H.I.'s Attend Dryer Duct Inspection Training

[hausdok]

Sure, it's a self-serving press release by a dryer duct cleaning company, published on a Romanian website of all places, but it's an interesting topic nonetheless.

To read the entire article, click here.

[kurt]

This isn't intended to minimize the importance of vigilance in installing and maintaining dryer vents, but........

I'm kind of embarassed that anyone would have to sit through a 2 hour presentation on dryer vent installation and maintenance, and then take a test on it, to know what to do.

It's a dryer vent, fer godsake.

Smooth wall metal. No sheet metal screws or other protrusions to catch lint. Basic calc to determine if it's not too long. No screen on outlet. Clean duct as necessary, determined by looking in vent.

Did I miss anything?

[hausdok]

Yeah,

No corrugated connector from the dryer to the wall inlet. The code doesn't address this and only addresses the connection from the wall to terminus and ignores the connector. I know you meant all the way from the dryer to terminus but that's not what the code refers to. I think the only thing they address with the connector is length - 5ft isn't it?

I think that the dryer vent cleaning company got the stats in their article wrong; my recollection of it was that around 1998 CPSC released the results of a study they'd done wherein they'd looked at reports of all residential fires in the US between 1994 and 1997 and that study found a little more than 17,000 fires had occurred in homes over that 4-year period due to the use of corrugated materials used on clothes dryers - specifically flexible connectors.

That document used to be available on the CPSC website but isn't any longer; now they've got another document that doesn't specifically address the use of corrugated connectors and only emphasizes duct cleaning. Hmm, is it possible that the manufacturers and builders were p.o.'d 'cuz manufacturers ship flex connectors with dryers and it's very difficult and frustrating to connect a dryer to the wall inlet properly when you're only using smooth-walled rigid metal connectors? Perhaps they put a little bit of pressure on CPSC to withdraw their original document?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Jeremy]

My dryer vent terminal would also have adequate clearance from the ground, to include any accumulation of snow. Especially today.

[kurt]

Honestly, I used flex aluminum on my own gas dryer vent. Not the plastic stuff, but the "nearly smooth" aluminum flex they sell at big boxes for about $9.

I check it regularly (flex makes it really easy to remove and inspect), and there's not been a speck of lint buildup in 15 years. I use one of those space saver ell's at the dryer connection. Taped connections.

It works great. I'm a philistine.

[Mike Lamb]

No plastic or foil at the transition duct. Only solid or semi-rigid metal. Semi-rigid is corrugated isn't it?

Dryer shouldn't be on carpeting.