Inside dryer vent - filter question

[M5 LiTE]

I'm planning on venting my electric dryer to the interior of the home this winter. I'll cap off the dryer vent to the outisde.

My question is this - how should I filter the exhaust air? I really don't want any additional dust/lint in the air along with the additional heat and humidity.

I was thinking along the lines of a cardboard box with one side cut away with a large pleated furnace air filter in place. I just don't know how a furnace air filter will hold up to the moisture and heat content of the air.

 

[Steve in Mi]

What is your purpose for venting inside? To conserve on heat? Will the cost of drying the air (dehumidifier?) be less than the heat savings? A little moisture during the heating season can be good but without poly on the warm side of your walls moisture gets into the insulation which can reduce the overall effectiveness of the insulation (most all but the closed cell foam materials). Seems a very complex problem with lots of factors to consider. Experimenting with an electric dryer output may answer some questions for you. Measuring dryer efficiency with the different levels of backpressure could be a tricky task.

For GAS fired dryers - the safest answer is "don't do this" as you have combustion products to deal with including CO (carbon monoxide) a real killer.

 

[Franz©]

Google "Brown Lung" and rethink the idea.
Brown Lung was nasty enough when textile workers caught it from natural fibers. Do you really want to add in the products of outgassing from synthetics and become the lab rat?

 

[PAToyota]

Definitely don't do it! You would not believe how much humidity you will be adding to your house!

 

[kenfath]

Everyone has given very good advice -- Don't do it!
Venting the first load will give you a near 100% humidity level.
There is a reason drier manufacturer's provide instruction for outdoor venting.

 

[mhoffm911]

We had one installed for about a year until I had to replace the dryer. I actually liked it as it warmed up our basement quite well. We never really had a humidity problem. Here's a link to unit similar to one we had except ours mounted in the line and also still vented to the outside:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1T4GZHY_enUS238US238&sa=N

 

[mhoffm911]

This is like what I had:

http://stores.optimumhouse.com/Detail.bok?no=157

 

[Steve in Mi]

I have one like the second photo but no screen only a diverter door and it uses a lint sock out front (looks like nylon hose to me) that filled too frequently. The amount of humidity would depend on your launday useage to a large degree.

 

[PhantomEB]

my folks had one like that, never a humidity problem and that laundry room was always toasty!

 

[mhoffm911]

I should point out that the one I had had a diverter on it. I could either send the air outside or let it come into the room through the screen. Before we finished off our basement and installed a vent free gas heater, I would let the dryer warm things up down there. Yes, before anyone asks, I have plenty of ventilation for the vent free heater. We took our basement door off and replaced it with a baby gate so there is plenty of air flow. I have a carbon monoxide detector and smoke detectors also installed.

 

[mulepackin]

My dad used one at his house at our ranch. Humidity was a bit of a problem, but not too much, as it is always nearly desert dry in the winter in Montana. The filter seemed to work very well and we never noticed a problem with that. I now have a front load energy effecient washer and that thing uses so much less water, and spins so much out I can't imagine humidity ever being an issue with it.

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

I vented my gas dryer into my basement for years at my old house. The humidity was not a problem. On the contrary, it added much needed moisture to the dry winter air.

It also smelled great and added heat to my partially finished basement, which was great when I was downstairs shooting pool.

For filtering I used one of my wife's stockings. We cleaned the lint screen in the dryer before every load, and the stocking only needed to get changed out once or twice a year.

But in the end I realized that the stocking 'filter' was ineffective, and that all the lint managed to find its way into my heating ducts!

For this reason alone, I wouldn't do it again. For the record, this house was built in 1942 and wasn't anywhere near as airtight as newer construction is.

 

[M5 LiTE]

Great guys, thanks for all of your input. Since the output of the dryer will be dumped into an area that 1: is directly adjacent to the 20x24 family room that has a 20' ceiling and 2: has a filtered inlet to the upstairs HVAC unit, I think that exhausting the dryer to the inside of the house with proper filtration will be a fine idea. I just need to come up with a good filtration idea - something like a long box with the pantyhose on the end of the discharge hose and on the end of the box a high efficiency furnace filter. It won't be pretty, but I won't see it unless I'm doing the laundry anyways.

Thanks!

 

[mulepackin]

If you think the dust or particulate output is a concern, and you are going to build your own filter housing, I would look into a HEPA filter of some kind.

 

[redbluebug]

I've been thinking about building a heat exchanger out of aluminum, retain some heat, and dump the dust outside

 

[red caddy]

Creative use for empty kitty litter bucket. Put about 4 inches of water in the bucket, add a little pine-sol or other good smelling soap product to the water. This setup traps even the fine lint, adjust the water level for best traping, with out splashing the water out. Paul

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

The cat is gonna HATE that.

 

[M5 LiTE]

Creative use for empty kitty litter bucket. Put about 4 inches of water in the bucket, add a little pine-sol or other good smelling soap product to the water. This setup traps even the fine lint, adjust the water level for best traping, with out splashing the water out. Paul

Bingo! That's the ticket. Question though - Does the exhaust air need to "percolate" through the standing water in order to trap the lint? Or does the stream of air just blow across the surface of the water?

I would assume that the air needs to move through the water to trap the lint...

 

[red caddy]

No, the force of the dryer output drives the lint onto the water surface, the air turns, stirring the "soup"nicely, the lint and dust don't and are trapped in the water. I added a 4 in. piece of pipe to the plastic elbow, I got at Lowes,in the appliance dept. and keep the water level between 1 and 3 inches below the end of the pipe. I didn't invent this rig, I just scaled up a "late night TV $19.95 NOW NOW NOW add" and built it with junk stuff. sure works slick though. Paul