I have a Maytag model LD69806AAE clothes dryer. Since our tenants in our town home have moved in July 2012. They have pointed out that the dryer takes about 3 hours to dry a load of clothes. The dryer is about 10 years old but was not used that much. The previous owner (my wife's GF) hardly used it. My wife bought the place in 2006, and before I moved in when we got married in 2009 it was hardly used. She had two roommates at separate times but they only stayed for months at a time. The dryer is located in the center area of the first floor. There is about 28 feet of flex corrugated dryer vent duct work. It is routed to the outdoor patio. There are about 3 elbows in the duct run. The duct ended at a louver/grill at the exterior patio wall. Here’s a list of things we have done.
- Had Sears replace the heating solenoid valve.
- My brother-in-law and I vacuumed the inside of the dryer and ductwork at the point of connection to the dryer.
- Replace the outside termination to a typical wall cap. Remove some excess flex duct close to the outside termination.
- Had Coit Services Clean out the dryer vent ductwork
After the cleaning of the duct by Coit, our tenants mentioned the dryer time is better but still longer than expected (maybe 2.5 hours)
Now we are considering re-routing (21 feet approx.) the ductwork with straighter runs and less elbows and provide smooth dryer vent ductwork and possibly increasing the duct from 4” to 6” at areas where possible. Will this make any difference?
Best Answer
Your duct is probably too long, and not constructed properly. Installing a proper exhaust system may increase the dryers performance, though this is not guaranteed.
Vent length and installation requirements will vary slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer, but International Residential Code (IRC) gives us a conservative starting point.
Basically what all this means, is that in general the overall length of the duct can be 33'. 25' of the duct system; measured from the exhaust hood to the dryer connection, must be 4" rigid metal duct. You can then have an 8' section of "transition duct", which can be flexible duct, but must be UL listed and labeled for the use. For each elbow, subtract the value from Table M1502.4.4.1 from the overall 25' length.
When you use flexible "transition duct", make sure the duct is fully extended and trimmed to fit. Don't leave the duct compressed and coiled.
Manufacturers Installation Instructions
If you look at the Maytag installation instructions (PDF), they tell you what type of exhaust hoods you can choose from.
The instructions then provide a table to determine the maximum duct length, based on the hood used and the number of bends.
Gas dryers need gas to dry, so make sure the gas is on before you spend too much more time or money on repairs. It might also be useful to make sure it's not user error, by making sure the tenants know how to use the dryer properly. Don't forget to make sure the tenants aren't overloading the dryer.