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In order to dry your clothes, a dryer produces hot air that extracts the moisture and funnels it away. It uses a simple vent system to expel the hot, moist air outside. Is it ever safe to vent a dryer inside?
Is it safe to vent an electric dryer inside?
Electric dryers should vent outside just like gas-powered appliances.
Venting your dryer directly into your house isn’t safe. A lot of dust, debris, and heat comes through dryer exhausts, and it’s best to put that air outside to avoid any related health problems indoors.
In addition, venting your electric dryer or any other dryer indoors will make your laundry room and the rest of your house much hotter and more humid than average.
As a result, you’ll have to pay more money to keep your house cool, which will end up costing you more in the way of utilities.
If you want to be greener and keep your house cool, then venting your electric dryer outside is the way to go.
Thankfully, it’s rather easy to set up a dryer vent and vent hose if you have the time.
Of course, if you don’t feel like doing it, you can always hire someone to take care of it at an affordable cost.
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Potential Health Issues from Dryer Exhaust
When you dry your clothing, a lot of lint, dust, hair, and other debris ends up going through your dryer exhaust and into the vent hose. The amount of debris can build up easily over time.
When you have a vent hose, keeping the lint and dust in one place is easy. You must clean out the vent and hose or replace them to manage the issue.
However, when you vent an electric dryer inside, the dust and lint spread all over the place.
You’ll end up breathing in more allergens and other dirt from your clothing, which is now in the air around you.
The excess humidity can also lead to mold infestations behind drywall and in floors or ceilings. Better to just avoid the related issues altogether and vent your dryer outdoors.
Venting Your Dryer Exhaust Outside
As a best practice, any dryer should vent outside. Almost every home in the country has an exterior dryer vent as a standard feature.
A lot of people wonder why dryers don’t come with vent hoses. Companies don’t typically include them because they don’t know how long the dryer hose needs to be.
Some homes have dryers in basements, others on the upper floors next to the bedrooms. Your dryer may be in the laundry room next to the garage entrance.
It all depends on who designed and built your house.
Thankfully, installing a dryer vent on your dryer exhaust and connecting it to any outdoor vent is relatively simple.
All you need is enough hose and some clamps to attach them securely to each end.
If you buy an aluminum foil vent hose, it works sort of like an accordion. You can stretch or shrink it depending on the room between your dryer and the wall.
You can buy some of the vent hoses online or at your local home improvement store.
After bringing it home, you can clamp it to the exhaust and tie the other end to the exterior vent.
Do Electric Dryers Need Vents?
Electric dryers need vents just like gas-powered dryers do.
Dryers generate a great deal of heat, and that hot air needs somewhere to go.
If you don’t vent outside, you’ll end up regretting it. Venting an electric dryer indoors is not a huge deal in the short term, but anything longer than a few days will cause problems.
3 Venting Options for Electric Dryers
The venting solution you choose will depend on how long you need the hose to be. But, in most cases, these three options will do the trick.
Aluminum Foil Vent Hose
This is a lightweight metal hose that’s stretchy like an accordion. It will last for years and fit into pretty much any position you need.
Most aluminum foil hoses can fit over the dryer exhaust opening. All you have to do is tighten the foil around the exhaust with a ring clamp.
Plastic Vent Hose
These are essentially the same as an aluminum foil vent but are made of plastic. They’re white, so some people like to use these instead.
Metal Ducts
In some instances, having rigid metal ducts is preferable. It’s harder, for instance, for lint to get stuck in a rigid duct without any dips or ridges.
Instead, you get smooth lines all the way out into your exterior vent.
Final Thoughts
Finding the right solution for your electric dryer is important to long-term performance and keeping your house clean.
Connect your dryer to an outdoor vent to stay safe and keep your appliance in great condition.