My condo association does not allow installing a dryer vent to outdoors, so I am forced to vent my dryer into a lint trap. Unfortunately the trap I have does not catch all the dust, and the rooms adjacent to it gather visible dust within 2-3 weeks. I make sure to change the water in the trap after every load. Are there traps available that perform better? Are there any additional filters/gadgets that may help with this?
Some additional notes: As much as I would like to set up a vent to outside, it is not an option for me. Humidity is not an issue, as I only dry clothes with no or lowest heat setting, and I do have an a/c register nearby to help provide dry air.
Edit: The dryer is electric. I live in a suburb of Chicago, which may have a different building code than the city itself.
Best Answer
According to Chicago Building Code
Venting a dryer inside is a potential fire and mold hazard, and can negatively affect indoor air quality causing sickness (and/or death, maybe).
You should bring this up with the condo association, the building owner, and potentially the building inspector. A possible down side to this action is, the condo association could ban the installation of dryers altogether. So you'll want to try and suggest some alternatives.
I'm going to guess, the condo association is worried about the appearance of vents sicking out all over the building. A potential appeasement would be to select a nice looking vent (voted on by the condo association), and force anybody who installs a dryer to use the same vent.
They may also want all vents to be installed in similar locations, so the vents are uniformly placed on the building. A good way to insure this would be to install all the vents at once, including installing vents for units without dryers (in which case they should be sealed until in use).