Kitchen Wall Exhaust fan. Help

16 years ago

Hello,

I live in a newer home less than four years old. The kitchen has the typical range flat top and microwave with ventilation system in one. But to me, this is worthless because it does not vent outside! I remember growing up and we had a fan in the wall beside the range the you pulled a chain it popped open and any cooking, moisture was sucked out. Would this be a difficult and expensive task if I hired someone to do it. Any opinion would be appreciated.

Mark

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

edlakin
16 years ago
we did one of those in our last kitchen remodel, but the main reason we did it was because once we opened up the walls, we saw that there was already a hole and we figured that's what it was originally used for.

we bought a retro-style fan that mimicked the style of these fans that were once common in older houses and it was only about $60 or so and a bit more for the outer flap thing.

i doubt that punching the hole in the wall would be all that difficult. if your house is masonry construction, it'll be a bit more, but the whole project is probably something you could do yourself.

and those fans really work well.
capecodcook
16 years ago
Some microhoods have an option for outside or recirculating venting. Conversion is just a matter of repositioning baffle plates inside the hood and cutting a hole in the wall and adding a little duct for venting (which you are thinking of doing anyway.) The result will be a little neater looking than adding a wall fan and probably a little more effective. See if you can find the installation instructions for the unit or go to the manufacturers web site and see if you can find a copy.
Related Discussions
Help with exhaust fan
Q
Comments (1)
You might want to post this over in the plumbing forum.
...See More
'Guess what's behind the wall' kitchen vent/exhaust fan game
Q
Comments (5)
Hi Artemis, Sound like you have a set up very similar to ours. Here is what we have/had: The old stove (gone when we moved into our 1929 house) vented into the kitchen wall into a massive 12 inch diameter flue (metal flue, lined with ceramic). This flue went up the wall, through the attic, and out the roof (along with the furnace flue). When we moved in, the original stove was gone, and this flue was not hooked up to anything. The kitchen wall was repaired, and no opening to it remained. But we could easily see the flue from a crawl space on the opposite side of it. In the ceiling was a cheapo fan that vented up through the ceiling and out the roof. I would guess that yours does go out the roof, but whether or not you can reuse any of its "guts" depends on what hood you want. Ours is too narrow for a good quality hood. So, you need to get up in that attic, and count your flues! We needed to remove our massive flue (to make space for a future bathroom upstairs), and that was a very difficult and expensive proposition. I think we also removed the venting from the ceiling fan, which was not a big deal. We currently have a lovely 1955 O'Keefe and Merritt stove in our kitchen. We have no hood, and the house smells faintly of the homemade french fries I made last night. I can't wait to have a hood! We plan to put a high powered (vintage looking) hood over the stove, and vent out the roof. We don't plan on hooking up the stove pipe, because we need the wall space. If you are already hooked up to a stove pipe, and you are keeping your stove (which I would certainly encourage you to do b/c OKM's are awesome!), then you can leave that assembly alone. Just add a hood over the stove (unless the stove pipe is physically in the way). Without the stove pipe, you end up with a hole in the top of your stove from which quite a bit of heat (and odor) escapes. I'm used to it (though worried about the noxious odor--which a hood will take care of), but it does get hot! Here is my stove. The stove pipe hole is on the top left side. The old flue was in the wall behind the stove. I hope that helps a bit... Now get in that attic, and let us know what you find!
...See More
Exhaust fan help
Q
Comments (10)
Sycamore guy -- I'm sure the project would be over my head. As I said, the bathroom is on the first floor with no access to the outside. This duplex is a twin... there's another one right on the other side of the wall, so really the only option would be straight up through the roof, or else I'd have to somehow run a duct out the bathroom, through the bedroom on the surface (because of the fire wall between the two buildings), and then out the rear wall of the bedroom. As far as the roof goes, first of all that would require (I'm sure) chopping out the newly re-finished second floor bathroom wall, plus I don't do ladders higher than 6' stepladders so roof access is out of the question. There's no attic. Housekeeping -- I wasn't here when the ___?___ was removed. I never saw it. I don't understand the newspaper reference, though. The newspaper was just used as filler in the wall so that the wall could be plastered up, and yes, it's now all removed. Whether or not is was a dehu is an interesting question. I've never actually seen or used a wall mount dehu. Would it be "big and bulky", and possibly screw onto the threads of a 2" pipe that go up to the roof? If so, I'd be willing to guess that's what it was, and that's what it has to be replaced with. Thanks all for the quick responses!
...See More
Advice needed on kitchen exhaust fan
Q
Comments (13)
I was asserting that kitchen cooktop effluent has to either be vented outdoors, or passed through a filter stack that is rated for recirculation into the household. Venting into an attic will slowly fill the attic with grease with an ever increasing potential for a mini Swift Packing Plant style fire. Venting into a garage, will lead to the same thing, except that garages have a higher probability than an attic of including a vehicle. The moisture in the effluent will also aid oxidation of any tools. To add to the caution provided by The Cook's Kitchen, in my view a kitchen renovation is a systems engineering project that can overwhelm an individual not familiar with all of the aspects and without the time to allocate to learning them before the renovation plan is developed. Even with a kitchen designer, it will be necessary to question everything, measure twice (as they say) and be sure that the cabinet plan is compatible with all of the appliances, their plumbing, and their electrical needs. Example questions: Can the faucets and hardware be installed and plumbed given the sink configuration and countertop depth? Am I using a more powerful garbage disposal that needs a trap weir lower than historically standard for kitchen sink layouts? If I build for a European dishwasher, how do I do so such that I can fit an American sized model in later if I want? Do I want the electrical outlets over the counter to be visible on the wall in the tile, or higher just below the cabinets? What is my plan for meeting code for electrical outlets for my island(s) or peninsula(s)? Are my floor joists suitable for use of stone counters and large refrigerators. If not, what does that entail in ravaging my basement? What color temperature lights do I want? The list is endless (or at least bigger than you will succeed at creating before starting the work), so it is better to have the big issues solved rather than depending on ad hoc design by your contractors.
...See More
User
16 years ago
The problem with a fan like that is that (other than it's ineffectiveness) it has no mechanism for safely collecting the grease or cleaning the fan once the grease has accumulated on and in it. So, grease accumulates and creates a fire hazard. If you have an exterior wall available to create a hole in it, then you have the ability to vent your MW externally as well. If anything is worth doing, it's worth doing correctly.
weissman
16 years ago
Actually, if you're going to be putting an external duct into your kitchen, you should seriously think about putting in a real vent hood which will be much more effective than venting your microwave.
edlakin
16 years ago
just to explain--when we did it in the scenario i detailed above, it was done *in addition to* a externally-vented range hood that vented through the roof. the wall fan was on the other side of the kitchen and we did it more for aesthetics than anything else, but under certain circumstances, where we wanted to really clear the air quickly, it worked quite well.

sometimes punching through a perimeter wall and installing a wall fan is much easier than repositioning your range to a spot where an exterior vent can be installed or venting up and out through the roof (if there's a floor above).

Kitchen Wall Exhaust fan. Help

Comments (5)

edlakin

capecodcook

Related Discussions

User

weissman

edlakin

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US