# What if you can't vent conveyor dryer to outside?



## jeannekay (Mar 19, 2012)

I am moving my screenprinting biz to a new building. I really don't see any way to vent my conveyor dryer to the outside. It's a Mercury Spot Dryer (or so it says on the side) and has about a 5ft belt. Has a 6 inch vent on the top that has a small fan in it. 

What else can I do? The building will be retail space w/ my press & dryer in the back of the room separated by cabinets or a room divider. Has ceilings that are aprox 15ft tall. Room is aprox 24x60. No windows on the sides and the front is huge plate glass windows and the door. There's a possibility of going up and then through a wall and back down to an old dryer vent. Not sure where the dryer vent goes to or if this is a viable possibility as I thought of this after I left the building today. The building walls are brick, I'm not going to be able to go through them.

What else can I do? There's about 3ft of space between the ceiling and the floor above me that has apartments and tenants in them.


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## porkchopharry (Mar 4, 2012)

Depends on what and how much you are printing? Plastisol may not be a "huge" issue. But WB and discharge could be a big issue. 

I'm a Texan I know OK gets warm. I'm in Los Angeles now and I print WB. If I couldn't vent my dryer outside I'd have ink drying in the screens all day long.

Not to mention any health risks from breathing in vapors? And if you have customers in there...

There's no way to duct it out through the ceiling? A window you can pipe a flex duct to, and close when you are done? Cut a hole in the wall and add a dryer vent duct, then just run flex-pipe to that? Flex pipe usually comes in 20 ft lengths. 

Sean does HVAC, maybe he'll pop in and give you some ideas.


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## jeannekay (Mar 19, 2012)

I am only printing plastisol. But I've had the room hazy in my shop at times thus far after I've been working in there for a few hours. This month it's not a problem but some months it is, and I have hope that I'll increase my business so would be doing more printing.

There is only one window in the back and it's up high and a solid window. So I'd have to replace the whole window and it's over a stairwell and not convenient to get the duct work to it. So I don't think I could duct to it anyway. There are apartments over me, so if I go through the ceiling where do I go from there? There is a room upstairs in my part that I can open a closet and see there is about 3 ft between my ceiling and the floors of the apartments, could it just be vented to that space? Would the fumes go up into the apartments through their floors?


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## porkchopharry (Mar 4, 2012)

I think the things you want to be concerned about is heat in the summer - dryer should be pumping out some heat, especially if it has an exhaust fan.

And fumes. Dunno if I'd want to breathing in plastisol fumes all day. Or my customers breathing them in. 

My shops have always had decent ventilation. Even if it was just doors I could open and run a flexi-duct out of. But it sounds like yours doesn't have that option. But that dryer has to throw out some heat. If you're trying to cool the place with A/C then you're losing $$$ there too.

So...there is no way to put a duct like you have behind your clothes dryer at home in one of the walls that leads outside? Then you just take some of that flexible aluminum ducting - also like you have on your clothes dryer at home- and run it to that. It's not fancy schmancy, but it'll do the trick.

But, no door nearby-ish to run that ducting out of? At the end of the day you bring it in and coil it up. 

By the way, most of that aluminum flexi duct is 4" but you can get a 4" to 6" (or 6 to 4) reducer to fit it to your dryer. My dryer has a 3" vent and I use a 4 to 3 reducer. Works well enough.


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## DPendable (Dec 21, 2012)

Get permission from building owner. Call a concrete cutting company and have them core out a 4" or 6" hole in wall high up. Easy job shouldnt be too much $$$$$ and it gets the job done right. Im not a big fan of bandaid fixes for permanent problems. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using T-Shirt Forums


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## MaximRecoil (May 18, 2010)

porkchopharry said:


> And fumes. Dunno if I'd want to breathing in *plastisol fumes* all day. Or my customers breathing them in.


No such thing at dryer temperatures according to RichardGreaves, retired Ulano Technical Product Manager:



RichardGreaves said:


> Plastisols are 100% solids - *nothing evaporates*. What fumes? Ask this supplier to be very specific. Carcinogenic? If you want noxious fumes print some discharge ink.
> 
> Both water-base and plastisol inks need to reach about 300 degrees F to completely cure. 80% of water-based ink needs to evaporate before the solids can be bonded with heat - Just like plastisol.
> 
> ...


