Can you use a tumble dryer without a vent hose?
I received the following query regarding whether a vented tumble dryer can be used without a vent hose.
“I have found your website a great help and between your advice and the ‘Which’ ratings I feel pretty confident on the washing machine I am going to buy. However, am planning to buy my first ever tumble dryer and do not feel so confident.
It is going to go in the double garage where there are no windows, 1 entry door at the back and 2 garage doors. I was planning to get a condenser tumble dryer but it seems all the advice about cost and reliability are pushing me to a vented one. My doubt is that do I have to get the vent hose going outside or will it be ok as it is in the garage? Your advice will be greatly appreciated.”
The dryer will work fine in without a vent hose. This is evidenced by the fact that many vented dryers didn’t even used to come with a vent hose and you had to buy one as an optional extra.
The potential problems with not venting a vented dryer in a garage are condensation and black mould. My own dryer is a condenser dryer so it doesn’t need a venting hose but even so, we always open the small window behind it or we get bad condensation on our fridge and freezer when it’s cool or cold. If our dryer was a vented one and not properly vented this would be much worse.
A vented dryer, venting straight out into a room will obviously pump lots of hot moist air into it, if the room is cold you will get condensation on cold objects and can get mould growing on rubber or other surfaces. Another issue would be lots of dusty fluff would accumulate over time. As described above, even a condenser dryer leaks some moist warm air into the room but it won’t be as bad as a vented one.
Siting a vented dryer in a garage is fairly common. If no window is available to hang a vent pipe out of and it’s not possible to vent through the garage walls it’s best to leave the garage door open when using if security isn’t an issue. Whether the lack of proper venting will cause any real problems depends on how large the garage is and whether there are many cold surfaces etc.
Related: My (as yet fairly sparse) tumble dryer site – Dryerhelp.co.uk | Tumble dryer spares & accessories
Written By - Washerhelp on March 11th, 2009 with
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Emma Deighan
Angela
#1. August 24th, 2009, at 3:02 PM.
We have just returned from a holiday in France and had a great condenser tumble drier at the holiday home. It had a large water collection vessel that needed to be emptied after each cycle. It appeared to not need any venting at all and was highly effective and efficient.
We’re keen to see if we can get one but do not know if they are as a good as it seemed as we have read similar poor reviews on condenser driers.
Does anyone have any recommendations / comments – particualrly as we plan to house the drier in large kitchen.