We had a new washer and gas dryer delivered on Friday. But… there was a problem with our vent, and because we couldn’t use the washer and dryer in the placement we wanted, we needed longer hoses than ordered.
The appliance sales manager at Home Depot put us down for free door position swapping if needed, which would have been great, if our washer and dryer had reversible doors. They don’t. *Shrug* we’re used to top-loading washers, not front-loading ones.
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The sales guy seemed convinced that we could put the dryer on the left and washer on the right, and while we technically can, the doors would both open in the wrong directions. So, the washer will go on the left, and dryer on the right, with doors opening opposite each other for easy clothes transfer from washer to dryer.
As for the hoses, we returned the 4-foot GE coated stainless hose set for separate 8 foot stainless hoses in what seemed to be a Home Depot house brand.
Okay, as for the dryer vent, this is what it looks like:
I kind of panicked a little bit at seeing this, especially when we thought we would get installation scheduled for Saturday.
I have yet to make any headway baby-proofing the place, let alone doing anything else. A lot of doors don’t latch, and I still need to put a lock and secondary safety latch on the basement door. Baby gates are still in boxes, and one needs to go back.
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Did you know that top-of-stairs baby gates need to be attached to studs and/or solid banisters? An angled gate mount is the only way I can hit the stud and the banister, but luckily I found a single brand that offers something suitable.
Back to the point…
Umm… what the heck do I do with this? Spackle over several drywall anchors and more smaller holes than there should be?
Oh, and here’s what used to be in the wall, which I found in the garage. It was removed for easier wallpaper removal and painting.
So I went to Home Depot. I found dryer duct vents, but none of which had the collars that this piece had. This older piece had a plastic collar AND a sheet metal one. I guess that’s why there were so many holes in the wall?
Is that… is that a nail? For fastening something to drywall?
I picked up a duct and vent kit, and an associate in the ducting aisle found me a huge piece of 4″ duct ceiling collar I could use in place for interior trim. But I don’t really like that idea. After coming back home, I realized that the hole is too close to the molding.
I found something similar to the removed duct in a kit at Lowes, with pre-assembled snap-together ducting, and a little piece of interior trim to make the hole look a little nicer.
So here’s my current plan:
- Remove the outdoors vent. There doesn’t look to be much (any) caulk, which should make it easier. Cut away any visible caulk with a rigid scraper.
- Use Nashua 322 foil tape over the seam of whichever duct I end up using. The snap-together seam looks pretty secure, but since we have a gas dryer, I want to 100% sure it’s leak-free.
- Install new vent and use outdoor silicone to seal the edges.
- [Quickly] fill in the holes around the interior hole with some spackle and flexible putty knife.
- Leave the interior trim piece (a small white square with 4 mounting holes) in place, for potential installation later on.
- Maybe mount the interior collar if I can find place for a fresh drywall anchor, and use foil tape to cover any potential gap between duct and collar.
- Buy a hanger to help keep semi-rigid dryer-to-vent ducting from drooping.
Sounds about right?
Step 2 is the part I’m having most difficulty looking into, aside from maybe 5 and 6. I believe the older piece was taped along its seam with foil tape, but there’s not a lot of info online as to whether this is recommended or required. I figured it might be a if-you-want-to step.
Nashua 322 tape seems to be suitable. It’s a multi-purpose HVAC foil tape.
Any ideas on how to seal up the perimeter of the duct a little better on the inside? I’m not sure if the duct tape was put on by the previous owners, and why they might have done that.
Sigh. I would have an easier time cutting a new hole and installing a new dryer vent kit. With my luck, the existing dryer vent is liquid-nailed to the siding, and it wont be compatible for the separate 4″ duct kits I bought from Home Depot and Lowes.
It’s a little embarrassing for me to talk about things like this, and to admit uncertainty about something so seemingly minor. But I figure that maybe the discussion might help others too. I can tell you how to cut a duct, seam a duct, or crimp a duct, and which tools to use. But DIY home repair is pretty much completely new to me. I look at the wall with its random around-the-duct-hole holes, and my mind goes completely blank.
Well, hopefully my plan is sound. And if not, I’m trusting in your knowledge and experiences to steer me, and others with similar projects, in the right direction. (Thanks!)
Derek
Can’t help you on the dryer vent front, but on the baby gate part. I ended up mounting a 1×6 to a stud on the outside of the wall vertically. That allowed me to mount the gate to the 1×6 with the 1×6 securely attached to the stud. It’s solid, held up to me trying to knock it over and has worked so far for 3 months of our baby shaking it, pulling on it, etc.
