dry air...getting moisture back in
- Thread starter jj3500
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
I didn't have time to finish before.
Both electric and gas dryers produce ultrafine particles that you certainly don't want to breath into your lungs. Additionally, they can be transported to the blood or even brain.
Both electric and gas dryers produce ultrafine particles that you certainly don't want to breath into your lungs. Additionally, they can be transported to the blood or even brain.
burntime
New Member
fossil said:
Code is 1 thing, CO2 with gas, none that I am aware of with electric. I have a gas dryer so I do not do it. I see dryer "heat reclaimers" sold all the time. May not be to code but we all know that people do a lot of things that are not up to code.
We're not talking about the exhaust vent from the combustion side of a gas-fired dryer here. We're talking about the hot, humid air vent from the clothes drying process itself. NFPA 211 requires that there be a lint filter installed and that it (the vent from the drying chamber) be exhausted to atmosphere. Fine, dry lint drifting around or collecting someplace can present a fire hazard (not to mention a health hazard and a cleaning hassle), and fire hazards are what NFPA 211's all about. The vent from the combustion side of a gas-fired dryer has a whole other set of requirements. I suspect that what you're referring to as a "heat reclaimer" is some sort of heat exchanger to install in a dryer vent to try to transfer some of the heat from that exhaust stream back into the living space...but not just venting the dryer exaust into the house. I'm fully aware of the fact that lots of people routinely ignore codes of all types, whether just out of plain ignorance or plain stubborness or plain laziness or plain "I know betterness", or plain "nobody's gonna tell me how to live my lifeness". I'm not a code evangelist, I'm simply providing food for thought. I also believe that some smart people are invloved in writing up codes, and there are a whole lot of lessons learned in the past that have led up to the implementation of most of them. I'm just a messenger...don't shoot me. Rick
burntime
New Member
No problem Rick, I am saving my bullets for the Kentucky deer hunt! ;-) I know what you are saying...funny thing is a lot of codes are because someone did something realllllllllly fooooooolish. Not all codes are good either. I would not vent the electric dryer in my home due to the dust! BUT, people do it. You are 100% correct, the reclaimer is a trap door with a lint screed, when the lint screen fills it closes and contines to exhaust back outside.
Yeah, man...all I'm sayin' is it's our (and our loved ones') health and safety we're talkin' about, and my personal philosophy is to learn as much as I can about it and go into it with my eyes wide open. Maybe I won't have to make some of the same mistakes others have made in the past. Codes are at least a place to start, that's where most of them came from. Good luck with your hunting this year! (Send me a couple of nice hunks of venison!). Rick
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
The gas dryers combine the clothes drying exhaust and the combustion process exhaust into a single common outlet. I wouldn't vent it into my home even if it was electric.
That's really interesting, highbeam. I've never had a gas-fired clothes dryer, so never really thought about it, but they do routinely just have one outlet duct on the back of the appliance, so far as I've seen. Maybe that's why the wording of NFPA 211 was changed, because the only distinction between "Type 1" and "Type 2" is residential vs. commercial (capacity). In any case, like you, I have never, nor will I ever, vent any clothes dryer directly into my living space, or anywhere but directly to daylight. If I need to humidify my home, I'll use a device which was purpose-built to do just that. Rick
If you believe it to be feasible, safe, and commercially viable, then why not set up a lab/machine shop/experimental facility in, say, Menlo Park, New Jersey, get a talented team together, and go after it? I'll be eagerly awaiting the results of your testing and development. In the meantime, I'll just vent my clothes dryer outside, listen to my old Victrola, and stuff wood into my stove. Rick
CK-1 said:
I have one of them on my furnace....but my furnace doesn't run but once in the fall to see if it still works.
fossil said:
I dry my clothes on the short anywhere in my house. That is one bonus of maintining 75F+ and 0% humidity
Redox
Minister of Fire
fossil said:
Been there, done that, but I aint moving to Joisey, hon.
I am definitely one of those people that doesn't like anything in my air except AIR, but last winter, in the dead of the season, I disconnected the vent on our gas clothes dryer. I left the furnace fan running to help circulate the air/moisture around and dried a few loads of clothes. The 'ol Whirlpool is rated at 22,000 BTU and we're burning natural gas. The first thing I noticed was all the condensation on the walls. It left some lint around as I didn't try to catch it with anything. All my CO detectors read "0" throughout the entire experiment. I even left one laying on top of the dryer and - nothing. Humidity in the house jumped 10% - far faster than my Aprilaire could have ever done.
I contend that there are MANY reasons why this is against code, the least of which is the lint. First off, the burners on clothes dryers are very unsophisticated and there is the possibility that they can spill raw gas during a failed ignition attempt. Enough failed attempts and you could have enough for an explosion. CO is also a very real possibility, but a properly operating gas burner shouldn't be releasing much CO. CO is effectively like wood smoke from a stove - inefficiently burned fuel. I suspect that if there was a problem with the burner and it were making CO, I would be seeing soot on the clothes. The burners operate with so much excess air that I contend that it is unlikely. There is no heat exchanger in a clothes dryer; they are 100% efficient. It is definitely possible to burn up all the oxygen in the room and make CO, but 22,000BTUs is about the size of most unvented gas space heaters.
I know the flames are coming about my little experiment, as well as those from the people who can't figure out how I could ever have a GAS dryer in my house to begin with. Dryer fires are usually caused by improper venting that leaves lint around. Ours is well vented normally and there is no lint buildup. Most dryers operate in a vacuum so very little lint can escape inside the machine. They will typically blow a belt every 10 years or so and require someone to pull them apart for repair. I have never seen a properly vented Whirlpool dryer with a heavy enough buildup to lose sleep over. If you are really worried about it, pull the kick plate off and vacuum it out; you'll get about 90% of it this way.
Always pushing the boundaries,
Chris
- Status
Similar threads
