Natural Energy Saving Dryer Vent Closure - Outside Heartland Dryer Vent Cover Adapts to Outdoor Siding

We've had dryer vent covers from this company for decades. A tree branch broke ours, and we immediately replaced it. The item is sturdy, each part can be ordered separately if only one piece breaks, and it keeps cold air from coming in through the dryer vent.

Total success. I hate those metal louvered things, and big-surprise, they don't keep pests out of the house. A neighbor's dryer had stopped working entirely a few years back, upon his return from an extended inlaw visit (part of the reason I bought this, as you'll soon know). Due to his limited retirement income, I helped him pull the dryer out, and we poked around to see just what had the dryer belly-up. Maybe we two knuckleheads could fix it by accident? Anyway... Guess what will stop a clothes dryer? Answer: pecans - lots and lots of pecansA mouse (we guess) started putting back pecans for the winter, and by remaining steadily at it for we estimate the entire couple of weeks he was away, managed to get enough pecans into this dryer to jam up the whole works! I couldn't believe it, but true story.Anyway, fast-forward to me getting this vent thing and using it. It fits standard (4-in?) extension dryer pipe (solid kind, not flex/corrugated) that you would run through a wall, and sealed up perfectly just pushed in - you can seal further at your option, which I did. Then, you pop 6 holes in the side of your house, run in some screws, and voila! You have something I associate more closely to a "commercial-duty" vent solution than the old standard.Everything that's true about occluding pests is just as good for cold air. You don't stop it from being cold outside, but you stop cold air from pouring in through your dryer. In the right weather and prevailing wind, I could keep beer cold in my dryer (when not in use), to say nothing of the energy wasted by chilling that whole end of the house. This was probably far and away the largest inefficiency with my heating/cooling - you'll hear builders talk about 'the envelope'. Well, mine had a large gap in it, through which I was throwing money each month. Guaranteed, the first February alone, this paid for itself. I've never felt even a puff of moving air come back through this thing. It's still connected to the outside air, and not particularly insulated or anything, so it isn't magically warm ... but it's the air movement I wanted to stop, and that's what it did. I'm trying to guess just which way the wind would have to blow and swirl to defeat this design. My guess is, if that ever happens, you have bigger problems at that particular moment, considering shingles are held down on one end largely by gravity too...just sayin'.This is particularly important the closer to the ground or more easily accessible your vent location is. You cannot install this upside down or sideways though. The inner cap floats up and allows air to escape when the dryer is pushing air, and when the dryer is off, the cap floats back down and seals perfectly by being 100% in line with gravity (in contrast to a flapper that is based more on 'leaning' closed, rather than 'falling' closed). I say that to say this: critters know how to nose and pry their way into things, but don't generally posess thumbs and all the finer motor skills and intellectual prowess to arrive at "YOU MUST lift both sides of the cap straight up at the same time, or it'll bind in the housing". Truth be known, I've witnessed full many a human found wanting in that particular comprehension... Anyway, forced air does that nicely ... mice, not so much.BOILERPLATE: It beats the standard vent cap/flapper (which my neighbor had intact on his older home), and I dig it. It also doesn't rattle/flap in the wind, so it's the silent option. I generally go for the cheapest thing first if possible, but this seemed to be, and later proved to be so superior that I don't miss the extra duckets.

First, I want to say that I second all of the positive reviews I've read here. With one exception this dryer vent is perfect. The only exception is that it deteriorates due to sun exposure. I am just buying my third one with the first two lasting about 7 years each. Ours is installed on the south facing wall of our home and so it gets full sun all year long. I suspect that the UV in sunlight causes the plastic to break down. This time I plan to paint the unit to get it to last a little longer. Note that it is good to give the unit a thorough cleaning about once a year to ensure that it works smoothly. This applies to the whole length of dryer exhaust vent path including the parts inside the dryer. Lint buildup can greatly degrade airflow reducing dryer efficiency.

The float within this closes when the dryer isn't in use and has dramatically cut down on the cold air entering our house through our laundry room. You do have to clean it a few times a year. It has been worth it though.

Update 2/12/14. After 1 yr+ operation, I have to give the Heartland 21000 dryer vent closure a 5 star rating. It performs without all the problems that the flapper-type vent closures typically have--getting stuck open by lint, or by rusting of the springs. When the dryer is not operating, the Heartland closes tight & keeps out fumes from lawn movers, etc. In 1+ yr of operation, it has never stuck open & never gotten clogged by lint. The only problem encountered: during an extreme cold & ice storm, the Heartland "valve" froze in place--apparently due to condensation buildup. But it was easily loosened.As to my original downgrading of the Heartland due to install problems: I agree that install would have been a quick easy job IF the correct dryer vent pipe had been installed in our house. However, previous house owner had cemented-in the vent pipe coming to outside & it had no crimped end extending outside. That's why we had such difficulty. So if you're lucky enough to have a vent pipe outside end with crimping, it will be a "5 star" install for you. If not, you'll have to adapt it like we had to.Success! Finally got it installed and functioning but it took two of us 1.5 hrs. Why? (1) the product description and instructions say that it will fit on a 4" diameter vent pipe, but it won't. The pipe receptacle on the Heartland vent contraption is just barely 4" in diameter; so a 4" diameter aluminum vent pipe will NOT slide inside the Heartland receptacle for the pipe. To get a 4" diameter vent pipe to fit into the receptacle on the Heartland dryer vent, we cut 1" slits in 3 places on the aluminum vent pipe opening. These slits allowed us to squeeze the end of the vent pipe into a slightly narrower diameter than 4", so it could be pressure fitted into the Heartland pipe receptacle. (2) My house has lap siding, and the dryer vent exhaust hole in the side of the house wall was located such that the square base of the Heartland contraption partially overlapped the house brick and partially overlapped the siding. So we had to adapt a piece of styrofoam to fit under the Heartland base so it would sit level. (3) the instructions say that 6 screws are included with the kit, but there were NONE in the package anywhere. So we had to use our own screws.Now that it's installed, it's working fine presently. And I like its design better than the more common metal "flap" that opens when dryer exhaust air flows through the exhaust duct. Over the yrs, I've had several different brands of that style, and after a while, the flap on all of them would not close tight when the dryer was off. Because they wouldn't close tight when the dryer was off, they let lawn mower fumes, etc from outside get into the house. This Heartland vent closure contraption looks like it will prevent that problem. It's made out of thick plastic that looks like it may holdup well over time--we'll see.

This dryer vent cover helps keep the birds and animals out. Easy to clean out- this is my second one- lasts a long time