Hang Fire
I was going to suggest something just like this. You need something solid, and the 1×6 can be removed and the holes spackled-over when the baby phase of your life is over.
fred
“As for the hoses, we returned the 4-foot GE coated stainless hose set for separate 8 foot stainless hoses in what seemed to be a Home Depot house brand.”
Are these the water supply hoses for the washer – or do you mean “vent lines” ?
You may know that there are specialty water supply hoses with anti-flood features to prevent a flood in case of hose connection failure. There are also so called specialty shutoff valves for washing machines. The simplest is one that shuts both hot and cold with one manual lever. Others have a mechanical “time-out feature” still others sometimes called FloodStop – use electronic sensors. We installed lots of every sort – but I personally just have 2 lever-operated ball valves – backed up by 2 gate valves – and I turn them off when I’m on vacation.
Jay
Looks like a straight forward thru the wall install. No worries, you can do it, piece of cake. Just watch out for the flex duct.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfExQ3mwBH8
Nathan
did they use 2 exterior outlets. one out side with louvers and one open roof vent on the inside?
I assume you can get a piece for the inside – don’t know what it’s called right off – but it also looks like that.
Straight stub of galvanized sheet metal pipe – with a white plastic collar – mine is round. sticks out over the dry wall some 1/2 inch. caulked onto the wall. I looks like it should have a screw in it but it does not.
stub goes though my wall and out side where the louver plastic but snaps on the pipe piece – and is caulked to the exterior which is brick on my house.
I don’t think a single screw is holding any of it together.
On to another query – what brand of washer dryer did you buy that the doors can’t swap sides? at least on the dryer. Curious.
Stuart
I looked, but the collar/trim/whatever you call it piece, isn’t sold separately, at least not at the big box stores.
Just one vent.
It’s an LG. My wife looked into it, and apparently the dryer door can be reversed, but not the washer’s.
fred
Re. your dryer vent line.
One thought is to open the wall up (from the inside) with a nice rectangular cut – straight across to both studs. The attach 2 nailing cleats (set back the thickness of your plywood plus wallboard) to the studs so you can attach some 1/2 or 3/4 plywood across the span. The plywood will naturally have a hole cut in the right spot for the vent. You might then use it for a template to cut a new piece of wallboard as a patch. Once the plywood is nailed or screwed in place to the cleats – you can install the wallboard patch – then attach your through-wall vent and start your spackling.
Tom
Check out FloodChek hoses. Their website doesn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence, but the hoses are great–so much better than you will find at the big box stores.
Also, I would highly recommend that you look at the TimeOut Valve. It adds a mechanical timer to your water supply, relieving the pressure on the hoses when not in use. I’ve had mine for about three years and no issues with it at all.
fred
I am personally not a fan of the floodsafe or floodchek hoses – but others seem to like them. We would install them if the customers had purchased them – but would make it clear that we would not respond to a call back in the event that they did not work as advertised. The problem with them as I see it is 2 fold – both stemming from how they work. The styles that I know about require a sudden increase in water flow for the shutoff mechanism for function. If the hose connection (typically plastic these days) at the washer breaks, or if the hose bursts or if the washer solenoid valve fails wide open – then they will work. If you develop some sort of slow leak you are out of luck. My second issue with them is the callbacks we would get from folks who had them and were getting no cold or no hot water – or no water at all at the washer. The issue was that the homeowner had cracked the water valve on too fast triggering the shutoff mechanism in the hose.
BTW – there is a related issue for some old houses (built between 1920 and 1960 with natural gas. Old pressure regulators used a column of mercury as a seal. If you still have such a regulator (typically these are the ones with a horizontal diaphragm) – and you need to shut the gas off at the service entrance – when turning it back on you need to be careful to slowly “crack” the gas cock from the closed position to full open. If you admit gas too quickly you will “blow” the mercury out – typically through your outside gas vent – resulting in a mercury spill – which will require special cleanup. Many utilities have replaced most (if not all) of these regulators because of concerns about mercury. But if you are concerned you can check with your local natural gas supplier.
Tom
Respectfully, you are mixing up Floodsafe and Floodchek hoses.
Floodchek don’t have any auto-off features. They are just hoses made to a much higher standard. They are made with big brass fittings and they use pneumatic hoses that are much thicker and stronger than anything else that I have seen.
They are overkill, but for someone like me who has laundry on the second floor, I am willing to spend $40 on a set of hoses.
Check them out at http://www.floodchek.com
fred
Tom
Thanks for the correction. I looked at the Floodchek website and they do look like HD hoses. The type I remember had the impulse shutoff mechanism and were braided SS over some sort of flexible hose – I guess they were the “Floodsafe” .
