Charlie:
George says, “I heard someone ask about a clean out for his dryer vent and I installed one in my dryer this week. I had to splice into the piping in the attic as it went up an inside wall behind the dryer and into the attic with a four inch pipe and there are two bends in the piping and its about twenty feet long before exiting out the roof. I used four inch PVC pipe with two two inch capped clean outs. One facing the dryer, the other clean out facing the roof. Now, all I have to do is unscrew the clean-out caps and vacuum the clean-out facing the dryer and blow the vacuum and clean out the facing on the roof. As a retired fire-fighter I feel I have avoided a fire potential here.”
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Tom:
Do you know I actually remember the call I got about that and the biggest thing was: Can you use PVC in a dryer vent?
Charlie:
Right.
Tom:
By code you can’t. Because it could be a fire hazard.
Charlie:
It’s a fire guy.
Tom:
The reality is if you can get away with it, it’s fine, but if you were going to look at the code it could … If for some reason it caught on fire and … You know your house is full of it and this is why PVC wasn’t allowed in homes for a long time, it gives off a gas that will kill you very quickly, and when burning plastic like that. So….I love the idea that it’s a fire-fighter said that but it’s really not code approved, although it does work.