HEARTLAND 21000 Dryer Vent Closure
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of HEARTLAND 21000 Dryer Vent Closure
Customer Review: Pain
Summary: 1 Stars
Let me tell you. The vent is a pain. They don't supply the extension, for free, that is necessary for masonry placement. The vent has to be painted before placement (UV light will make plastic brittle). It must be silicone sealed (additional expense) on the outside wall for weather tightness. It has mounting holes too close to the edge and will snap them off if one isn't careful (especially in cold and/or masonry where precise placment of the six screws can be dicey). The vent has to be mounted precisely vertical. The base is open-- not screened or with some sort of mesh for the prevention of critters attracted by warm air. The installation took two hours as opposed to fifteen minutes for a typical vent and six days if you count the painting and wait for the extension. Finally, the connection to the vent pipe is awkward AND a lint trap, that once installed, is not easy to get to, at best, at the outside wall. That product needs big time help in installation engineering. The Heartland people are pleasant but not helpful. Now I admit that this vent is a good idea, but it is also a rip off with little support and NO HELP from Heartland. Be careful when buying this it will break your spirit. Truth is I had an existing vent hole but this took a whole bunch more work. I had the tools to make a safe and secure install including vent pipe crimpers, but the typical homeowner will be throwing money away unless they have a good installer and/or the specialty tools and there is the very real possibility they can have a hole in the wall to boot. Don't even think about this in masonry without a hammer drill, sharp masonry bit, and a bit of luck in the location, hardness and joint placement of the brick or block in the outside wall. The Heartland people need to do several installs before putting this vent out to the uninitiated home installer and they will soon change their product. The vent dryer/vent connection needs work. The vent should be pre-primed and all of the installation parts should be in the package (or free on request). This item is a good idea but in my opinion was not thought through for convenience of installation or safety. This is a lesson on how to make a good product bad.
Customer Review: good unit - good price
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading various reviews about this particular product and at least one other similar dryer vent, and after searching hardware stores and box home improvement stores, I found the Heartland dryer vent at Menard's for $12.95. I also read that James Dulley, the home improvement columnist, has this particular dryer vent on his house. I disassembled and inspected for flash marks (did some very light trimming) and possible quality problems, found none and set about installing this vent on my aluminum sided house. As the 4" duct connection does not come attached, I pulled the staples from the old plastic louvered vent being replaced and used that 4" duct. A bit of down sizing was necessary on the aluminum duct and only having 1/2" in which to insert the duct in the dryer vent was a bit unhandy, but it all worked out. I sealed the duct to the dryer vent with clear door & window silicone and it seems to be joined and sealed just fine. I am a little concerned about how thin the plastic at the screw holes is but once attached to the house I sealed the dryer vent to the aluminum siding with more silicone and I think this will support the vent at least as much as the mounting screws supplied with the unit, which are not very long by the way. As this unit sits on the north side of my house I am going to leave it unpainted and see how it stands up to weather degredation. Thus far (two weeks) I have noticed absolutely no lint being held to the interior parts of the vent and this is after cleaning the lint from my gas dryer and seeing much more than normal amounts of lint on the ground around the vent. Don't know yet how effective this unit is at sealing out cold air but will find out this winter. Judging from what I have read, if you want to try this type of dryer vent, be sure it is the Heartland dryer vent and not a look alike model which is often substituted and seems to generate a lot of quality/durability complaints.Customer Review: Excellent & Durable For YEARS!
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot say enough good things about this product. Both I, and my brother-in-law, have had this vent closure installed on our homes for several years with no complaints whatsoever. I find it hard to believe some of the things said by two other reviewers.
One says the vent makes a mess - uh, DUH! Your dryer is making the mess, not the vent closure. Your dryer's filter screen lets a lot escape, and so it exits the vent closure as it should! If it didn't escape it would clog the vent and cause a dryer fire as air flow is strangled causing temperature to rise in the line.