No matter what sort of hose – we always recommended that folks shut the water off after using the washer – especially when they planned to be away for extended periods. Nothing like coming home from a nice vacation only to find a man-made flood.
Stuart
There’s a dual shutoff valve for the cold and hot water hookup. I fully intend to toggle it if/when we go on any vacation.
MikeD
If possible I suggest sealing the dryer vent in the wall with LOW expansion foam.
What I’ve seen on most construction is a 6 inch hole for a 5 inch vent pipe. This leaves a ready ‘fresh air’ source into the wall cavity and basement. Unless both outside and inside surfaces are very well sealed.
I do Infrared inspection as a business, and the vents (bathroom, kitchen and laundry) are rarely sealed adequately.
mike aka Fazzman
I did this on ours and it worked great.
Hang Fire
Keep in mind, for every cubic meter of air the dryer vents, a cubic meter make-up air has to come in from somewhere. Might as where decide where, just make sure wherever it is, doesn’t also admit mice.
John A
We did same, just a waste using only 3-5% of can, unless can find one that you can close / seal, it use again. Maybe make a honey do list to seal around house so as to use full can..
MikeD
Another point I forgot to mention,
I have seen birds open those small flaps on the vents, to get inside for a nest.
So if there is no ‘critter screen’ also on the vent, put a 1/2 inch grid mesh over the outside of the vent.
Hang Fire
Every size crack and crevice on the outside of our homes has a critter especially sized to take advantage of it.
David C.
This happened to me with a bathroom flapper vent. I had to drop the vent fan and screw a clear Tupperware container with a glob of peanut butter to the ceiling to get a bird out of the house. Definitely worth a few bucks to get a critter screen.
Rascally
If it were me, I’d stick to the traditional top loading washer. The front loading models take longer to wash, don’t clean as well as an agitator, and read the horror stories about not cleaning the waste filter, and water left in the machine.
I have many friends that have switched back to traditional machines after trying the front loading washer model.
Hang Fire
Several front-loaders have had recalls on mold issues. There are always moisture issues with the gaskets, issues that simply don’t exist with top-loaders.
But it's me!
I believe the mold issues have been resolved with the newer models, although I suspect most of that is due to reminders to leave the washer door open when not in use, to allow the tub to dry (and prevent mold). In my household, transferring the wash into the dryer as soon as possible is enforced after witnessing of my in-law’s issues with mold on their early Maytag front loader. The latter is what kept us from switching to a front loader for several years (and the cost).
After pulling apart our old top loader one too many times for repairs, I decided to make the switch to front loader. There was always a layer of moldy lint lining the tub, right up to the water line. Granted, our household of six did a lot of laundry, but I was always adamant that loads be cycled to the dryer and the lid left open afterward.
It was enough to push us to switch to a front loader, with its lower water usage and lack of deep tub. I’m sure our new LG front loader has some mold in it. It does come with a clean cycle that I run every month with store bought cleaner. Bad thing to the front loaders is that I don’t believe they are as easily repaired by the end user, including extensive use of electronics.
Yes, the loads take longer through the washer, but they dry faster with the high speeds. Reports are that they get clothes clean and are much gentler on fabrics.
Stuart
I can’t easily reach the bottom of modern top-loading washers, and if I can’t, my wife certainly can’t.
From what I’ve heard and been told, leaving the door open for ventilation and drying, and cleaning once a month or so, should help to prevent gasket mold issues.
Bill
Stuart, you seem to be on the right track for the laundry installation issues and the gate. How about the electrical outlets around the house? Have you checked to see if they are all the newer tamper resistant type? Nothing more attractive to a toddler than those mysterious things mom and dad keep playing with and sticking all those cords into. Particularly on a new move-in where the little one will see those outlets get a lot of use and they want to copy all that you do.
Stuart
They’re not.
Plastic socket blockers work well. I HATE the tamper-resistant outlets on my surge protectors.
There’s a tamper-resistant outlet in the updated bathroom, and I’ll see how I like it.
Right now, doors and stairs are the bigger issues.
Bill
I never really thought about it but I guess some brands are better/easier to use than others. My reaction to the “plastic socket blockers” mirrors your disdain for the tamper resistant outlets. I have often found it necessary to use a screwdriver or knife blade to pry those plastic plugs off and then you need to keep track of the little things and remember to replace them. Passive and always-on protection wins every time in my book.
Stuart
Modern inserts are more easily removed. The IKEA ones I have even come with a red removal tool.
If I think my son could defeat them, I’ll then consider replacing outlets.
Yadda
Oh the fun of owning a home! You might want to check out a rigid duct hose kit. There are several types that are rectangular instead of the round flexible hose.
