Cold air drafts in your laundry room are often caused by stuck dryer vent flaps or faulty caulking. These drafts cause your heater to work harder to warm the home during winter months, which may increase your heating bill. In addition, gaps caused by poor caulking jobs can allow insects and rodents to get into your home. Several remedies may fix the problem, but if they do not work, you can replace the dryer vent with a dryer vent draft blocker. The blocker has a floating shuttle on the interior that rises when hot air blows through the dryer vent and closes when the dryer is not in use, which prevents cold air from blowing through the vent and into your home.
Clean Vent and Fix Caulking
Go outside and inspect the dryer vent. Most dryer vents come with a flap or hinged door. Occasionally lint builds up in the vent and holds the vent flap open, which causes cold air to leak inside your home.
Lift up the vent flap and remove any lint or debris that may be caught in it. Spray the hinge of the flap with an even layer of silicone spray to lubricate it so that it lifts easily.
Inspect the caulking on the edges of the vent. If it has crumbled or peeled away from the vent and the house exterior, remove the caulking by running a utility knife around the exterior edge of the vent to cut it and then pull it off.
Run a bead of dryer caulk around the outside edges of the vent hood to make a new seal.
Replace Dryer Vent
Cut the caulk that sealed the space between the dryer vent edges and the house siding with a utility knife and remove it.
Remove any screws that attached the dryer vent to the house. Remove the old dryer vent. Inspect where the vent pipe exits the house; if you can see gaps between the wall and the pipe, this may have been contributing to the cold air draft in your laundry room.
Slowly spray canned foam insulation into the gaps, as it swells once it makes contact with a surface and it's easy to spray too much if you're not careful. Wait for the spray foam to dry or cure. If you oversprayed the foam insulation, remove the excess insulation after it dries; wear work gloves for this task.
Insert the back of the dyer vent draft blocker into the end of the dryer vent. Once it is in place, draw a mark in the screw holes on the main vent pipe mounting plate and the top dryer vent draft block cap mounting plate with a pencil. Remove the dryer vent draft blocker and drill pilot holes on the marks. Reinsert the dryer vent draft blocker into the end of the dryer vent. Secure the draft blocker by attaching it to the house with the provided screws and an electric screwdriver.
Run a bead of dryer vent caulk around the edge of the main mounting plate of the dryer vent blocker. Be sure to caulk any gaps caused by the position of house siding.
Things You Will Need
- Silicone spray
- Utility knife
- Dryer caulk
- Dryer vent draft blocker
- Canned foam insulation
- Work gloves
- Electric screwdriver
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