Introduction
Everyone has a dryer in their home. You depend on it to dry your clothes quickly and efficiently. If it breaks down, you can search for “dryer repair near me” and hire professionals to fix it for you. On the other hand, in recent years ventless dryers have gained some popularity since they require no complicated installation and can be used anywhere in your home. Let’s check out the pros and cons of a ventless dryer.
The Pros of ventless dryers
- Dryer location doesn’t matter – Regular dryers have vents and as the name suggests, they need to be hooked up to a vent to expel out hot and humid air. On the other hand, ventless dryers don’t need to be connected to a vent and hence don’t need to be limited to a room with access to the roof, attic, or an external wall. You can place it anywhere, plug it into the wall and use it.
Moreover, vented dryers are large, usually around 27 inches tall, and quite wide. They can’t be placed in small rooms and corners. Contrary to that, you can always find compact vented dryers in the market that can fit under counters and even inside small closets. With rising property prices, you don’t need to dedicate an entire room to laundry appliances when you opt for a ventless dryer.
- No need to punch holes – Since vented dryers don’t require any vents for expelling out the moist air, you don’t need to punch holes through the wall to make room for ducts. So at least one wall in your home remains disfigured. This is great for both renters and homeowners who have a small home and don’t want to break and fix walls repeatedly.
It’s also great for people who are undecided about the dryer location and don’t want to make permanent changes to their homes. Apart from avoiding the ugly look of a home with numerous holes, a vented dryer also lets you have a home with fewer leaks. That means your home would be more energy efficient and save you a lot of money on power.
- Pro – Energy efficiency – One of the greatest advantages of a ventless dryer is energy efficiency. A vented dryer draws in cold air from an air-conditioned room till the clothes are dry. That means it’s using more energy to make that air hot inside the dryer. It also puts more stress on your HVAC system.
On the other hand, ventless dryers don’t rely so much on the air-conditioned air of the room. Whether it’s a heat pump ventless dryer or a condenser and heat pump-based ventless dryer, both of themrecycle the air and are very energy efficient. Ventless dryers consume half the energy consumed by vented dryers.
- Pro – Easy installation – Installing vented dryers isn’t an easy task. You need to drill a hole through the wall and install the ductwork and vents. Unless you have prior experience, you’ll need the help of a professional to install a vented dryer. On the other hand, installing a ventless dryer is pretty straightforward. You just need to install an outlet if you don’t have one already and plug the dryer in.
The Cons of ventless dryers
- Con – Room gets hot – Ventless dryers don’t need to be connected to external vents. However, they do work the same way as vented dryers and that means they generate the same hot and humid air. However, instead of simply releasing that air into the room, the ventless dryer has a heat exchanger that cools down the humid air and recycles it till the clothes get completely dry.
This makes the dryer very efficient and eco-friendly. However, all that heat exchange within the room increases the room inside the temperature. This will inevitably affect the air quality of the room. It can be an advantage if you live in a place that is cold for the most part of the year. However, operating a ventless dryer during the summer is going to be a huge problem. Moreover, the moisture is condensed and collected at the underside of the dryer and if left on its own, it can lead to mold growth.
- Condensation tray needs to be emptied out – A vented dryer exhausts both hot air and moisture. On the other hand, a ventless dryer collects all the extracted moisture in a condensation tray. Since these trays aren’t collected at an outlet, you need to manually empty out the tray after every load. That’s why some homeowners empty out the tray even before the drying cycle ends. You can also buy one of those ventless dryers that come with a drainpipe. Make sure that wherever you’ll place the dryer has drainage options.
- Small load capacity – While a ventless dryer offers greater energy efficiency, it falls short on load capacity. Ventless dryers are usually small in size and that means they have less room for clothes. So, if you have more than two family members, drying all those washed clothes is going to be a time-consuming affair. That’s why ventless dryers are common in Europe and rarely seen in the US.
To understand the scale and the small size of the load you need a reference. While vented dryers can take a large queen-size comforter and then some, a regular vented dryer can only dry a single king-size comforter at a time. So, if you’re used to the load capacity of a regular ventless dryer, you’re going to have a hard time switching to the ventless dryer.
Conclusion
Ventless dryers are very convenient if you just want to buy a dryer with no fuss. You can place it in any room and make it work. However, they also have a smaller load capacity and take a longer time drying your clothes. That’s why you have to assess your options and priorities carefully before buying one. If our dryer breaks down, you can always hire a pro to fix it by searching for “dryer repair near me”.
