Venting Electric Dryer Into Attic

The problem with attics.

Venting electric dryer into attic.

Sometimes such as in town homes or condos it s not possible to vent a dryer through a wall outside. When our dryer was replaced we decided to bring the dryer venting system early 1960 up to code by replacing the tubing that vented into the attic. To make the dyer more efficient you can buy an inexpensive heat diverter and install it in the exhaust duct of electric dryers only not gas dryers you ll save about 50 worth of heat per load in the winter. But we don t recommend it for two reasons.

In these cases it may be necessary to vent your dryer through the attic. Dryer lint is also highly flammable. Venting the dryer outside in cold weather wastes a lot of heat. Every electric dryer has to have an outlet through which it expels warm moist air or it won t work.

You can buy a box called an indoor dryer vent kit at home improvement stores and it manages to control most of the lint but not the water dumped into the air. Not all dryers will allow for this so be sure to check the owners manual to ensure it can be vented in this manner. The air is usually loaded with lint and if you don t vent it outside it can cause all kinds. For dryers that are located in a place where venting to the outside is difficult it s ok to simply vent the dryer into a container of water.

The attic is usually colder than the rest of the house during the winter and that can create a problem for a dryer vent. A dryer vent should be vented outside.