We moved in to our new home in November, and we're very happy, but we've been having trouble with our dryer, and I thought I'd pass on what we're learning.

Our laundry room is in the middle of our house on the 2nd (and top) floor. The dryer is vented through our roof. This is something I've see on other homes fairly frequently, so I assumed it would be fine. Unfortunately, I was wrong-- they used a vent on the roof that had a screen over the exit. During the bitter cold we've had, the wet air coming up the vent would hit the screen and freeze, so fairly the vent was blocked enough that the dryer couldn't get anything dry. We're also getting ice damming around the roof vent. Our bathroom fans are also vented through the roof, and we're getting a little damming around them.

I am not sure how much of our trouble is due to the unusually harsh winter we're having, but from what I'm reading online (now that I know to look) venting out the side of your house is a much better plan. If I knew then what I know now, that's how we would have done it.

We are in Minnesota, and it's been well below zero quite a bit for the last month.