Any issue putting washer dryer next to furnace?

[pete6032]

My condo currently has two closet spaces next together. Closet 1 is the washer and dryer. Both electric and vented. Closet 2 is gas furnace. I'm thinking about taking down the wall between the two because it would allow us to get a bigger washer and dryer. Would this violate any building codes having washer/dryer only a few inches from furnace?

 

[Greenman]

They were made into separate rooms for a reason. Furnace needs outside air, dryer doesn't. Furnace vents combustion gas out through the flue, dryer could (though not likely) draw that gas away from the flue.
Check with the furnace manufacturer, but my hunch is the answer will be don't do it. Which would be my recommendation as well.

 

[mindless1]

^ That seems unlikely, that even if the furnace is a very old one that doesn't have its own fresh air intake, that the room won't be so sealed up with a mere door on it (if even kept closed by one) that the dryer would cause a significant vac state.

Even if it did, furnaces have a vac or pressure sensor in the exhaust (legal safety requirement AFAIK) and will shut down if not maintaining enough vac through the exhaust, but in relation to situating the appliances together, a fresh air intake for the furnace would make that irrelevant. Fresh air intake is easy to spot, either there is a 2nd pipe (or vent on one next to an outside wall), or there isn't.

However, situating appliances very close together can make them harder to service, but so would the wall so it's not an ideal situation either way.

The most likely reason there is a wall is that a furnace is considered ugly and not needing frequent access like a washer/dryer so the wall just hides it.

 

[Greenman]

^ That seems unlikely, that even if the furnace is a very old one that doesn't have its own fresh air intake, that the room won't be so sealed up with a mere door on it (if even kept closed by one) that the dryer would cause a significant vac state.

Even if it did, furnaces have a vac or pressure sensor in the exhaust (legal safety requirement AFAIK) and will shut down if not maintaining enough vac through the exhaust, but in relation to situating the appliances together, a fresh air intake for the furnace would make that irrelevant. Fresh air intake is easy to spot, either there is a 2nd pipe (or vent on one next to an outside wall), or there isn't.

However, situating appliances very close together can make them harder to service, but so would the wall so it's not an ideal situation either way.

The most likely reason there is a wall is that a furnace is considered ugly and not needing frequent access like a washer/dryer so the wall just hides it.

Furnace room isn't "conditioned space" under building code, laundry room is.

 

[mindless1]

^ And the significance of that is? It would seem that two adjacent closets will both be conditioned space if either is.

It's not a problem. I already gave a primary and redundant reason why. BTW I worked in HVAC a lifetime ago, is there some new building code I'm not aware of and if so, please link it?