gordonr, If there's nothing else I've learned during the course of my renovations, I've learned that everything ends up being more complicated than you expect. Once you open up the ceiling or the wall, there always seems to be something in the way of what you want to do. A floor joist where the tub drain needed to be, pipes where I wanted recessed lights to go, and now the recessed light over the tub is where it would make sense to run the duct. I can hardly wait to get to the kitchen renovation! I spoke with a rep in Miele's technical service group yesterday. Initially he was telling me he thought what I wanted to do entailed too long a stretch of duct - that it would reduce the performance of the dryer. I told him I expected that it would not be optimal performance, but what I was trying to determine was whether it would reduce it to the extent that a condenser dryer would have the same performance. He didn't seem to understand what I was getting at, so I gave an example: If the vented model has 15% better performance than the condenser model and the venting I'm doing reduces performance by 15%, then the condenser model would be generally equivalent, but if the vented dryer's performance is 50% greater, the same 15% reduction in performance would still mean the vented dryer was a better choice. I asked if he could give me any information about how much better the vented dryer's performance was than the condenser model and how much the venting I was considering would reduce the vented dryer's performance. At that point, he said he wanted to talk with one of the senior technical reps and put me on hold. When he came back, he told me that the dryer was rated for up to 60 feet (which I already knew) and that I should be fine with what I was planning on doing. He also told me that the sr. rep had indicated that having a condenser dryer in a closet could be problematic because it puts off a lot more heat than a vented dryer - you'd need a lot more air circulation into the closet with a condenser dryer. The closet I'll be putting the w/d into is 68" wide by 29" deep, so the extra heat and air circulation need may not have been as much of an issue for me as it might be for others with a more confined space. One learning that I took away from this: if you start to get the sense that the technical or customer service person you're talking to may not be as knowledgeable as you'd like, ask to talk with a senior rep. Like anywhere else, initial phone calls will be answered by more junior staff who will route the more complicated issues to more experienced staff. I've decided to go with a vented dryer, and now just need to decide between the Miele and the Asko. I'll let everyone know which one I end up with. Jan

I would go for the shorter, more efficient route. Also check the dryer manual for max run length with number of turns. Since when are garages supposed to be pretty anyway? If da wife complains, just say FIRE. We have your back. Gat that sucker fixed. My sister almost had a fire in her relatively new house a few years ago. My sis messed with the original plan and moved the laundry to the basement from the 2nd floor. The idiot builders ran an overly-long duct to the back of the basement. It clogged up and started to smolder. Duct now makes a much shorter run to the adjacent garage and then out the front. Just last summer on one of my occasional visits East, I noticed that the originally-planned dryer vent was installed outside near (2nd) floor level on the back of the house. Good grief!

Whatever you do malvaflores, do not change the hoses. Flexible steel hoses are so much stronger and last longer than the standard rubber hoses. I once had a rubber hose burst when I was away from the house and it flooded my first floor. It made me a believer and I have replaced countless sets for family and friends. Fordtech makes an excellent point that if your walls were thick enough you could have the receptacle boxes set within. This is something that a custom build could probably accommodate if someone thought of it.

A platform storage drawer...sounds like one of those things they sell to put under a front loading washer or dryer. What I do with heavy stuff that is not on wheels (and why do these drawer thingies not have rollers under them?) is to get my $40 Harbor Freight two-wheeled inflatable tire dolly (aka hand truck), slide it under the front, tip the whole thing back (drawer and dryer both) and walk it backwards, then set it down. Probably take two people because of the bulky size if not for the weight. If you can't tilt it back, run a rope or ratchet strap from dolly all the way around and back to the dolly and cinch it tight. You can move all kinds of heavy stuff this way.