Wrenchin’ Wednesday: Breathe easy with running vehicles indoors

Working indoors is a luxury that comes with its own risks, especially if you’ve gotta keep the machine running while it’s maybe snowier than a mid-January Hoth or raining sideways with hamster-sized hail. If you’ve spent time around a nicer repair shop or most any modern dealership, you’ll be acquainted with some system of keeping exhaust fumes controlled while running a vehicle with the shop doors closed, but few home gamers end up with the OSHA-required safety layer. With today’s Wrenchin’ Wednesday, we’ll look at a solution to alleviate exhaust fumes for just a few bucks that could hopefully spare someone from a heavy dose of carbon-monoxide along the way.

For attaching the extractor to the exhaust pipe, I just used a simple hook magnet to keep it attached. The 90-degree dryer elbow I found has several rotating sections that allow it to snake onto different angled exhaust tips with relative ease.

The corrugated dryer hose I found stretches to 8 feet in length, so a single piece was perfect for my use. Be sure to seal all gaps with proper aluminized duct tape, as this extraction hose will get hot. You’ll want to get the exit of the extraction hose we’re building to be a few feet from the door if you have to leave it cracked open. Alternatively, a port can be cut into a garage door that passes the hose through it so that there’s no gap around the door. While this will do a ton to help the situation, it’s not a replacement for having a carbon-monoxide alarm in your shop space regardless—even with the best intentions and preparations, accidents happen.