Coax and Dryer Vents

I am finishing off the laundry room, the result of a recent remodel downstairs. It’s now brand new, with a nice venting system to the outside, as well as a new “old” fixture we used have in our San Francisco house. The monster Samsung washer/dryer units look good recessed into the wall, above which I will install a shelf.

One thing I forgot to have done when we remodeled was to have coax run into this room. It would be nice to have a TV in there and given I am paying for it anyway house-wide I might as well run it more places than less (albeit carefully considering splitters so that I do not reduce bandwidth of my cable mode connection).

So now that laundry room is done sans coax. I have three choices:

1. Run an IPTV type system. Basically, a cheap PC with Hulu and a display. Hulu desktop works with Media Center remotes so this could work, although I hesitate purchasing a bunch of new kit just for this, nor do I look forward to making it “one button simple,” unless perhaps this is an excuse to buy a new Roku box?
2. Run the coax myself. This will be difficult and messy as the wall that faces the front of the house is concrete except the top two feet, and then we have supporting beams. Navigating that infrastructure will be tricky
3. Run the coax through the current dryer vent. This is a large tube that runs from the room to the outside front of the house where I could easily fish tape coax around and in. I would have to make a hole somewhere in the dryer vent tube to accommodate the coax inside the room. My main concern here is any adverse effect this coax line would have on dryer performance. Would one line of coax make that much difference? Positive here is that I have an existing, nice unused Sony TV that I can just plug in and it works.

The Roku/Display route is tempting, as it involved buying new stuff, but the dryer vent angle just seems smart (or very dumb).

Thoughts?

Comments

[James Pratt]

I'd also be worried about the affects of heat on the coax. That comment isn't based on any experience but I know dryer exhausts can get pretty hot and I'm not sure how the sheathing on the coax would cope.

[Mike Casey]

I've been reading your blog off and on for awhile now and I really enjoy it. I blog on some of the same topics myself. If you get a chance to check it out I'd welcome the feedback!

[Joe]

I would be concerned about several things.
1) The dryer heat is probably not going to be messed up by having he coax through it, however
2) I agree about the temperature of the dryer heat with the coax. It should not have a negative effect on the signal, but you would need to guarantee that the heat would not melt the plastic.

Is there no way to access via the house elsewhere?
You can check on line for the specific coax that you use, but in general the loss per foot of decent RG6 would not be too horrible if you can find a route that just is somewhat indirect.

BTW: a splitter will generally be about .5 dB loss per port. This is not bad, as long as you do not start cascading lots of splits everywhere - As you mentioned.
Bear in mind that every time you split, you have that loss somewhere. The key is making sure no individual split ends up with too much loss.

If you cannot take a somewhat indirect route, instead of going near the dryer vent, can you drill a 1/4" hole all the way through the concrete? They do sell drill bits that are ridiculously long lengths for just this kind of purpose. Just seal the outer edge with clear caulk.

Joe
Radio Engineer

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