Vent for the Ventless

When I sort-of revealed our basement laundry nook, I promised that I would share how we vent the dryer.  Well…I’m back…and so is this space….

Quite a few people have emailed me and asked me specifically how we created a vent for the dryer when we had no route to make the vent go outside.  Traditionally, most dryer vents run to an exterior wall and then push all the hot air out.  Have you ever stood below a dryer vent outside when it was running and had that smell of fresh linen waft over you?  HEAVEN.  Seriously.  It’s up there with baking spray.  Have you ever smelled THAT!?  It’s marvelous.  Every time I make banana bread, I am tempted to spritz my whole body with PAM.  I wish I were kidding.

Anyhoo….this laundry nook is a true interior room…there are concrete walls on three sides (the foundation to our yard) and a large kitchen and living space on the other side.  It would be really hard to route out a vent!  So we decided to opt for the next best thing….an indoor lint trap filter.

Look at that little LJ with his sweet four teeth!  This was taken back in February shortly after finding out I was pregnant!

Okay.  So these only work on electric dryers…not gas…and they are really easy to install.  You just mount the trap on the wall and use the c-clamps to attach the dryer hose to the back of the dryer and the top of the trap.  Then you fill the little drawer on the bottom with water.

We opted to put the trap on the side and block it from view.  We couldn’t move the washer & dryer over any more because a capped gas line is between the washer & dryer so it’s sort of the perfect solution.

When the dryer is on, the heat and lint goes out of the hose and into the box.  That hot air gets pushed through the filter and the lint gets trapped in the filter.  You have to crank that handle to release the lint from the filter and it drops down into the water below.

After each cycle, you just discard the lint and water and refill.

Isn’t that a great solution!?  I told Jeremy that if we ran a water line and had another one of these bad boys, that would mean I could have a stacking washer and dryer in my closet  That sounds heavenly right?!  Not needing to lug dirty clothes up and down stairs?!  Then I would just need a very small fairy to live in there and do all my laundry for me.  I would pay her with lost things.  Fairies love lost things.  #iwatchtoomanykidmovies

p.s.  here is the link to the exact link trap we got….Indoor Lint Trap Filter.  Happy filtering