Can a dryer be vented through the roof? [solved]
In my home the dryer vent is set up to vent out into an enclosed back porch. The problem is that all sorts of lint (and heat) get pumped out into that enclosed area and makes a mess.
Directly above the dryer there is a ventilation pipe that goes to the roof (also connected to the vent in the bathroom) that I could easily re-route the dryer vent into.
A couple of questions about this:
- Is it a generally accepted practice to vent a dryer up through the roof, or does a dryer vent have to generally be at a level or downward slope?
- Is it okay to use the same vent line as the bathroom or am I asking for trouble?
- Is there a recommend maximum distance for venting a dryer that I am going to exceed going from the first floor of a home to the roof?
I would not do this for exactly the reasons you've asked about:
1) By sharing the bathroom vent pipe, you're ensuring that at least half the gunk that's being spewed onto your porch is going to be spewed into your bathroom unless you can find and install some kind of one-way flapper between the new "Y" fitting and the bathroom. If you do find and install such a thing, it's going to be difficult to keep clean and operational.
2) I'm assuming since you say "first floor" that you also have a second floor, in which case that's a long way to go to get up to the roof. It's not such a big deal for the bathroom fan to vent up there, but that's a long way for lint from the dryer to be carried, and it's going to be more likely to collect on the walls of the pipe over that long distance.
Do you have a crawlspace or basement that you could run a new pipe through?
Can you continue the vent on the porch to an exterior wall? Maybe put in a 90 degree bend and continue the vent pipe along the wall of the house? Here is a list of maximum vent length, down toward the bottom of the page.
I wouldn't try to share the bathroom vent. I can see several potential downfalls. The dryer may actually vent into the bathroom which will fill it with hot, moist air if not lint. The bathroom may vent through your dryer. The bathroom fan may fill with lint, making it inoperable at best, and causing a fire hazard in the worst case.
We had to go through our roof with our dryer. I doubt it was longer than 15' but at any rate never experienced any problems.
Going through the roof is fine, the idea is to make the run as straight and short as possible. First floor through roof is not ideal, so keep it under 25 feet.
I'd worry about return air. If you go through the roof, I would not use the same line as a bathroom (note my condensation problem).
I'll let you know how my new cap works out (if it ever arrives), you'll want something like that as well to keep the outside air out of your dryer.
we had a episode concerning dryer vent a fire in the dryer from having vents upwards lint goes back inside the dryer and into your heating elements and causes fire so therefore i would not recommend upward venting short term may be ok but long term may cause a fire fire chief
Cleaning a dryer vent on the roof - Do not DIY!
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