Another reviewer wrote a book about his brick problems, even complaining about having to use caulking. He also said it HAD to be painted to prevent ultra violet light damage. Well, if caulk is a problem then let it leak air. The heat loss will equal the cost of a case of caulk in short order, but that is the alternative. As for HAVING to paint it, nothing could be further from the truth! Mine, and my brother-in-law's, have been unpainted for many years now with no signs of brittleness yet. But, if you want to paint it, that should take a whopping 15 minutes. Geez, a complainer in every crowd, I guess!
My vent closure has eliminated cold air from entering the laundry room! Opening our dryer door used to feel like opening a freezer door. Our feet would turn to ice in that room until I installed this vent closure!! And the floating cup, despite lint build-up, has maintained a tight air, bug & rodent-proof seal when the dryer is not running. It cleans easily if you have even the slightest mechanical skills.
In my opinion, this product will pay for itself in home heating and cooling costs in less than one season while keeping out rodents and insects. Don't let the naysayers seize the day!!!
Customer Review: Heartland Dryer Vent
Summary: 5 Stars
I have lap siding (Hardi Plank cement boards) with a 5 inch reveal. To mount the base of the dryer I put down a thick bead of silicon caulk on the siding where the square base would be positioned and then fastened the base with the enclosed screws at the four corners of the base. I pre-drilled the holes into the cement siding. I used the caulk to make sure I had an air tight seal. I let the base and caulk set for 24 hours and then placed the vent top with the floating valve into the base, removed the cap, and turned on the dryer to check the seal. The floating valve shot right up out of the base almost 2 feet into the air, so I felt confident that the seal around the base was air tight and all the exhaust air from the dryer was coming out of the vent. I fastened the top of the vent to the siding with the enclosed screw, again pre-drilling the hole in the the cement siding. When the cap is in place the cap directs the exhaust air downward and that keeps the floating valve from shooting out of the top of the vent. The vent works just as advertised, sealing up nicely when the dryer is off. I noted that some lint tends to accumulate between the lip of the vent top and the cap, so when I check the insides of the vent for cleaning by removing the cap, I will be careful to scrape around the lip of the vent where the cap fits and keep that area lint-free. Overall a great product, fairly easy installation (especially if you don't have lap siding to contend with), and a lot better design than the normal dryer vent with the plastic hinged vanes that open when the dryer is on and close (somewhat) when it is off. We had a mouse get inside the normal dryer vent and it died there, so that was not a good thing. The Heartland vent will prevent that from happening and provide a positive seal against the outside air.Customer Review: Dynamite - big difference in keeping out the cold
Summary: 5 Stars
This device really does work. Our once cold laundry room is now room temperature with the rest of the house. The old sheet metal flapper was impossible to keep clean and lint would prevent closure allowing outside air to back flow into the laundry room.
I had a unique installation problem that was easily solved after a few trips to Home Depot :-)
My vent opening is slightly below a gas meter so using the supplied elbow in a vertical orientation right out of the opening would not work because the unit ran into the meter.
So, I put the elbow on horizontally and attached a short, 4" flex vent which ran horizontally on the outer wall until it cleared the meter. I then used a sheet metal elbow to turn up into the cylinder containing the floating cap, where the Hearland elbow would normally attach. This is a friction fit. This worked flawlessly. However, I suspect that I am not getting 100% of the insulation capability due to the fact that part of the outside line is metal so there is likely a little bit of air cooling in the line occurring, but since the floating cap seals well, conductive flow is probably at a minimum. So, if you have this problem, standard hardware store 4" vent fittings will plug into this unit nicely.
I did have to by a "starter" ring for the in-wall attachment to create a female-female collar that attached into the existing dryer stub and the Heartland elbow. No problem - it went smoothly.
If you have a cold laundry room and the problem is back flow from the dry vent, you *need* this little jewel. In our case, it will save a lot of heating costs because our laundry room is integral to the main living area rather than in a garage or a basement. No more cold draft.