does a dryer have to go on a exterior wall

[logan97]

new construction. does a dryer have to go on a exterior wall for the exhaust vent?

 

[dave1949]

No, but it is to your advantage if it is. You don't want long vent runs with turns in them.

 

[orezok]

Our laundry room is located in the center of the house which results in a 15' vertical stack through the roof. This is the worst condition for a dryer vent. I added a booster fan inline which is automatically turned on by air flow from the dryer. With a booster fan, the vent can be 50' long without any loss in drying power.

 

[CobyRupert]

No, but it is to your advantage if it is. You don't want long vent runs with turns in them.

That is, be cautious that lint doesn't build up in long runs to create a fire hazard.
Also isn't there a rule of thumb (with woodstoves anyways) that every 90 degree bend is like reducing the pipe diameter by 1"-2"?

I have a couple apartments with dryers that vents go down 5', then turn 90 deg and run about 15' horizontal to exterior wall. I check them and/or clean them out with a long pole on the horizontal section about once a year, or if any dryer maintenace needs to be done I'll run a rag through the whole line tied to a drain snake.

Even at this length, as long as the dryer is getting enough air flow, and produces enough heat that the lint "dries", the lint will blow itself out and not "cake" up in the tube. (IMO) The good news (hopefully) is if it is "caking" it's not hot enough to be a fire hazard.

 

[dmccarty]

One has to be concerned with the length of the dryer vent. In our old city house the dryer was right next to an exterior wall and the vent pipe was just long enough to get through the wall. Our house now has to vent through the roof which is not optimum but works. I would guess the height is 15ish feet which is within the specifications of the dryer.

Check your dryer specs. You might need to put in a booster fan. I wish I could have designed the laundry room to have the dryer vent through the wall but it just was not possible in our case.

Later,
Dan

 

[cartod]

The house we are currently building has a 35' dryer vent run from center of house. We had to install a booster fan to get it outside, I think code here says any run over 25' must have a booster.

 

[RSKY]

With our LG the warranty is voided if you have a run over 33' or with four 90 degree bends. It would not dry well, took 15-30 minutes longer than a washer load. I moved it and took two bends out and shortened the drying time by 10-20 minutes.

Check your manual about the length of runs.

RSKY

 

[logan97]

out the roof 12' or less 2 45 degree elbows.
out the wall 12' or less 2 90 degree elbows.

in original house design next to wall 5' or less 2 90 degree elbows.
does the plumber usually install the dryer ?

manual states 17' with 3 90 deg flexible metal with an angled hood ?
rigid metal 29"

 

[GPintheMitten]

Our dryer is on the inside wall with 2 90's and total of 10 foot run.

Washer and dryers are often next to each other. On an outside wall you can't run the plumbing inside the wall. It's a world full of trade offs.

 

[Soundguy]

new construction. does a dryer have to go on a exterior wall for the exhaust vent?

my 00 built block home has the dryer in near middle of the house with an up vent.

if i had it to do over. ti would vent outside.

as it is. I'm considering venting it to the side wall its on and venting to one of those bucket jobs in the garage. I have to get onthe roof with a snake and snake the up pipe yearly and clean out the weather flap valve / move the dryer and clean out the lint trap. it's a bit of a chore that i wouldn't have if it was vented outside..