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## porkchopharry (Mar 4, 2012)

Semantics I suppose. If I see fumes - smoke/steam, I don't really care too much where they're coming from. Ink, t-shirt, whatever, I don't necessarily want to be huffing them all day. 

Regardless, she should try to vent out the fumes, whatever they might be. At least I think.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

I've seen post like that for him. Take some plastisol ink, put on a peice of paper or you platen for that fact. Put under your flash and watch the smoke roll. Tell me there isn't no fumes. With apartments above you better find a soultion. I would also recomend building a hood for you flash and venting it. If your dryer has a fan put a wye in and it should pull a small amount of air. But if not the heat rising should be sufficient draft. I have been in the rental business for 25+ years. You don't want to be getting sued.


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## MaximRecoil (May 18, 2010)

sben763 said:


> I've seen post like that for him. Take some plastisol ink, put on a peice of paper or you platen for that fact. Put under your flash and watch the smoke roll. Tell me there isn't no fumes.


You'll get smoke from bare paper or a bare platen (depending on what it's made of) doing that too. For meaningful results, you'd have to try it with plastisol on a perfectly clean piece of glass or metal, and for only as much time as you would actually flash or cure plastisol after printing with it. He's not saying that there won't be fumes or vapors no matter how hot it gets; he's saying the ~300 degree curing temperature isn't hot enough.

I've never done any experiments, so I don't know either way, but the only thing I've ever smelled while curing plastisol is a hot shirt.


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## porkchopharry (Mar 4, 2012)

I rarely use plastisols anymore. But when I DO I can tell the color of the ink going through the conveyor by the smell in the air. One Stroke Brite Pink has a distinctive smell when curing. So do the others. 

Waterbased inks all smell like brownies to me when curing. 

But...that's all besides the point. Venting is just common sense. And the OP is going to let retail customers in the space. Who wants to walk into a shop that is full of haze? The customer doesn't know what it is. For all they know it's "smoke". 

I've never seen a tee with plastisol prints release fumes really. I see the fumes/smoke coming off of the print area. Now, water-based yeah, it's sitting in the tunnel long enough to really start fuming from both the garment and the print.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

MaximRecoil said:


> You'll get smoke from bare paper or a bare platen (depending on what it's made of) doing that too. For meaningful results, you'd have to try it with plastisol on a perfectly clean piece of glass or metal, and for only as much time as you would actually flash or cure plastisol after printing with it. He's not saying that there won't be fumes or vapors no matter how hot it gets; he's saying the ~300 degree curing temperature isn't hot enough.
> 
> I've never done any experiments, so I don't know either way, but the only thing I've ever smelled while curing plastisol is a hot shirt.


I have aluminum platen I put tape on them. I can leave them under the flash for 5 min with no smoke. I pre warm the platen all the time. Put some plastisol on there and just flash for 10-15 sec. I have done some experiments as I read the MSDS sheet that say the smoke comes from starches or other coatings applied to fabrics. Funny how I put a shirt under flash and no smoke. The put same shirt with plastisol and it smokes even around the 200F, it may not be much. Now anything with polyester smokes by itself.


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## Max3344 (May 9, 2018)

A bad ventilation can cause big issues. Have you solved the problem?


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## Mia444 (Sep 22, 2017)

I agree that it is better to address professionals. I had a problem of a bad ventilation that caused mold in the room. When I understood that I wouldn't cope with it by myself, I hired a HVAC company. I was lucky to find the really good guys who know their work. By the way, it is possible to find out the approximate cost of the services on their website - https://servicewhale.com/services/hvac-repair-cost. Hopefully, someone will find this information to be useful!


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## reximages (Apr 3, 2010)

I have used a conveyor dryer in my garage without venting it to the outside. Although the roof is twenty feet at it's peak from the floor, the moisture from the dryer would collect in the rafter boards and once in a while I would get drips of water from the roofing boards (rafter boards...whatever they are called). I was thinking that the volume of area in the two car garage was enough air space for no problem to occur. Well, I admit my thinking was wrong. I went to the hardware store and bought the necessary flexible metallic ventilation tubing and a roll of 2" metallic sticky tape and constructed the tubing to the vent at the peak area of the gable so that the heat pushing out of the dryer by its fan would blow outside the building. I have never had a problem since I did that...with the moisture collecting up in the rafter boards.

So, experience has taught me to VENT THE CONVEYOR DRYER TO THE OUTSIDE!


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