EDIT: I’ve attached a rough map of the situation. The laundry room is the little room in the middle. The red dot is where the dryer vents into the garage.
My house is weird. Built mid-1970s. Upper Midwest.
One of the weird/annoying things about my house is the fact that the clothes dryer vent opens up into the house’s attached garage rather than venting outside. This is an electric dryer, so the vent is just hot wet air – nothing like CO or anything.
Ideally, I’d like the dryer to vent to the outside and not turn my garage into a stagnant humid swamp every time I dry clothes (most days, actually, because I have many children). But the laundry room isn’t situated in a way that makes outside venting easy. It’s on the main level, right in the middle of the floorplan. No basement access, so I can’t add ductwork through the floor. No usable ceiling access either.
What options do I have to make this mess annoying? Add venting to the garage somehow?
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.
I have a Miele washer/heat pump dryer combo. From my experience, the dryer is about the same as what I’m used to from a conventional dryer (~45 minutes), but the washer takes a lot longer. As I understand it, the washer does a more thorough spin cycle so the dryer has to do less work.
That said, I have been very happy with mine.
They also make these little boxes that are designed to be attached to the vent on regular vented dryers that can’t actually be vented outdoors through normal means.
https://www.amazon.com/VIWINVELA-Indoor-Bucket-4-Inch-Proflex/dp/B09JZ1N5KB
They barely exist in the US. Europe is far ahead in this regard. In Europe you won’t even find one of those extremely wasteful vented dryers in most shops.
I did some research on the US market for ventless dryers. The pricing is terrible but if climate matters to you, you will take the hit. One thing that really disturbed me is among the few that are available in the US, only a couple of them is not part of the #internetOfShit. So if you want a dryer that does not connect to the network options are very limited. All the non-discontinued Miele models are “smart”, but this one might be worth a look because it’s 110v and not designed to be on a network. Some Whirlpool ones are wifi-free (this was the biggest one I found but it requires 220v). And indeed it’s hard to find ventless dryers in normal sizes. Most are ½ the size of vented dryers.
(edit)
If you don’t find a suitable ventless dryer, consider putting a dehumidifier in a closet & make that the drying closet. You could perhaps rig up a drain so you don’t have to empty tanks of water.
Do not vent your dryer into your garage, unless you want a fine layer of lint on everything in there. My old house did that and I HATED it.
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?
I’ve uploaded a rough layout. Straight up is the second floor of the house. No windows in the laundry room.
Now I am even more confused… why can’t you go north from the laundry room? (assuming up is “north” in your picture).
Looks like that image is the dryer itself, right? It is on an outside wall (even if the wall itself has no window). That wouldn’t just be a solution, it would be the preferred solution because you can keeping the ductwork as short as possible (less condensation as the air cools and dew forms on the inside of the vent.
The other option would be a “U” shaped vent which went into the garage as shown with the red dot, and then a 180 degree bend to go out the exterior wall of the garage. 180 degrees is not ideal, but looks like it could be done in a short distance.
Nice hatchwork in the picture, BTW
Oh crap, I can see how lousy my drawing is. I tried to keep it simple but it’s so simple that it’s misleading.
North of this drawing is a whole bunch of additional rooms. It’s not an exterior wall.
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.
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.
That’s really the best answer.
Note as well that if air drying is not an option, the ventless dryers are much gentler on clothes than vented dryers because they don’t run at high temps. So clothes last longer.
Slightly more serious thought, what about installing your washer and dryer in the garage, making it a shorter run for ventilation and such?
