Dryer Vent Help

[pureinsanity]

Recently my electric dryer stopped working. After digging into it, I was able to remove a few wires and temporarily connect them to determine what parts were bad. It ended up being a non resettable thermostat. I replaced the part and the dryer works fine.

Now its clear that these parts go bad because of the dryer heating up due to poor venting. I inspected the vent. Sure enough it was packed full of lint at the exit point of the house. I thought this was odd considering we had no troubles prior.

Upon inspection of the duct work. I noticed it was detached at the exit point of the house. I have one of those cheap flexi ducts attached. The ones that are impossible and rip all the time. I figure it got blown off so lint was just blowing up into the trap on the exterior of the house and eventually got plugged.

In any event I am going to replace the flexi duct with a more permanent solution. The problem is the is a wall and I really do not want to remove sheet rock unless I have to..

its hard to explain the wall but its in an unfinished basement hiding pvc pipe a gas line and electrical wires. It will be impossible to install a long section or pipe as well as short sections tied together.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience and information on a different style of venting. More importantly, Space saver ducting.

See Image.

This will allow me to wiggle my way behind the wall leaving sheet rock in tact. The only problem is it isn't tall enough. But I have enough wiggle room to attach more piping to this to make it work.

Any pros or cons to using this style duct work? I am going into this with a mindset of having a cylindrical duct work will have better flow. When i switch to this it might have more of a restricted flow. Can anyone confirm any pros or cons to this??

I am thinking I might have to bit the bullet and cut out some sheet rock and do some patch work.

I will need about 80 inches of ducting. The space saver will give me about 70 inches of what I need and then the rest is just installing cylindrical duct to attach to the exit of the house.

Thank you!

[cavalierowner]

I'm afraid I don't have anything definate to hang my hat on. But after working with mechanical engineers for years on building ductwork design, my gut says that type of venting is going to create a lot of turbulance. And turbulance translates into inefficient air flow. Do you still have the installation instructions? They usually tell you how far you can go after subracting for each elbow. Maybe figure two elbows for each transition from round to rectangular?? I don't know, it would be a lot of guesswork for me. If you tried it to see how it worked and it didn't work, are you out a lot of money?

[MNice]

Stick with the round pipe, much better flow & like the above poster state, less turbulence. No screws, rivets, etc through pipe to catch lint, just real good tape. Sorry, looks like some rock patching is in your future.

good luck

[Surface Tension]

I'm going with the "turbulence" too

Think you'd get lint build up big time just beyond that turbulence zone.

To clean you'd have to take it all down.

[pureinsanity]

Kinda what I was thinking. Good thing my neighbor is a taper! I can do this project and have new rock taped and sanded before momma even got home.

Sounds like taking down some sheet rock is in my future!

Thanks fellas

[pureinsanity]

What about clamps vs tape???