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

While this is the ideal rarely is it the case anymore. Builders opt for making the laundry room more convenient to the kitchen which more often than not is in the central part of the home. As a chimney sweep for 40 years who tackled dryer vents early I learned convincing builders to alter their habits is futile much to the peril of homeowners. We suggest rerouting the vent up and out the roof. This is not optimum but normally the only feasible way to do it. The pipe should be metal but not aluminum and each joint should be taped with METAL tape not duct tape which will fail after a few years of heated use. Dryer vents can only be 35 feet long according to building codes and each 90 degree bend subtracts 5 feet from that total. Slab vents have 4- 90's thereby making the legal limit of the vent to be only 15 feet long. Rarely are they that short. The cleaning procedure detailed above is normal and time consuming but necessary for this faulty dryer vent design. As dryer vent cleaners we have perfected a system that works most of the time yet there are those that must be rerouted to be made more efficient.

If you check the spec on your dryer I think you will find that you will be exceeding the ability of the dryer to move the air to dry effectively. Each load will take longer and therefore be more costly. I'd suggest that you look into a booster fan. Tjernlund makes about the best of them in my opinion. Watch their video on operation. You could take the 4" exhaust pipe (try to use smooth walled ridged pipe) and insulate and sleeve it with PVC on the portion under the deck. The vent should not terminate under the deck

I am not an expert, maybe someone else will post that knows more than me. Here is my experience with my set that I put into my bathroom during a remodel: Check your manual or go online to find it. There should be vent length recommendations in the manual. There is also a standard calculation to determine the length of vent pipe you can use. There are several considerations. One, for example, requires that each 90 degree turn = 5 feet of pipe. My max dryer vent pipe was listed as 33' but the actual length is no where near that long. My three 90 degree turns used 15' of vent in the calculation from the start. I have about 13' of actual length to get to the outside wall, so that adds up to 28' run of vent. If you can't make the distances work you may have to get a buster fan that is installed in the pipe to help. Another concern with putting the W/D upstairs is the flooring. Is this stacked set going along a load bearing wall? My set requires this setup. If you put it in the middle of a joist span it will bounce too much. Front loaders create a lot of energy with the high rotations.