It got down right COLD this week in our neck of the woods. In the back of mind I have been remembering a time this summer when the dryer vent got pulled out of the wall and it started venting into the house, unbeknownst to me. I kept wondering why it so freakin unbearable in that part of the house and then I figured it out.
When temps started to dip down here I wondered if we should get one of those indoor dryer vent attachments. Well we did and I am so happy with it. It REALLY keeps one whole half of the house toasty warm… the coldest half… where we hang out during the daylight hours. It also adds humidity to the air, which is a plus in cold weather.
Basically it is a plastic bucket that attaches to the vent hose. It has a small bit of water in it so that lint gets wet when it comes out and won’t fly out of the bucket. It can be mounted on the wall with screws but we took the lazy way out and just sat it between the washer and dryer. When it fills up and/or lint starts flying out we dump it out in the compost, add more water, and reattach.
You can buy one for $8-20 and I imagine the savings will be significant. We have to run the dryer anyway to dry our clothes in the winter… since we don’t like frozen, line dried clothes. So why let the hot air vent outside when you can keep it inside to heat the house.. double whammy!
Drawbacks inlcude the fact that it is plastic and I don’t like buying new plastic, it fogs up all the windows, and it does make the whole house smell like drying clothes but we can trade that for energy savings. I may make some dried lavender sachets to see if I can make the house smell like flowers.
It also may not be the best idea if you live in a really humid climate since it will add to the humidity and moisture in the house. In Ohio it is typical for people to run de-humidifiers all summer and humidiferiers all winter… our winters get pretty dry. You also never want to vent a gas powered dryer indoors… this is for electric only.
They have several on Amazon if you want to try!
We actually JUST bought one of those, we installed washer/dryer hookups and didn’t want to run a vent to the window. We bought one for pretty cheap at Home Depot. Love it so far!
Wow!! I love this! Our laundry room is connected to our bathroom (through an extra sliding door in the b athroom) and they are both the coldest rooms in the house, this might help. Would it be too hard to hook it back up the regular way? We are going to try and sell our house soon, and I imagine most people who would look at it wouldn’t appreciate it :)
Rachel,
It would take 1 minute to hook it back up to the outside vent… you just unhook the silver hose and put on this new device, you are not altering anything.
Wow! Thank you so much for this post! this is the perfect solution to our freezing first floor (where the dryer is) and always toasty second floor. I had no idea you could do that! What a great way to get your bang for the buck running the dryer. :) You’re the best!
Our dryer is in our bathroom off of our bedroom (sounds weird, but i love the setup) and it is the coldest room of the house as well. Thanks for the great tip! I’m going to show Husband tomorrow :)
I would be cautious about this. I have accidentally run the dryer with the hose vented inside and walls, floors, windows – EVERYTHING – was wet. It was warmer at the time, but that’s still a LOT of moisture you’re releasing into the air, especially if you’re doing more than one load. Be aware that if water is collecting anywhere, you run the risk of damaging furniture, as well as providing a perfect environment for mold and mildew. On the other hand, if the air is REALLY dry and you only run one load, it might work perfectly.
Jassica, I vented mine indoors during the peak of our humid season and didn’t have that issue. It DID make the house unbearabley hot and the air heavy to breathe… if it has that effect I would discontinue it. We only plan to use during our cold and dry winter when most people are slathering on the skin lotion and using chapstick with abandon.
What a great idea! I would have loved to have this this morning. It was only 63 in the house. My washer/dryer are in the bathroom and I had to finish drying a load of laundry while I showered. Sure would have been nice to step out of the shower into a nice warm bathroom! I’m heading to Home Depot right after work. THANK YOU!
genius. I have never heard of this before but I just might have to try one for that price. The coldest room in our house is our bedroom, but the laundry room is adjacent to it!
We’ve done something like this for years. As soon as it cools down, undo the vent hose, put an old stocking on the vent line from the dryer, and stuff a bunch of old plastic bags in the vent outside. Keeps the needed heat and humidty inside and the cold and creatures outside. If you don’t have plastic bags from the grocery store or bread, just use an old sheet or towel.
Wow! What a great idea! I never thought about doing this. I am definately getting one!!
Thanks so much for a great green tip!!
Thanks for the tip I never would have thought of that!!! I live in arizona where most people think HEAT!!!! But I am in Northern Arizona where we get quite a bit of snow and can get pretty cold.
How would that affect families who try to keep the humidity down for anti-mold and asthma related health issues?
erin, it will only make house more humid. If you live in an area where that is bad thing or you have circumstances that make humidity bad for health then this is not a good option. It basically blows hot, moist air into the house.
I love this idea! We have a cold 1st floor and toasty warm second floor (like one of the other commenters here) and since our laundry room is on the 1st floor I can totally see this working. I have read a lot of “green” tips on saving energy but this is a new one to me. Can’t wait to try this when my hubby gets home from work! Thanks!
Wow, this is SUCH a great idea!! I live in Alaska and it is so dry here and cold right now, so something like this would be wonderful to get. Thanks for the post!
Great idea. Our air is DRY and our house is cold! If we’re already using electricity to dry our clothes, why not heat the house and add moisture to the air at the same time! I found one at our local hardware store for about $8. it goes in the middle of the hose and has a lint filter and a switch on it, so you can just move the switch for summer and winter. No reinstalling. It works great, but the house smelled a little musty since I don’t use scented laundry products. So, I put a little baby washcloth with a dab of essential oil in the dryer and now the house smells good. In fact, it works so well, it activated the smoke alarm, so we can’t dry so many loads back to back. Over all GREAT tip, as always. Thanks.
Did this last winter & it worked well in Maryland.
I have read that you SHOULD NOT vent a gas dryer in the house because of the dangerous fumes.
I would be really careful about doing that with ANY type of clothes dryer. I have read several different times that allowing the air from your dryer vent (ANY type of dryer) to flow inside your house can be very dangerous. It said it is something you breathe from that and that goes to your lungs. I just don’t know about that,cause as I stated I have read about that several different times, and it makes sense too, that is why that air has that clothes dryer smell… Just thought I would let you know about this…
do not do it with gas dryers your are risking carbon monoxide poisioning.webmaster u should take not of this article
We had a similar thing happen. We had moved the dryer and it snapped part of the vent hose/tube. It vented into the house for almost a week. We live in a subtropical climate so the humidity is almost always 80% or higher. I couldn’t figure out why we had water dripping from the walls. This is likely a great idea in other parts of the country, but down south on the Gulf coast… not so much. Good luck though!