Here’s one from Lowe’s.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_433308-131-433308_0__?productId=4566306
fred
And buy some brushes to clean out the vent and the internal air path in the dryer from time to time on a regular maintenance schedule
fred
Forgot to add a link for a vent cleaning brush (many styles available at Lowes and HD etc.) and this kit on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Gardus-RLE202-LintEater-10-Piece-Cleaning/dp/B0014CN8Y8/
But it's me!
I’ll second that. We have a vent that goes vertically up to the second floor attic space, venting to the roof. The roof vent makes for some hair raising times when I do the twice yearly cleaning from the top end.
The Linteater works great from the dryer end. Much better than expected.
Hang Fire
Stuart,
I am looking forward to seeing you become more of a tool user than a tool reviewer as your home ownership progresses. Do you have a garage, too? Just wait until you drop $900 on auto repairs, and then realize you could have done it yourself for $150.
Just wait until the Winter, when you realize all that nice, hot, humid air gets vented straight to the outdoors, and you’re paying for all that energy, too.
Unfortunately, recovering that heat is complicated by the presence of dryer lint. There are HVAC heat exchangers available, but dryer lint renders them pretty much useless in a month. I’m still looking for a solution for this problem.
Stuart
The gas dryer will also be venting out combustion gases and byproducts, in addition to the fine lint, moisture, and hot air. Even if there was a way to reclaim the energy from the heat, you don’t want those gases anywhere but vented to the outside.
Hang Fire
I never suggested otherwise.
Stuart
No, but the only products I’ve seen that reclaim lost heat involve internal exhaust contraptions.
John A
Carbon monoxide detector in same area….
John A
By the way, we love our front loading washer and dryer. We have had them since we bought our house new in 2005. The only thing you will learn is to not put one item in the washer, like a small carpet or one large towel. It will definitely go out of balance. My general rule is to fill the washer up a little over three-quarters of the way. This will reduce Andy off balance issues.
Justin
As far as piping, stay away from the aluminum foil and the plastic variant. They have a habit of clogging and starting fires, and a lot of cities are starting to ban them. If you have to use flexible, get the semi-rigid variety, and use as little as possible. The hard pipe that snaps together is fine to use with gas, and you only have to tape the seams where it meets fittings (Note: no screws in piping). Also, there is nothing stopping you from running the pipe behind the appliances and over to your desired exit. Just make sure to look over your owners manual, it will specify the distance and amount of elbows the vent can tolerate. As someone else mentioned, the manual will also specify the amount of venting (most often in sq-in of vent) required for fresh air intake, in case your laundry room seals shut.
+1 to the suggestion for a bird guard on the vent, they are easy to buy pre-assembled.
As for the inside wall, I recommend a dryer vent box, they look great and finish well. Here’s an example: http://www.lowes.com/pd_220822-131-L1790___?productId=3240502&pl=1&Ntt=dryer+vent
If you can’t use something like that, just use the circular hole and fill the void around it with fire-resistant spray foam and cut it flush when it hardens. The pipe will get really hot, so I would avoid just puttying the hole shut.
Matt J
There’s nothing to be embarrassed about Stuart! I really enjoy the idea of this community being able to walk through practical scenarios like this and give our different takes and preferences.
We’ve all been/are still going through the tough realization that installing fresh fixtures and such are much easier than figuring out what on earth the last person was thinking when they built what looks like massive overkill or overly disruptive installations. Just wait until it’s Frankenstein-esque plumbing solutions and things get even more fun!
cody
First off don’t use flexible piping plastic or foil not up to code . Also clog up with lint easily and don’t allow for proper air flow. You need to.put rigid elbow on the back of dryer and then follow up with rigid pipe .. Do not use an exhaust with screening it’s not code . It’s just a lint trap.Tape the joints if you want but I prefer screws so it’s easier to take apart.for cleaning.
David C.
I had toyed with using one of these when I redid my dryer vent setup. It would make cleaning the vent easier.
http://www.amazon.com/Dryer-Dock-Vent-Tubes-White/dp/B0028BAAWW?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_74&smid=AJISNG5MOOATD
Skip in GA
A few things to think about I’ve run into
1. Did you put the washer in a tub? You should, when a seal goes it’ll go all over your floor.
2. Does the dryer vent run solid inside the wall? Wasn’t sure what you meant about hangers. Do not use flexible ducts for long runs. Water will condense in them and then the lint will stick and at worst it’ll fill up with water from dondensation. PVC pipe works.
Lisa
We have a solid tin dryer vent pipe that was run through an interior wall about 20ft, and before we rented this house someone removed it. How can we get that pipe back through the wall ? I can’t use my dryer until it’s put back.