Home Improvement

They're not without tradeoffs, but ventless dryers (aka heat pump dryers) have made a lot of strides the past few years. They tend to take longer than traditional dryers I believe, but use 30% less electricity overall, and don't need a vent. There's an $840 tax credit in the inflation reduction act that covers them, but as far as I can find it hasn't been rolled out yet.

You're just not giving us enough info to help you out.

My immediate suggestion as im reading the post would be to extend a vent straight up through the roof of the garage, but then you claim there is no easy way to vent outside.

Without sketches of the layout of the house and/or photos I'm not sure how we can help. Is there a window in the laundry room? Can you set up a flexible vent that goes out there?

A floorplan or photos would be helpful if you want a precise answer. Refer to you dryers manual for maximum vent length, but typically you can extend the vent around 25-30ft to get it to an exit point. The roof is an option but less ideal. Typically a gable end of the house is best.

They also make ventless condensing dryers which are in supposed to very efficient but have long drying cycles. I've not heard the best reviews on them, but do your own research.

More generally speaking try to limit your dryer use. It just adds wear and tear on your clothes and costs money to use. Hang dry when you can. I personally partially dry and then hang as it makes clothes largely wrinkle free.

Edit: I see the floorplan OP uploaded, but I'm unclear on what is an exterior wall. Is the north side of the garage an exterior wall? Because that would be a short run to extend the vent to reach an exit point.

Slightly more serious thought, what about installing your washer and dryer in the garage, making it a shorter run for ventilation and such?

I’m betting the garage might have originally been a carport. In the short term you could leave the garage door cracked a few inches to vent it. Perhaps set up a box fan in the garage to run while you run the dryer in order to circulate the air. Regardless, you’ll get a mild amount of air mixing through natural convection with the garage door cracked, but a fan would help. Rerouting it will take someone handy or a contractor.

My parents have a similar setup. They eventually switched to an interior venting system (link is an example only, not necessarily a recommendation).

It condenses the humid air, so you have to empty the reservoir and clean the lint filter after every use, but it's a lot cheaper than a remodel just to add some ducts to the outside.

If I had your problem, I think I would look at 4 potential solutions.

1, vent-less dryer is obvious, but pricey 2. heavy duty dehumidifier, a quick amzn search suggests you can get something in the ~$100-$200 range 3. build an enclosure to run the vented air through a container with calcium chloride pellets, this should reduce moisture. maybe couple with #2, the pellets don't remove moisture, they trap it, so it will evaporate eventually. 4. vent your garage, moving air through it will be the cheapest and least difficult. This may not be an option for you depending on your situation.

A spin dryer can remove a lot of moisture from a load, but they are typically small. Never seen a family sized one, so I wouldn't recommend that.. you'd need 2 or 3 of them for large loads with cottons. If this does appeal use laundry alternative, panda isn't quite as high a value. I'm single and I only use the spin cause I hang everything, no dresser. only takes 3 mins for 'mostly dry' clothes. Some people use clay (cat litter) on their garage floor to soak up oil, this would also absorb the moisture, but it will still evaporate over time just like the Calcium Chloride.

Said it replying to someone else, but easiest solution bar none (based on the fairly limited info) is to move the washer and dryer to the garage, and make the laundry room a closet or small office.

Link to a floor plan? Pic of the wall in the garage with the vent?

Could you replace your existing dryer with a ventless dryer? Then you wouldn't have to worry about running ventilation - you would instead periodically empty a container of water from the dryer. I've been using a ventless dryer for a year or so (my house also has limited options for proper ventilation), and it's been great so far.

so there are rooms to the "north" of the laundry room, but is there anything to the north of the garage?

just punch a hole through the "north" wall of the garage, and run vent duct out that way?

edit: my house is laid out the same and the vent just goes up into the rafter space, and then out one end of the house.

A ventless (heat pump) clothes dryer would be the simplest solution. It's not necessarily the cheapest though.

So where i live, dryers don't vent out for like a decade. Get a vetter dryer?

How about something like a pet door opening in the garage door. Run the vent along the floor of the left side of the garage

Venting into the garage is going to lead to a very bad time (mold, lint, ect). Honestly, it may be cheaper to just go with a heat pump based dryer. They are far more energy efficient, areeasier onyour clothes, and don't need a vent at all. Now it's not all sunshine and roses, they are more expensive than traditional models, take longer to dry, the collected water needs dumped out afterwards, and don't heat your clothes up (so no hot towels or wrinkle releasing). That said, I think it would be the best compromise for your situation.

If you decide to keep the vented dryer, it’s worth noting that humidity is good for energy efficiency in the cold season. Some vented dryers in some parts of the world are even designed with no ducting (the dryer just vents where it sits). Not ideal, but just a bit of perspective. Anyway, this guy explains how and why to vent into the house.

Ideally you would have a humidistat that vents into the house until a threshold is reached, then switches to vent outdoors. If you don’t want a complex ventilation project, it might be wise to simply vent indoors in the cold season and space the loads a day apart, and manually move the ducting to go outdoors in the summer.

Line dry your clothes. Then you dont have the itsue .

Microwave?

Disclaimer: I never claimed to be an expert.