My laundry room is located within interior walls. The dryer duct is routed to the roof which is ~15' high, through an attic space which has no access. When looking at the dryer and roof vent location from outside the house it appears to be ~5' or so offset so I believe there is probably (2) 90 degree elbows (not confirmed because I cant see).

We noticed a while back that clothes weren't drying well so I bought a vent cleaning device for my drill and attempted to cleaned out the vent. I was able to get some lint but it didn't make much of a difference. Since then we have bought a new dryer and still were having issues.

I got up on the roof to do some investigating and didn't notice any obvious signs of clogging or obstructions. I decided to remove the vent cap and found a dryer vent booster fan (pictures below). Of course, it's inaccessible, doesn't turn on anymore and most likely clogged below but there's nothing I can do. After looking at the roof in more detail it became obvious now why a section of the roof had been removed in the past (see pictures). From what I can tell the owners before me removed a section of the roof, my guess is to fix a clog or replace this booster fan, none of this which was disclosed to me of course (nor was this identified by the inspector, my fault for not getting up there). So now I need to figure out what the best way to approach this situation is.

I just had a roof inspection and it appears my insurance is going to pay to replace my roof due to some recent storm damage. So, when the replacement happens it will be a good opportunity to get inside this attic space, from the top, and fix things for the long term. My question is whether to remove the vent fan completely or replace it?

Remove the vent fan completely

• Considering the roof is 15' above ground, even with (2) 90 degree elbows (5' effective length each due to friction), yields 25' of effective duct length. After investigating dyer ducts it appears the vent fans are only needed when the duct length is 35' or longer. It might not even be necessary.
• Not have a vent fan may require duct cleaning more often. No issue there considering having a vent fan will never allow full duct cleaning (no attic access)
• I have no issue getting on the roof or cleaning the duct from the laundry room every few months
• The full duct will be accessible all the way through to be cleaned, the vent fan can no longer serve as an obstruction
• Con: Removing the fan will require leaving a hot wire in the attic space with no access. I can maybe figure out where the wire is coming from and address it from the source, but seeing how this is a totally separate attic section with no connection to any other attic space this could be hard to do. This may not be much of an issue as i'm sure it can be safely capped and preserved.

Installing a new vent fan (no attic access)

• Maybe won't require duct cleaning as often as if it wasn't installed
• The entire vent can't surely be cleaned all the way through
• If fan were to stop working or plugs up it will require cutting an access from inside the house, something I do not want to do.

Apologize for the long post, and I hope I didn't lose anyone's attention. I look forward to feedback on what you think is the best way to approach this issue. Thanks in advance.