Using A Dryer Hose On Your Portable AC: Better Or Worse?

In comparison to your portable AC exhaust hose, a dryer hose is longer and slightly smaller. The hassle of using the shorter exhaust hose may have you wondering if there is a better option.

Although it may initially appear to work to vent your portable air conditioner through a dryer vent, doing so may eventually lead to less efficiency and more troubles than you need. Exhaust hoses are large in diameter and short in length for a reason. Those measures are just what your device needs to operate at its peak performance.

You can be left in the dark by a vague statement that using dryer vents will result in inefficiency. What damage might these little variations in specifications cause to your portable AC?

Why Using A Dryer Hose With A Portable Air Conditioner Is Bad

Exhausting a portable air conditioner through a dryer vent is generally not a good idea. The typical dryer hose is 4 inches in diameter, compared to the typical exhaust hose’s 5 inches. The system is greatly impacted by such a little change. The following justifies why this standard shouldn’t be disregarded.

Diameter

When it comes to how efficiently and quietly ducts transfer the right amount of air from one place to another, air velocity is a significant aspect. You must select the register with the suitable air flow in order to get the exhaust hose to fling properly. The reducer fitting’s velocity changes would cause some turbulence. When you go a little more slowly, corner activity will rise and the decline will flatten out a little.

In conclusion, air pressure rises as it moves from a larger to a smaller duct. When moving from a smaller to a larger duct, the velocity decreases, necessitating the use of a larger exhaust line rather than a dryer vent.

One difference to take into account is the diameter. It’s also necessary to consider length.

Length

The exhaust pipe that is included with your portable AC can be extended to its maximum length, which is around 48 inches, but in order to maintain its peak performance, it should be set to the minimum length while taking care to avoid creating too many bends in the hose.

The exhaust pipes of certain portable air conditioner models can be extended, however they typically cannot. By stretching the hose, a buildup of hot air in the exhaust line could escape through the front of the appliance, combining with the cold air it is now producing to produce warm air.

Your portable air conditioner’s exhaust line has been lengthened especially to fit the device’s blower. The hot air that is released from your appliance is forced through the exhaust hose by the blower. Increasing the hose’s length overloads the blower by preventing the air from fully draining. This reduces the cooling capacity of the device, reduces the blower’s lifespan, and might possibly cause a malfunction.

Also keep in mind that trying to lengthen your portable air conditioner’s exhaust hose will typically void the warranty on the appliance.

If you notice that the exhaust line is just barely long enough to extend from the portable AC to the window bracket without compromising the unit’s performance, you can set the portable AC on a firm platform to expand the hose’s length.

Flexibility

More adaptable than portable AC exhaust tubes are dryer vents. In comparison to an exhaust hose, a dryer hose is therefore more susceptible to bending. It can cause the compressor to experience back pressure stress and the exhaust line to gradually warm up. The exhaust hose should not be bent at an angle more than 45 degrees. If bending the exhaust hose is unavoidable, make sure to do it gently and smoothly.

For A Portable Air Conditioner, What Size Of Hose Is Required?

The exhaust hose for a portable air conditioner is normally 5 feet long and 5 inches in diameter. It is typically, though not always, made of resilient, flexible plastic.

Can You Make Your Portable Air Conditioner’s Exhaust Hose Longer?

You shouldn’t try to extend the vent line while venting a portable air conditioner because doing so will lower efficiency and might even void the warranty.

For portable air conditioners, the typical hose length is 5 to 7 feet. If you require longer hoses, you may easily find them at your local hardware store. You can also vent through a brief dryer hose if the hose diameter is 5 inches or greater and the outer venting flap is removed.

If you truly need a little bit of an extension, we advise using a portable 80-inch AC exhaust hose.

What Takes Place If The Exhaust Hose Isn’t Used On A Portable Air Conditioner?

With one notable distinction, a portable air conditioner in cooling mode resembles a special-purpose dehumidifier extremely closely.

Portable air conditioners improve heat removal efficiency and do away with the need to empty a tank every hour by dripping collected water over the heated condenser coil. If you force that air and humidity outside, everyone benefits.

The air conditioner will only alternate between cool and dry and hot and humid in your room if you remove the vent hose. Given that the majority of equipment utilize about 1,000 watts of power, this would actually heat up your space considerably more than it would cool it down.

When a portable air conditioner is set to “dehumidifier” mode, the amount of heat it generates is unaffected, but the water instead drains into a catch tank (or, much better, out of a drain hose). The biggest difference between a portable AC unit and a dehumidifier in this situation is that the former frequently has incredibly small water tanks and is difficult to drain unless you can move it outdoors and dump the water onto your lawn.

Heat isn’t a huge problem, but running a dehumidifier may make a space more comfortable if the humidity is too high.

Without A Hose, How Do You Vent A Portable Air Conditioner?

Not only one of its features, the exhaust pipe is an essential part of portable air conditioners. Every air conditioner operates under the simple premise that an area must be cooled. We have to take the heat out of that location to get cooling (usually outdoors). This heat transfer is entirely made possible by the exhaust hose for portable air conditioners.

Without a hose, it is difficult to effectively transport heat between two locations due to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. An air conditioner with no hoses would be utilized in one insulated area. Without the hose, which permits heat to go from one place to another, we couldn’t actually chill anything. When running a portable AC without a hose, the interior temperature will rise.

However, there is a specific circumstance in which cooling is provided by a portable AC unit without an exhaust hose—using AC without vents. These AC-style devices provide cooling without the need for venting (based on evaporation rather than a refrigerant cycle like ACs). They are sometimes known as evaporative coolers or “ventless air conditioners.”

Wrapping Up

Although technically viable, venting your portable air conditioner through a dryer vent line won’t be of long-term benefit. A backlog of heated air, overheating, malfunction, and ineffective cooling will result from doing this. It is preferable to continue using the exhaust pipe that came with your new portable air conditioner.