Range Hood Ventilation up or down

[Gabylea]

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I am reno the kitchen and replacing an old over the range re-circulating vent with a new hood (we cook a lot; need power) My problem is the range is on an inside wall and the contractor wants to place the vent going down to the basement and then out to the outside. Would this work - venting down and then out? He tells me that the unit will have a back draft protection that would prevent smells from outside to come in. But I am concern, it will not have enough efficiency to suck the smells from my kitchen out. Thanks!

[DA]

I guess with powerful enough fan / large enough ducts you can evacuate enough air to see an improvement over the old re-circulating hood. I do see one problem with this design though: basements are colder than the rest of the house (finished or not) and the over the range air is pretty dump. Water will condense while traveling through the basement - you need to think about installing some sort of drain access and install the ductwork in such a way that you can control where it will drain to. Flexible (corrugated) ducts are probably not a good idea then - you wouldn't want the water to stay between the ridges ...

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