Is ist illegal to not vent a dryer to the outside?

[commander bunnypants]

At work the dryer is not vented to the outside

CB

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. You'd have to check your local laws for the legality.

But whether it's legal or not, it's certainly fucking dumb.

[commander bunnypants]

2. eggactly

civil service at your disposal here

CB

[dembotoz]

3. electric or gas

during the first energy crisis-Mid 70"s?
there was a kit where you could bypass the dryer vent for your home and sent the warm moist air into you basement.
My parents had one, but I don't remember them ever really using it. Maybe 2 years ago, I had to replace the venting hose and ended up just throwing the whole thing out...

I remember there being something about that if it was an electric dryer-no harm, no foul.
But if it were a gas dryer-not a good idea-carbon monoxide thing.

[northzax]

7. it seems like it is ripe for some sort

of cheap energy recapture idea, doesn't it? maybe not as internal heating, per se, but why not vent it to pre-heat water going into your hot water tank? or something like that? no sense in venting air you have burned fuel to heat to the outside.

[LostinVA]

4. It's okay to vent electric dryers inside

[Swede]

5. Wouldn't there be a lint problem?

:shrug:

[jmowreader]

9. Not if you use a lint trap

We sell a lint trap for your dryer. It's this box with vents in the lid, and a place to connect your dryer hose.

I've also seen lint traps that were five-gallon buckets full of water with the end of the dryer hose under the water. That would at least trap the moisture.

But in general...if you CAN vent outside, you really should.

[guitar man]

6. I don't know about the legality

but it isn't necessarily smart. When I bought my house back in '95, the previous tenants had a dryer vented inside. The air coming out is not only warm, it is also damp. It had created a major mold problem in the room were the dryer was :(


edit typo

[LeftyFingerPop]

8. You can vent an electric dryer inside...

but I'm fairly certain you can't vent a gas dryer inside.

In any case, it is probably a bad idea.

When you vent inside, the result is warm. moist air blowing into your home. This extremely humid air can cause all kinds of problems, not the least of which are mold and mildew.

You may be able to vent into a garage to abate some of these problems (big area with the door opening once in a while).

They sell contraptions that you hook the vent hose into for electric dryers when you want to vent them indoors. I think they are filled with water, so the lint is caught by the water.

Summary: You can vent electric indoors, but probably not gas. Bad idea either way. Try to find a route to vent outdoors and save yourself some headaches down the road.

[Lasher]

13. I used to have an electric drier set up to vent inside.

had one of those contraptions hooked up to the vent hose, and it was filled with water. It trapped the lint and the moisture too. Worked just fine.

We remodeled and I installed an outside vent, just so I don't have to keep checking the vent thingy to make sure it's got water in it.

[kwassa]

10. What was the dryer venting about? Obama, or Hillary?

[Redstone]

12. Oh, damn, that's funny. You need to find a way to sneak that into GD-P, just to see

what kind of conniptions you can cause.

(Without adding to the enormous load of aggro the mods are dealing with right now, of course.)

Redstone

[1]

11. my best "holmes on holmes" answer is...

no.

you always vent a dryer outside. for all of the reasons stated above.

now, could you vent inside and not have problems? its possible.

but ask yourself this.

could you have unprotected sex and not get pregnant or catch a std.

its possible.

but my best "holmes on holmes" answer is always use the condom.

that is code.

vent that dryer. glove that dick...

[Lex]

14. it's probably not up to building "code" in your city or county and therefore

a violation

[suninvited]

15. I didnt vent my dryer in a house I rented once,

because there was no 'hole'. I ran mine hose to a panty hose as a filter, and lived with it. Actually, it did help keep the laundry room warm, and I liked it.

I dont really think there are laws about that, what is the worst that can happen??

[JAbuchan08]

16. It could overheat and set your house on fire?

that's the justification *I* was given.

[suninvited]

17. The appliance would have to overheat to do that, I think

and it might do that if I closed off the vent, but I didnt. I just filtered it to catch the lint and released the heat into the room.

Maybe if your workplace just duct taped your vents closed or something, you have a case about it being illegal.