Dryer vent installation BAD IDEA

I'm on a mission to educate people about this flammable dryer vent. As a home energy auditor and home inspector, I see this vent in dozens of homes every year. They are illegal by most building codes for new homes, but I see DIY installers using it way too often . Watch this vent piece burn and burn. I just updated with a short video describing a proper dryer vent installation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBqbGGc1FMw

Category:

Education

Tags:

• dryer
• vent
• fire
• home
• safety
• carbon
• monoxide
• prevention
• DIY

[TheFarawayeyes5]

Thanks for the video. I sell these vents. Every dryer owners manual tells you not to use them. And I resisted selling them until my delivery teams complained about how hard the semi-rigid aluminum ones were to install, so I gave in and started selling the cheaper ones to make deliveries go smoother. Tomorrow morning I will attempt the same demonstration at work, make a video and email it to our appliance buyer. I really had no idea they were plasic made to look like aluminum foil. Thanks.

[glhpmobile]

@TheFarawayeyes5 Glad you see the light my friend. There is another material which is even more flammable because it's made of a paper based foil. I grabbed a piece of dryer lint from my own dryer to start the fire inside it. The material itself may not ignite easily from a match, but the main cause of these fires is that the vent gets a large ball of lint that plugs the vent almost completely. Use a BIG piece of lint for your demo.

[southernstylez904]

how would i know if i have the right one? mine seems to be all metal....i bought it not even a week ago

[glhpmobile]

@southernstylez904 I have a second video which is a follow up showing the proper dryer vent. As long as its real metal you're fine. The flexible metal called "semi-rigid" is most common and is aluminum that's a little heavier than beer can metal.

[shaeet]

Why do they sell these if they are still made out of plastic? When I bought my house, my inspector told me to replace my white-vinyl dryer hose with the "aluminum ones", saying the white vinyl was banned. The only thing they sell at HD & Lowes is these crappy fake aluminum plastic ones. I bought one thinking it was really aluminum but lo-and-behold it is the same stuff shown in your video! I was later able to source a stretchable REAL aluminum one from a local hardware store.

[glhpmobile]

Good job chasing down the right one. The big box home centers only care about putting cheap products in your cart and assume that the average person might not be able to cut/clamp/screw the proper piece in place. You're lucky to have a local hardware store, and I encourage you to give them some of your business to ensure they stick around because they're the ones who really help in a pinch.

[slickjilly]

My best friends son's house cought fire because of this. His dog barked and woke him up. True story. You could be saving lives dude.

[rodb47]

Just installed one of these because my flexible metal one got all bent behind the dryer. I'm going to remove it today. Thanks.

[chris123456789799]

Ours is made of some sort of rubber

[thecompeternerd1]

U MADE A SLIKY

[MrCoreyp08]

Omg its like gas in a car being flammable!!!! Shut up fag electrical dryer fires are way more common than gas dryer fires. Choke on a dick and die you wanna be panic producer.

[JennaHaze2000]

Wow thats amazing!!!. I thought It was foil. 

[northrify]

Boy am I glad I found this video! I purchased a w/d today and came to ytube to learn how to properly install. My dryer came with nice piece of what I thought was safe aluminun dryer vent. Turns out it's this plastic fire hazard POS. Thanks a million for posting. You rock!

[AngeloR674]

NAAAA REALLY???? u make it sound like there junk! which there not!

[jdoggtwo]

@AngeloR674 fire "RESISTANT" that is not fireproof means and some-point it will give.

[AngeloR674]

@TheFarawayeyes5 there actually not that hard to install.. if youre smart with it.. mine is fire resitant

[phuckq]

Anyone using this for a chimney is an idiot