I have a Whirlpool electric clothes dryer and it is under 5 years old.
When it is drying it makes a "whirling sound" that is especially loud from the outside where it is vented. My neighbor is constantly complaining about it. We shoved a large rock up in the vent from the outside and that helped a lot, but the clothes did not dry properly as they should have on the normal setting with the normal amount of clothes that I always dry.
How to quiet the dryer vent from the outside
dryer
Related Solutions
According to Chicago Building Code
18-28-504.1 Installation.
Clothes dryers shall be exhausted in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Dryer exhaust systems shall be independent of all other systems and shall convey the moisture and any products of combustion to the outside of the building.
Exception: Where the make and model of an electric dryer is known and the manufacturer’s installation instructions do not require exhaust, see Article 4, Ventilation for room exhaust requirements.
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).
They make Dryer Vent Cleaning Kits for this very purpose:
As to why there is water in there - hopefully it's just condensation.
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Best Answer
Absolutely do not block the vent - this could cause a fire!
The first thing to check is that your duct is free of lint and other debris. If it is a plastic duct then I wouldn't even bother cleaning it and instead would replace it with a metal one. A rigid duct line is probably better than a flexible one but is a bit more difficult to work with.
Check for any unnecessary bends or kinks in the line - the straighter the better as bends restrict the airflow and result in additional noise. If it is a collapsible/flexible duct, make sure it is fully extended and trim off any excess ducting.
If possible you might consider relocating the exhaust further away from you neighbor.