| Pros of Indoor Dryer Vent Kits | Cons of Indoor Dryer Vent Kits |
| They tend to warm up the room in winter | Indoor dryer vent kits are against code |
| Installing the kits is cheap and easy | Cannot be used with gas dryers |
| You are able to put the dryer anywhere | You have to continuously clear the lint out or refill the water |
| No pollutants are being released into the environment | Pollutants are being released into your home |
| The room is humidified as a result | An increased risk of moisture damage to your home |
| The hot air can unpleasantly heat your home in summer | |
| Not all the lint will be collected |
Indoor dryer vent kits are against code. Their function is lint collection, but they aren’t 100% effective. Gases, water, and heat are released inside, making a home unsafe and uncomfortable. They have pros, e.g., providing warmth in winter and easy installation. These don’t outweigh the cons.
Indoor Dryer Vent Kits Pros
Warm the Room in Winter
Indoor dryer vent kits do not vent the air expelled from the dryer outside. Instead, the hot, moist air is released directly into the room.
This can really raise the temperature of the space, and make it toasty in winter. It also means that you won’t have to spend money heating that room (and even adjacent rooms) with the HVAC or a space heater. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.
Having a warm and toasty space to do your laundry room in during winter will definitely make it less of a chore when you have to do a load or two. There’s nothing worse than shivering like a mad man while trying to load your machines or unload them with fingers that freeze on contact with the damp clothes.
Installation Is Cheap and Easy
When it comes to venting a dryer, you have to make sure you have the necessary structures are in place in order to allow the machine to be vented outside. This requires you to spend time and money making the necessary holes and adjustments in order to accommodate the vent.
With indoor dryer vent kits, you will be saving yourself a lot of time and money in this respect. You won’t need to make any holes, and the kits are quite simple to put together, so you won’t need to hire a professional to get the job done.
Can Put The Dryer Anywhere
If you don’t need to find a specific spot that allows you to vent the dryer outdoors, then you really have opened up the possibilities of where you can keep your dryer.
You can put your dryer literally anywhere where you have the space for it, whether it is your bedroom, the bathroom, or your basement. As long as there is space for the dryer and the indoor dryer vent kit, you are good to go.
Of course, you want to ensure you have at least some ventilation wherever you decide to put it so that the hot, moist air that is exhausted from the kit has somewhere to go. Simply opening a door or window will really help allow the warm air to disperse.
No Pollutants Released Into Environment
If you have a dryer that is vented outdoors, you are actually contributing to the pollutants (such as D-limonene, acetone, and methanol to list a few) entering the environment. These pollutants are primarily caused by the laundry detergents you use.
Not only will these pollutants affect the overall air quality in the vicinity around your home, but they are known to cause adverse side effects such as severe headaches.
When you have an indoor dryer vent kit, you are eliminating the process of expelling the pollutants outside and into the atmosphere, which can help the environment, even if it’s just in a small way.
Incidental Humidification
Your dryer works by heating up air and using that air inside the drum to heat up your clothes so much that the water evaporates from the fabric. The hot, moist air will be exhausted out of the dryer, through the indoor dryer vent kit, and into the room.
Essentially, this acts as a humidifier for the laundry room and even some of the rooms nearby. Keeping the air slightly humid will help to prevent your skin from cracking or flaking in dry air. Instead, the moisture will keep it nourished and revitalized.
Humidifiers (even incidental ones) are especially beneficial for people with asthma as they allow for easier breathing and can even help ease symptoms caused by a cold or other respiratory illnesses.
If you have a leather couch or other leather furniture in the same room as your dryer, then the humidity can actually help the leather become softer and more comfortable for use.
Indoor Dryer Vent Kits Cons
The Kits Are Against the Code
Despite these numerous apparent benefits of indoor dryer vent kits, these kits are actually against code.
According to the IRC, specifically Section M1501.1, all air that is expelled from any mechanical appliance must be vented outdoors. Section M1502.3 focuses more on dryers specifically and states that all dryer ducts must be exhausted to the outside of a building.
Clearly, an indoor dryer vent kit directly contravenes this rule.
If you are found to have an indoor dryer vent kit, for example, when an inspector comes to check on some renovations or when you are trying to sell, you can be fined and be forced to remove the kit and install a proper ventilation system within a certain time frame.
It’s not just the USA that forbids the use of these kits. They are illegal in Ontario as well.
Can’t Use With Gas Dryers
Even though, in my opinion, the above is reason enough not to install an indoor dryer kit, there are further arguments against these accessories, including the fact that they are not applicable to every type of dryer. If you have a gas dryer, you definitely cannot make use of these kits.
Gas dryers emit carbon monoxide, so they have to be vented directly outdoors. If you were to vent the dryer indoors, you would be at risk of poisoning yourself and your entire family.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless and colorless gas, so you won’t realize it is there until it is too late. You can become extremely ill (excess vomiting, muscle weakness, migraines, and suffocation), suffer long-term side effects (such as hair loss), and it can even prove fatal in some instances.
This gas needs to be removed from your home immediately.
Continuously Clear Lint and Fill With Water
As we know, indoor dryer vent kits are there to capture lint that is expelled from your dryer so that you don’t have a disastrous house fire, or have to clean up lint every single day.
However, this lint does not just disappear once it enters the indoor dryer vent. In some cases, it gets collected in a water reservoir, so you will need to regularly empty and refill the water to remove any lint.
Other kits use a mesh filter to capture the lint. In this case, you will need to manually remove the lint from the filter quite often, to ensure optimum functionality of your indoor dryer vent.
Pollutants Released Into Your Home
As I already mentioned, D-limonene, acetone, and methanol are some of the pollutants that are emitted from your washer dryer during use.
These pollutants can be very harmful to your health and produce uncomfortable side effects and symptoms, so venting them outside is the best thing to do for the health and safety of your entire family.
When you have an indoor dryer vent kit, you might not be contributing to the environment’s pollutants outside your house, but you will actually be releasing these pollutants directly to your home, which makes them even more potent and hazardous.
High Risk of Moisture Damage
As indoor dryer vent kits do nothing but capture lint, and then release hot, moist air back into the same room, you are putting yourself at a high risk of suffering moisture damage in your home.
The hot air causes excess humidity in the room, which will make the moisture settle on the floor, on surfaces, and on the drywall (from where it can seep into the wall). Not only will this water make your housing material brittle and weak, but it can also create a breeding ground for mold.
Mold is something you definitely never want in your home. It can have significant effects on your health, such as causing rashes, red eyes, and continuous sneezing. Prolonged exposure to mold can also cause long-term health effects as well.
Hot Air Heats House in Summer
The hot air that is released from the indoor dryer vent can significantly increase the temperature of the room in which your dryer is. While this can be useful in winter, it can also be extremely unpleasant during summer.
You will find yourself dreading going into the sauna that your laundry room has become. You will likely also end up spending more money overworking your HVAC to cool down the space. This can use up all the money you saved in winter and maybe even more.
This increased heat can also cause fires, which is why you really need to lower the temperature.
Not All the Lint Will Be Caught
Unfortunately, with indoor dryer vent kits, not all of the lint that gets removed from the dryer will be caught in the filter of the kit.
That means you will probably still have to spend time sweeping and cleaning your laundry room to get rid of the lint and prevent any fires from potentially igniting.
This fact might then make you question if an indoor dryer vent kit is worth it at all if you will still end up cleaning up pieces of lint regardless.