Dryer vent through roof?

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Permalink Reply by Lair Tienter on March 2, 2009 at 10:55am

When I purchased my home there was a clothes dryer vent running up and out the roof. It ran in the wall and up about 8 feet where it went out with a rain cover on it. I moved the laundry area and when I tore out the dryer vent it was almost 1/2 full of lint. The lint was nicely toasted to a dark brown and hard as a rock. I think it was very lucky they never had a fire. I can't think of a way venting up could ever work without several lint traps to insure you were only sending out clean air.

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Permalink Reply by Test on March 3, 2009 at 12:29pm

I agree - i would not suggest venting up with a dryer......too much lint will collect in the tubing as already mentioned. If there is absolutely no way around it i think you can make it work by putting a clean out access, but that becomes a pain.

FYI - a friend of mine has his house burn down and it was attributed to the vent/dryer!

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Permalink Reply by Martin on March 3, 2009 at 1:39pm

I have a condenser dryer here in Germany, and THEY WORK WELL. It is nice not to have to worry about the dryer vent. You just empty our the water catch before you dry your clothes. I guess they are starting to come out in the states now, but are kind of expensive :(

I know Craig (www.ourvictorianhouse.com) vented his dryer upward.. I didn't know about the lint causing a problem.

Good to know information! :)

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Permalink Reply by Will Stanton on March 7, 2009 at 10:24am

This is not only dangerous but probably illegal, check with your town's codes. Is there no outside wall, available?

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Permalink Reply by Swede on March 7, 2009 at 11:36am

Thanks for your thoughts. In some respects, the design is wide open, as the existing second floor's floorplan hasn't changed from 1899. The local state historic society has weighed in on what constitutes primary design elements which will restrict the location of the dryer. It certainly can't exist on the street side of the building, because adding a dryer vent would detract from the structure. Placing the dryer at the alley side of the building has it's own design issues, but I'm confident we can work this out. This building is in a very small town, population about 3300, with minimal local codes, so national codes would probably supercede. My strolling through the web indicates that routing a dryer vent to the roof, while not optimal, is not unheard of. I'll keep everyone apprised on this issue, as I will be meeting with the state historic preservation reps in a couple of weeks.

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Permalink Reply by Foxglove on March 20, 2009 at 11:49pm

I was visiting a friend recently- in a one story house in CA- and I noticed his dryer was right next to an exterior wall yet it didn't vent there. He said it vented out of the roof. He hasn't lived there long and his dryer seemed fairly new so I don't know if over time this could be a problem.

As for me, we had a stackable on a second floor. It vented to a bucket in the basement down through an inaccessible area that I think may have once been a dumbwaiter. One day I was in the basement and I smelled something burning. My husband was up in the attic and he too smelled something burning. It was the dryer! We turned it off and waited but the house did not burn down. We abandoned that unit (the washer had long-since broken) and hooked up in the basement some older machines that were already there. Our electrician who helped hook up the electric dryer happens to be a firefighter when he's not an electrician and he could NOT BELIEVE that we did not call the fire dept, which is very close by. My reasoning was that we had just been to a local parade and I saw the HUGE axes that the firemen carry and I did not want them tearing apart my walls!

We were very lucky that our house did not burn down. I now have an electric dryer vented to a water system in the basement. It does require a bit more maintenance, but we too could not vent where we wanted the dryer to be. (I did not want the dryer a long walk away from the washer and the washer is where the old laundry sinks were.)

I never run the dryer unless I am home for the duration of the cycle.

Obviously, a gas dryer should be vented to the exterior.

good luck!

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