Advice greatly desired: I got a new washer and dryer delivered today. But they couldn’t hook the dryer up to the wall without an adapter. I went out to get one, but the delivery guys had to leave while I was gone. So the dryer isn’t attached to the wall, I can barely move it on my own, and I have no idea if either of the parts I bought are the right one. What’s the best way to proceed for someone who generally doesn’t know what they’re doing?
I’m feeling pretty lost and defeated right now. I have no clue what to do.
Do you want to finish the job by yourself or get help?
If you put out a request, just like this, on a local facebook group, you’ll probably get one or two people that will offer to come over and do it for you. It’s a 2 minute job for someone that’s physically able to scoot it away from the wall, crawl back there and hook up the vent and put the dryer back.
If you want to do it yourself, you’ll probably want to get a low dolly (like a creeper for getting under car) that you can use to move the dryer. It’s not so much that they’re heavy, they’re just big.
ETA, if you see any reason why you might need to move the dryer away from the wall in the future, you might want to invest in a magnetic adapter to make this easier.
And they did not finish the installation. If they are any sort of reputable company they’ll come out again to finish their job. And they’ll bring appropriate adaptors. And not charge for the second visit caused by their unpreparedness to complete the job they promised.
Huh. When we got our current W/D, the Costco installation went rapidly south. The guys didn’t seem to know what they were doing, and needed to hurry off to their next job without finishing ours. Before they could get away, we had them load the machines right back onto their truck as a return, and later that day bought different ones from a local shop who installed them without incident. I’m a pretty loyal Costco customer but perhaps they work with second-rate delivery and installation firms.
Is it a gas or electric drier? If it’s gas, the vent tube needs to be done correctly or else the gas drier will be venting into the house.
If the drier was light and easily moved, you could definitely do it yourself. It’s basically just hooking up the vent hose to the wall connector. Conceptually, it’s not too much different from connecting a garden hose to a spigot. But if you can’t really get back there, then it’s going to be much more challenging for you to do it yourself. But it’s not a technically hard job. If any of your friends are handy people, especially if they are homeowners, they likely would have the skills to get this done.
Electric. I don’t have any friends who live nearby enough.
Called Costco. They’re going to send someone back on Monday. Hopefully I have the right part now; the agent seemed to think so, but I still don’t know for sure.
Thirding Dewey_Finn and LSLGuy. Leaving your dryer disconnected is far, far from providing the installation you paid for.
If time is a consideration – like you need to start drying clothes immediately – then filmore’s advice makes sense (ask around to handy friends). I can tell you from experience – for someone who can move the unit and get back there to install the vent, it’s a very easy job requiring no expertise. Lots of non-handy fumblers connect their dryer vents every day.
Can you take pictures of the bits you bought and the dryer connector on your wall and post them? Maybe we can help you determine if you have the right parts.
There wasn’t a separate installation fee; it was included in the price.
As for pictures, this was the best I could get with my ability to move the dryer. The two things I bought are there too; one is marked as 3”, the other 4”.
In the top photo … is there a hole in the wall there? It looks like kind of an irregular hole … was the previous dryer vent duct just stuck through that hole? There should be some kind of fitting there, but a super quick-and-dirty install job in the past might have haphazardly stuck the duct in that hole and called it good.
Yeah, that’s a hole. As for the other questions, I don’t know? I can’t tell either way. It doesn’t look wrong to me, but I have no clue what it’s “supposed” to look like. The installation guy did take some metal tube out and showed it to me.
Gotcha. I’m guessing what was there before the Costco guys arrived looked something like one of these:
The “tube in the wall” set up is not too bad, but no longer current practice. Today, there will commonly be some kind of fitting installed (those magnetic ones mentioned upthread are especially nice). The next two photos are representive of the modern types:
I see! Yes, the tube from the wall was pretty short.
I don’t even want to think about installing a new vent hookup right now, though. Someone suggested I just go back to the hardware store and buy a bunch of adapters (or whatever those things I bought are) and have them available for Monday to cover more bases. I just might do that.
