EDIT: I’ve attached a rough map of the situation. The laundry room is the little room in the middle. The red dot is where the dryer vents into the garage.
My house is weird. Built mid-1970s. Upper Midwest.
One of the weird/annoying things about my house is the fact that the clothes dryer vent opens up into the house’s attached garage rather than venting outside. This is an electric dryer, so the vent is just hot wet air – nothing like CO or anything.
Ideally, I’d like the dryer to vent to the outside and not turn my garage into a stagnant humid swamp every time I dry clothes (most days, actually, because I have many children). But the laundry room isn’t situated in a way that makes outside venting easy. It’s on the main level, right in the middle of the floorplan. No basement access, so I can’t add ductwork through the floor. No usable ceiling access either.
What options do I have to make this mess annoying? Add venting to the garage somehow?
If I had your problem, I think I would look at 4 potential solutions.
1, vent-less dryer is obvious, but pricey 2. heavy duty dehumidifier, a quick amzn search suggests you can get something in the ~$100-$200 range 3. build an enclosure to run the vented air through a container with calcium chloride pellets, this should reduce moisture. maybe couple with #2, the pellets don’t remove moisture, they trap it, so it will evaporate eventually. 4. vent your garage, moving air through it will be the cheapest and least difficult. This may not be an option for you depending on your situation.
A spin dryer can remove a lot of moisture from a load, but they are typically small. Never seen a family sized one, so I wouldn’t recommend that… you’d need 2 or 3 of them for large loads with cottons. If this does appeal use laundry alternative, panda isn’t quite as high a value. I’m single and I only use the spin cause I hang everything, no dresser. only takes 3 mins for ‘mostly dry’ clothes. Some people use clay (cat litter) on their garage floor to soak up oil, this would also absorb the moisture, but it will still evaporate over time just like the Calcium Chloride.