Dryer Vent Pipe Length Poses a Fire Safety Issue

In a custom build house the contractor installing the dryer vent decided to install the pipe without thinking of the dryer and all those loads of wet laundry it would struggle to dry.

The pipe went down into the basement, around a few obstacles, over a beam, then a few right angle corners before a long straight heading to the exterior vent.

All well and good you might say, but then do the math. Every bend in the pipe is worth five feet of straight pipe (in resistance) and this pipes total length was an amazing seventy two equivalent feet.

Then read the manual that came with your dryer and manufacturers say the shorter the pipe the better and no longer than a maximum length of twenty five feet. Read the code book the building inspector forgot about when the house was built and it says the maximum length of the dryer vent pipe should not exceed thirty five feet.

The longer your dryer vent pipe the longer it takes to dry your laundry and the greater the chance of a dryer vent fire due to lint build up in the pipe because of low air flow. The longer the pipe the more resistance and the slower the air moves through the pipe.

Do not use fabric softener sheets unless your dryer pipe length is relative short, the longer the pipe the more they will cause lint to stick to the interior of the pipe.