Gary Navarre on tue 3 aug 04
Ramesh,
I would be concerned, but I tend to error on the side of caution. Lint
build up in dryer vent tubes is an eventual hazard. Quite a few Laundromat
and house fires have started in dryer vents. Norway Laundry and another in
Iron Mountain burned last spring. Safety first, good luck.
Gary Navarre
Navarre Pottery
Norway,Michigan
Maurice Weitman on tue 3 aug 04
Hello, Ramesh.
My free advice, worth every penny.
Without more details I can't say for certain, but I'm concerned.
You don't say what kind of vent and mounting you're using, but many
would tell you that the safest setup is having your kiln vent fan
mounted on the wall at the point where it exits the building, i.e.
without any ducting at all after the fan, and therefore with noxious,
possibly poisonous gases under pressure and prone to leaking into
your space.
If this dryer duct is the plastic tube with a spiral wire running
through it, I'd say definitely do not use it.
If it's the solid galvanized duct, okay so far (with the caveat about
the noxious gases under pressure stated above), but only if the dryer
is disconnected from the duct. Any "tee" fitting to allow both dryer
and kiln to be hooked up to the vent at the same time is a no-no;
it'd be too easy for kiln fumes to get into the room through the
dryer.
Vent fans, whether mounted on the kiln or on the wall (preferred),
must introduce room air into the vent system at the point where it
attaches to the kiln, thus cooling the air to a great extent. Still,
the air might be too hot to use with plastic ducting, and you
certainly shouldn't have any combustibles or other obstructions in
the duct.
I hope that's helpful.
Regards,
Maurice, in Fairfax, California, where the days are getting shorter,
and Celia's summer vacation is down to 20 days.... time to panic that
school will be starting before she has any fun, and where we still
live, even though I'm spending daytime hours at Berkeley Potters
Guild, to where I've happily moved my studio, and where I met Janet
Moe on her Bay Area visit last week.
Ramesh Kanthaswami on tue 3 aug 04
Hi,
Just got my kiln and am in the process of setting that up in the basement.
The dealer told me that I can vent it through my dryer duct. However, when
putting the "T-joint", I see some loose lint in the duct. Should I be
concerned about this? Any input will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ramesh
Ramesh Kanthaswami on wed 4 aug 04
Thanks for those who relplied to me privately. Sorry, I should have given a
bit more details, still in the process of learning the ropes!
The dryer duct is metal, I think aluminum, like a bellow which I can pull to
extent. The kiln vent is "EnviroVent" which came with my Skutt 818. What I
did was put a "T" on the duct where it exits out of the wall. I was a bit
hesitent to punch another whole in the wall (you know the basement walls!).
Another option is to extent the kiln duct a bit more, which would end-up
about 20 - 25' from the kiln, to my furnace chimeny.
But from the feedbacK I got so far, looks like it is safer to run a separate
duct for the kiln rather than piggy-bagging on the dryer duct.
Thanks again,
Ramesh
Dorie Mickelson on thu 5 aug 04
Regarding kiln venting, as others have said, I would not tie this into
the existing dryer vent as there are too many risks involved. But
wanted to add that I too have a Skutt kiln with an Envirovent venting
system in my basement (that vents directly out the basement window with
its own duct) and have found that it did not, in fact, provide
sufficient venting for me. The bisque firings are fine, but during my
glaze firings, when the paraffin wax was burning off the pots (I prefer
to dip the bottom of my pots in hot paraffin than to brush on the cold
wax resist or use other foot cleaning methods) around 400-800 degrees,
the smell of paraffin literally filled my entire 2400 square foot home
and was so overpowering that even with all windows in the house open,
made me nauseous. After experiencing this we quickly added a second
venting system (a powerful room exhaust fan that sucks all of the air
out of the basement kiln room and vents it out the window) which solved
the problem. I think the Envirovent does a good job of helping to even
out the heat distribution in the kiln and to vent many of the off
gassing fumes, but the paraffin seems to overload its capabilities, so
if you do use hot paraffin wax and have poor air circulation in your
basement like I do, you may want to consider a room exhaust fan vent as
well.
Dorie in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the sky is a beautiful blue, just
like the color of so many beautiful blue pots I have enjoyed!
************************************************************************
*****************
From: Ramesh Kanthaswami
Subject: Re: Kiln venting through dryer duct
The dryer duct is metal, I think aluminum, like a bellow which I can
pull to extent. The kiln vent is "EnviroVent" which came with my Skutt
818. What I did was put a "T" on the duct where it exits out of the
wall. I was a bit hesitent to punch another whole in the wall (you know
the basement walls!). Another option is to extent the kiln duct a bit
more, which would end-up about 20 - 25' from the kiln, to my furnace
chimeny. But from the feedbacK I got so far, looks like it is safer to
run a separate duct for the kiln rather than piggy-bagging on the dryer
duct.
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