The PO's of my house installed a range with an integral downdraft vent, unfortunately it just sucks air through the grease filter and then blows it out on the floor. It appears that it would be a minor PITA but not undoable to cut a hole in the floor and vent it to the outside with something like a 4" dryer vent. Would 4" be enough for a range vent? Or is it "acceptable" to leave it just vented to the kitchen?
thanks,
nate
Sounds like a Jenair type unit which I installed in one of my previous homes. If I recall right, it used a rectangular duct (maybe it was
4x12) to exhaust the aire from the blower. I would not use a plastic 4' dryer vent as the grease will build up > The PO's of my house installed a range with an integral downdraft vent,Heh, that won't happen. Apparently Modern Maid no longer makes kitchen appliances.
It's a nice unit though, it has a little grill/griddle module that you can replace two of the burners with and everything. Once I cleaned all the goo out of it, it appears to be in pretty good shape. It'd be kind of nice to have it working as the hood is just a recirc type, and there is absolutely no way to vent *that* to the outside without some major work (it's above a peninsula, not facing an outside wall)
nate
JGolan wrote:
Check some of the duct requirements for common range hoods at your nearest box store. Recent installation at our place was a Broan, used
6' of 7" stack to vent to the outside. You'll need the special self closing wall caps which most manufactureers will supply to the store on special order. HTHJoe
A big consideration I would have is that the downdraft type exhausts aren't very effective. My house came with a Jenn Air range that has one in the middle. It works and does catch some of the smoke, it's certainly better than having nothing or a recirculating one, but it's maybe 50-70% of what a real overhead hood will do. The problem is that is you have a pan that is smoking, the fan just can't suck all the air sideways, so some of it goes straight up. If you use the range in ways that produce considerable smoke, like blackened fish, you're going to still have enough smoke to set off smoke detectors.
So, I'd consider how much longer I'll have that settup, when you might upgrade the kitchen, and what the other alternatives could be before I did a lot of work and made holes in walls, etc.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.