Gas dryer exhaust obstuction

[HandyGary]

I can not seem to find the appropriate place to post this so feel free to move it as necessary.

I just wanted to share this anecdote. I'm in a townhome with attached garage and the dryer in garage. The exhaust goes into the wall, out the ceiling, into the garage rafters/trusses area and then up through the roof. As this exhaust duct leaves the attic, it has an A-frame shaped rain cover over it.

A squirrel dropped a green pine cone down that exhaust. You can imagine the rest of the story!

 

[John Gayewski]

Did your co detector go off? Did it start a fire? I can imagine a lot of things.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[HandyGary]

Well John, I did say that you can imagine the rest of the story. You are imagining a very rational, reasonable consequence. I was far more lucky than that. It was about a 1.5" - 2" pine cone in a 3" exhaust. The drying time was taking longer and the 90º turn was dripping water onto my car. I started opening things up where it was exposed. When I started at the 90º turn, 4' below the roof, I found the pine cone. It had become fuzzy.

So I taped a piece if rain gutter leaf grill to the top of the vent where the pine cone was deposited. It had 3/8" - 1/2" size grids. That fouled with lint eventually so I removed it. I still have a place where a dumb squirrel could do this again. <shrug>

 

[John Gayewski]

Well John, I did say that you can imagine the rest of the story. You are imagining a very rational, reasonable consequence. I was far more lucky than that. It was about a 1.5" - 2" pine cone in a 3" exhaust. The drying time was taking longer and the 90º turn was dripping water onto my car. I started opening things up where it was exposed. When I started at the 90º turn, 4' below the roof, I found the pine cone. It had become fuzzy.

So I taped a piece if rain gutter leaf grill to the top of the vent where the pine cone was deposited. It had 3/8" - 1/2" size grids. That fouled with lint eventually so I removed it. I still have a place where a dumb squirrel could do this again. <shrug>

Squirrels got into my attic and chewed the electrical wiring insulation off. Talk about annoying. There was also a squirrel skeleton. So I think he got what was coming for that one. Although i would have liked to punish him even worse when i had to get into the attic and lay on my face to re insulate the wiring.