Best Way to Install a Dryer Vent

Our Answer

You’re right Mike.  Getting the dryer vent connection right is far more important than most people know, and for several reasons. First off, it’s important for safety.  Dirty dryer ducts are a leading cause of house fires.  Plus, the longer the dryer has to work to vent that moisture, the more energy it uses in the process, as well as the more wear and tear the machine suffers.  Plus, there’s also the increased wear and tear on your clothes as they tumble around a lot longer than they need to.

It sounds like you’ve tried the straightforward approach of snaking the vent behind the machine, but the key here is (and as you’ve observed) to do this without crushing the vent. In fact, you want to do this with as few bends and turns as possible.  Every 90-degree bend in that dryer duct provides the same resistance as 20 additional feet of duct run. So, the fewer twists and turns the better.  Here are couple ideas that might help.

Take a look at the layout of the dryer exhaust inside your house. What happens when that duct gets into the wall?  Can it be changed for easier access?  There are a number of prefabricated ducted dryer exhaust configurations that can help. In some cases, it may be smart to cut open the wall to adjust the position or re-run the duct completely.

Look at the dryer.  Many can be easily modified so that the exhaust ducts out the side, instead of the back. When I remodeled my laundry room a couple years ago, I did just that. Now, instead of the duct taking two turns and then running 20 feet under my son’s bedroom, it goes all of 18 inches out the side of the dryer and through the exterior wall. Our clothes have never dried faster!
Id you’d like to get the dryer close to the wall without crushing the dryer exhaust vent, there’s an innovative type of dryer exhaust duct called a “vent periscope.” A pericope dryer exhaust vent features a vertical duct, with openings for the dryer and the wall vent on opposite sites.

Once you have the ducting set, be sure to keep it clean. Cleaning a dryer vent is easy if you have a right tool. Now that I have a short exhaust duct run, it’s not as critical but before that, I used an inexpensive dryer duct cleaning tool called the Gardus Lint Eater.

It is a series of flexible piping that link together and has a big brush on the end.  It snakes its way through your dryer venting system and will get rid of all of those dangerous lint bunnies lurking in the dryer vent.

Lastly, it is also important to replace plastic or vinyl dryer ducts with metal duct material, which is sturdy, making it easier to clean your dryer vents.

Hope this helps!