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Backdraft Damper Home Depot Canada
I consistently see the rules about dryer aqueduct assurance and dryer alteration ducts actuality brought into question, mostly on home ambassador forums. If it's boxy for home inspectors to accumulate this actuality straight, it's gotta be really tough for boilerplate homeowners. Articles and rules are consistently changing, so if you apprehend this column bristles years from now, be acquainted that things may accept changed. Also, these are the rules that we accept actuality in Minnesota. These rules appear from section 504 of the 2015 Minnesota Mechanical Code. This is not a complete account of those rules, but rather a account of the rules that are best frequently violated.
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Before I dig into the rules, I charge to ascertain the aberration amid a dryer aqueduct and a dryer alteration duct. A dryer aqueduct runs through the abode to bankrupt the air from the dryer to the exterior. A dryer alteration aqueduct is a adjustable area of aqueduct actual that allows the dryer to affix to the duct. The alone abode that a alteration aqueduct should anytime be begin is amid the dryer and the duct.
Dryer bankrupt ducts charge aperture to the exterior. There are UL listed accessories that will acquiesce you to bankrupt your dryer to the inside of your house, but that doesn't beggarly you should. All of that damp advancing aback into the home is bad news.
Exhaust ducts charge accept a bland autogenous finish and charge be fabricated out of metal that is a minimum of 0.016-inch thick. This is about 27 barometer steel, but you'll alone acquisition 26 barometer steel. The aqueduct admeasurement charge be 4 inches in diameter. No more, no less. Aback the aqueduct is oversized, the acceleration is decreased and the abeyant for lint accession is increased.
The best breadth of a dryer aqueduct should be angled by the clothes dryer manufacturer's accession instructions. The cipher specifies a best of 35 anxiety and gives reductions for assorted bend fittings, but the cipher is additionally acutely conservative. I've never apparent a clothes dryer architect accord instructions that were about as akin as those accustomed by the code, and the cipher allows the manufacturer's requirements to be followed. I aloof did a quick chase of manufacturer's requirements from Maytag, LG, Kenmore, and Samsung. They accustomed lengths of 64, 65, 64, and 80 feet, respectively.
The breadth of a dryer aqueduct is abstinent from "the affiliation to the alteration aqueduct from the dryer to the aperture terminal". In added words, you don't calculation the alteration aqueduct aback free the aqueduct length.
Each terminal requires a backdraft damper and no screens are accustomed at the terminal because they get clogged. The affliction is aback screens are installed at roof terminals because cipher anytime goes up there. This video blow was from a one-year assurance analysis that I did on a home that was beneath than one year old. Yes, new houses charge home inspections too.
Screws and added accouterments that could arrest airflow are not accustomed on dryer ducts. The best way to affix dryer aqueduct sections is to use metal tape.
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A alteration aqueduct is a abbreviate breadth of adjustable actual that is accustomed to affix the clothes dryer to the duct. Nothing else. The requirements for dryer alteration ducts are appealing abbreviate and sweet.
This aftermost one seems to be a arguable point because dryer alteration ducts can't be UL 2158A listed if they're added than 8 anxiety continued (at atomic I'm appealing abiding about that, but I don't own those standards to verify). But still, there it is. I chock-full by a few big-box retailers to analysis out their offerings, and the labeling for the articles agreed with all of this, but the labels weren't absolutely clear. I approved to accomplish it accessible by giving a few of them the thumbs up or the thumbs down:
Interestingly enough, several dryer manufacturers and a accomplished lot of home inspectors don't like the adjustable 'foil' blazon dryer alteration ducts. Personally, I accept no botheration with them. If they're kept abbreviate like they should be, they don't account problems.
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I accept several affidavit to animosity the semi-rigid aluminum ducts that anybody abroad seems to love, however. To alpha with, there are two altered flavors of these ducts; one is listed and the added isn't. The listed ones are about alert the price, and the two are about indistinguishable. If not for the label, who could acquaint the aberration amid these two?
Not alone that, but antithesis ducts will acknowledgment to their aboriginal appearance afterwards actuality bent. Not so with the semi-rigid aluminum.
Side note: was the aqueduct pictured aloft anytime a able installation? Click on the photo to see a beyond version, and you'll apprehension it has those little coil marks activity about it, aloof like the alteration aqueduct pictured aloft that is not UL Listed. In added words, it was apparently never a able installation.
Semi-rigid antithesis ducts are additionally alarmingly aciculate and should not be handled after gloves (ask me how I know). So does this beggarly that I accomplish a big fetor out of absolutely what blazon of dryer alteration aqueduct is acclimated during home inspections? No. I verify that they're appropriately installed and potentially of able materials. That agency no plastic.
There's a UL 2158A listed clothes dryer alteration aqueduct out there that outperforms aggregate abroad that I've apparent so far. It's so above that it should absolutely accept its own category, like "Super-Duper Alteration Duct", but it artlessly avalanche into the aforementioned class as aggregate else. It's called DryerFlex, and can be purchased at Home Depot, but not with the blow of the dryer aqueduct material. You accept to arch over to the apparatus accessories area of the store.
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You'll acquisition it hidden in that administration with a GE characterization on the box, but this is the DryerFlex product. It retails for about $25, and it's able-bodied account the price. It can additionally be purchased anon from Home Depot here. I blogged about this artefact aback in 2012: http://structuretech1.com/dryerflex-a-superior-dryer-transition-duct/
If you appetite the best accessible artefact for both achievement and blaze safety, I acclaim this product.
Author: Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections
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