Product review (2 stars): Heartland-Natural, not Deflecto
Good/Bad
The "Good"? This will help deflect (maybe that's where they mistakenly mixed-up Deflecto with Heartland Natural, eh?)direct cold air from infiltrating into the house.
The "Bad"? I'm unable to tell you if it does or not, because I'm inside my house (basement), staring up at where the Heartland Natural Dryer Vent will be mounted... and looking at the installation that I need to make for my rigid sheet metal dryer vent.
You see, the problem started with manufacturers leaving out those little details and along with consumer assumptions and 3rd-party advertisers/sellers... the purchase is made, with the intention of immediate installation.
Without going into minute detail... I started out at Lowe's, to replace a "through-the-wall" 4" aluminum dryer vent (with a mixed-bag of venting tube materials attached, aluminum flex & plastic) at my elderly parents house.
There at Lowe's, I found a 4" rigid steel vent system that I could put together, along with a dryer vent hood made by Imperial. The hood was a painted, downward-facing vent, with an insulated and weighted metal flange to act as a anti-back draft, at the entrance of the vent. Attached to the metal hood, was a 4" diameter rigid steel vent pipe (12" in length), or so it was marked as 4".
I purchased enough elbows and vent pipe to easily make the vent run from where the stacked washer/dryer was kissing the laundry tub, which WAS NOT (unfortunately)near the hole that was already cut for the existing dryer vent "system"... but never-the-less, would be approximately 7-8' in total length, against the bare, unfinished basement walls.
I purchased a roll of aluminum-foil tape, to help seal and maintain all joints of the vent pipe system, once the proper angles of the elbows were set and the final cuts of the sheet metal were made.
I easily installed the Imperial Dryer Vent Hood outside the side of the house, where the attached vent pipe was the perfect length through the wall.
Starting from the vent hole from the dryer, working my way back towards the installed Imperial Vent-Hood, I cut & pieced together pipe & elbows, locking-in the proper angles of the elbows, with aluminum-foil contact duct tape, till I was now ready to attach the final elbow, to the end of the rigid vent tube of the Imperial hood.
I was extremely frustrated to find that the 4" crimped elbow-end WOULD NOT fit into the tube of the Imperial!!!
The tube diameter measured 4" across, then I turned my measuring tape 90 degrees, it measure 3.5"...
I went back to the Lowe's I purchased all parts from... found 6 hoods, identical to what I purchased, measured each one, getting different results for each one!!
You see, the vent pipe used was rigid steel (NOT ALUMINUM or PLASTIC)and was 4" in diameter alright... except where the ends of the metal was spot-welded, to form the tube!
That measurement was all over the place, I even found one that measured 3-3/8", for crying out loud!
I brought this to the attention of Lowe's management, who had the balls to tell me that I'm the "first one" who had this problem and asked if I was sure I'm looking at this problem right!
So I gave him my tape measure, so we're both looking at this the same way...
He said he would contact Imperial for me... contact me with the results... in the meantime, I went over to another nearby Lowe's... and their stock was identical to this store, with the same results.
It was a few days later, that I spied the Heartland-Natural... and since I wanted to finish this installation properly... I ordered it.
Well, here I am... staring at the dryer vent from Heartland-Natural... looking at my complete rigid metal duct, crimped-end, not fitting into the Heartland-Natural elbow (which is exactly 3-7/8 diameter)... and to add insult to injury... no vent pipe comes with the unit shipped to me... AND THAT WAS INTENDED BY THE MANUFACTURER!!
Adding even more insult to injury... going on their website (Heartland-Natural)I find that the 7" vent pipe that mounts to the Heartland-Natural Dryer Vent elbow, is an ACCESSORY!? Costs an additional $7.50 tax + S&H, will arrive in about a weeks worth of time... Even WORSE, the picture enlarged to the very same size JPEG, giving me no idea how it mounts to the elbow or how I'm going to mount something on the other end, to make up the 5" thru-the wall!
So after exhaling a few choice words for Imperial and for Heartland-Natural...
It still didn't change the situation I'm in...
I've spent the money to put together a rigid metal dryer vent, cut and permanently taped them together... can't go back now!
I'm now on my second dryer vent hood, with manufacturing defects that have crippled my installation... wasted my time... taxed my patience... raised my blood pressure!
My incontinent 85 year young father, still is incontinent... So the pressure to get this dryer working, hasn't changed!
So now the question is... do I order "the accessory" to "complete" my installation and get me back to where I was before I started this now frustrating, but necessary and increasingly lengthy project?
Or will I find I now need "additional" accessories, to properly complete this relatively simple project?
Check back later to see what the result was... or stay tuned to your TV when I lose it entirely... when I order ammo and full-body armor without a background check... hunt down anyone associated with Imperial or Heartland-Natural!