a laundry bong. You hook up your dryer hose to it, and periodically you add water to it. The hot, lint-laden air hits the water, the lint is deposited, and the hot air escapes through louvers on the top. You just hang it on the wall. Every so often you clean it out and add more water. It worked pretty well - of course the heat and humidity still were spewed into the apartment instead of the outside, but it DID catch the lint very well.
Ok, now i’m starting to get worried. Having just moved into a new home, with a vent for the dryer that probably runs 30 feet or more to the outside of the house. How in the hell am I supposed to clean that thing out? What the fuck is the purpose of having the lint screen inside at all then? To give people the illusion that they’re cleaning the lint out, and that everything else is ok? Can I sue the builder that made the vent this way if it causes a fire? Our garage is behine the laundry “room”, so can I just make a hole there, and vent to the garage with a screen in front of it to catch the lint? It was a pain in the ass installing the hose the first time, but I’d rather fix it now, than have my house burn the fuck down.
I must go and procure a “laundry bong.”
Dude, you won’t believe the buzz I caught off the lint from the pants I wore to the Phish show. Freakin’ amazing.
The lint catcher stops most of the lint but not all of the lint. If you didn’t have the lint catcher, you’d have to clean the Tin Foil-y Accordionesque Flexible Pipe-Like Thing a lot more often.
Fenris
Friend Fenres-Let me share with you a piece of worldly wisdom, which I have acquired at great personal expense. In past lives I have attempted any number of “do it your self” projects to include shingling a roof, building a garden house, shooing a horse, building a fence, cutting down a tree, repairing leaky plumbing and pruning fruit trees. Every single one of these misadventures (for misadventures they were) resulted in personal injury. Some times sever personal injury. Here is the worldly wisdom:
It is cheaper to pay a competent professional than to pay the medical bills!
About the really cheesy written Irish brogue, go get a copy of Finley Peter Dunne’s “Mr. Dooley” stories. Sit down and read it to your self without moving your lips or sounding out the words. See? Don’t do that any more.
I am now becoming a dryer vent expert as my own dryer vent is clogged (see the “Crack of my ass” thread in MPSIMS thread if you’re bored). The fire department has told me NOT to use my dryer until I get this problem fixed. So a vent cleaning guy is coming tomorrow to blast the long, behind-my-drywall, at-least-12-foot, numerous bends, clogged vent clean.
Holly, since I am a new “expert” in this (hardee har har) let me reiterate that venting a dryer inside is a nono. It doesn’t matter how “inflammable” the nylon is that you tie over the vent. For one thing, you’re venting all that moisture into your house, providing a breeding ground for mold and mildew. They say don’t do it; it’s one of the worse things you can do to your house. Here is more information on that. http://www.buildersbest.com/indoor.htm
Fairy Chat Mom: Plastic pipe also a no-no! Here’s something from a mr fixit site:
"Manufacturers of clothes dryers recommend venting the dryer to the outdoors using a smooth metal vent pipe with minimal bends that can be checked and cleaned periodically. Flexible plastic vent pipes pose the greatest risk because if the bends are not smooth and uniform, lint builds up on the
roughened surface. Also, plastic pipe is flammable. (deleted info about cleaning the flexible metal pipes)
If your dryer has a flexible plastic vent pipe, remove it and replace with a metal vent and smooth metal elbows and fittings."
From another site:
“all manufacturers state not to use plastic flexible hose to vent your dryer. In fact, the largest manufacturer of clothes dryers in the world voids their warranty if their dryer is vented with plastic flexible hose, and yet plastic
flexible hose is still in use in the majority of homes today and continues to be used in much new construction.”
Here is a site that tells you how to clean vents yourself:
http://popularmechanics.com/popmech/homei/9612HIHWM.html
However, I’m like Atrael. I’ve got a lint problem I can’t fix myself. I had to hire a professional vent cleaner. Our area doesn’t have anyone who specializes in only dryer vents, but they do exist and it’s in the Yellow Pages!