Why is the water tank in my ventless drier suddenly not filling?

June 29, 2022 12:20 PM

I have an LG ventless drier. It has a removable water tank that normally collects the moisture from the clothes, that we pull out and dump into the sink. In the past few days, every time I dry a load of clothes, the tank is completely empty. The clothes come out dry. There is no evidence of any water collecting on the floor. The drier doesn't alert us to any errors/problems. What is up? What should I do?

I am guessing I should not keep running the drier like this?

posted by ManInSuit to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Has the humidity in your home has been low, perhaps due to running AC because of hot weather? If the humidity of the air being circulated by the ventless dryer is sufficiently low it is possible that the water that starts out in your clothes is ending up being absorbed by the air in your home rather than collecting in the condensation tray/tank.
posted by RichardP at 12:39 PM on June 29, 2022

I just replaced the water pump in mine, and doing some research, it seems to be a common failure. Perhaps the reservoir that the pump is in is quite large and can hold a few loads worth of water, and it might shut off soon? That's the only explanation that comes to mind.

(On my Whirlpool ventless dryer, there is a small reservoir with a water pump on the lower part of the machine that pumps the water up to the removable collector near the top of the dryer. )
posted by wile e at 12:41 PM on June 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: RichardP I thought about that. But we live in Toronto and have forced air heating. The house gets gets very dry in the winter, I *think* much more than summer. Also - we have never seem this phenomenon before, after several summers here with AC.. I'm guessing it's not that, but who knows?
posted by ManInSuit at 12:47 PM on June 29, 2022

I do not have an answer, and the change is worrying. However, I can say that my ventless drier never fills up its water tank, and it is running fine and has been running that way for years. So it's the change that I'd be concerned with more than the fact that there's no water in that tank.
posted by branca at 2:10 PM on June 29, 2022

Response by poster: Hmm. Based on this my inclination is: As long as it keeps running without other symptoms, don't worry, and chalk it up to some unknown change in its environment. If it starts leaking water or showing errors, call a repair person.
posted by ManInSuit at 2:49 PM on June 29, 2022

You could test it by throwing a few sopping wet towels in there. Might be a little water in the tank immediately after that. But I assume it's just been dry enough to evaporate with the existing heating.
posted by nickggully at 3:16 PM on June 29, 2022

My biggest worry is that the condensate that used to fill the reservoir is going somewhere else, and that I would find out later, after it had caused damage. Look under the dryer, and see there is unexplained wetness.
posted by the Real Dan at 6:18 PM on June 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

What's the model of the machine? This seems like something that would be useful to have more info on. I did a cursory search and it seems that some models with a water reservoir will drain the condensed water if the outlet is hooked up to a water outlet – is there somehow a chance it is connected and you just didn't notice until now (which seems wild, but who knows).
posted by wakannai at 4:15 AM on June 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't let this go. While it's a small amount of water from any given load, water draining into the floor can cause mold and all kinds of bad stuff.
posted by wnissen at 10:49 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]