The metal air duct pipe inside my electric dryer does not seem to completely seal against the plastic housing of the exhaust blower fan.
Is it safe to use metal foil heat tape to join them together, and make sure there is a good seal?
This seems to be placed far enough away from the heating element. And the housing for the blower fan is made of plastic itself. That seems to suggest if they made the part out of plastic, it would not get too hot. So should foil heat tape also be okay?
To be clear: this is nashua style foil heat tape like this, the same I would use around the exhaust vent outside the dryer.
Background: I took my dryer apart to clean it. There is a lot of lint! I want to prevent lint from getting inside, if possible. I'm considering using foil heat tape around the exhaust vent, and around the metal guard that holds the lint trap, so nothing can get back into the body of the dryer.
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Update: I called the manufacturer help line. They were not helpful and did not understand what I was asking. The agent could not directly answer any of my questions; they simply typed them to someone else, and relayed confused answers. I do not feel confident in any of the feedback. I have gone ahead and wrapped the vent with heat tape. If I experience any fires or my house burns down, I will attempt to update this thread.
Best Answer
To be absolutely clear, this duct carries the fan-blown and lint-filtered air coming OUT of the dryer drum. It is NOT the duct carrying the heated air into the drum.
Given that, the upper working temperature of that tape is listed as 200°F. My guess is that this is above the max temperature of the air coming out of the dryer, but I'm not sure. At worst, the adhesive would fail; I doubt you'd have a fire hazard, especially since the environmental lint, which would be far more flammable, isn't expected to burn.