shallow cabinets - vent hood help!

11 years ago

Hi,

This is my first post at garden web and I need help. Last week my 15 year old over the range (OTR)microwave refused to heat up any more food.

I bought a replacement OTR microwave and then discovered that microwaves have gotten deeper over the years. Unfortunately, my cabinets are only 12 inches deep and the microwave stuck out so much from the cabinet, it became the focus of my kitchen.

I researched and found that companies stopped making 14 inch depth microwaves. So, I decided to return my OTR microwave and go with a vent hood.

Now, I am having a REALLY hard time finding an under cabinet vent hood that will also not stick out too much and be the focus of my kitchen. I am considering a slide out option but the GE slideout wants my cabinet depth to be 12 1/8 inches in order to put the blower in. I will call Broan and Kitchen aid tomorrow to find out their required dimensions for a slide out as well.

Are there other options for me? I have older cabinets that are a distinct pickled oak yellowy color and I can't paint or replace them at this time.

Any ideas on an unobtrusive vent hood for 12 inch depth cabinets? My oven is 30 inches across and I would like any amount of CFMs. Can I wall mount a vent even with some cabinets above it?

Featured Answer

SparklingWater

11 years ago

Here are pictures which show what I mean. Some vent hood sizes require forgoing cabinets due to size and result in a matching piece of shallow cabinet wood or a pull up shelf above the hood.

Btw, your vent hood and duct are very similar to mine. I have two 3 1/4" x 10" centered vertical ducts next to one another under the 42 inch hood. Rectangular ducts are less efficient in venting than round ducts, reducing cross section area from almost 50 square inch (7" diameter round duct) to around 36 sq inch for a 3 1/4" x 10" vertical duct. No wonder the original owner put in two (70 square inch total).

Since your system is rectangular and vertical prior to its 90 degree turn, it may help if you measure the 'long' side (side facing cabinet and through soffit) and 'short' side vertical height (side on wall) to review with the vent hood company or HVAC company. There are specifications or exact requirements for each hood (specs). My vertical height is 52' long (directly behind the cabinets)and 30' vertically on the wall side (prior to the first large 90 degree turn).

It's a tad more complicated to get all right with our rectangular duct design.

Here is a link that might be useful: [Link:[(https://www.houzz.com/products/range-hoods-and-vents-prbr0-br~t_442)

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Comments (8)

beekeeperswife
11 years ago
You can find a vent hood that slides out when in use, and goes back when not.

Keep in mind that the reason it needs to come out over the range is just to make it more efficient at its job, to vent the smoke, smells, steam out of the kitchen. Is your vent recirculating or does it go to the outside?

Here's a picture of a GE Monogram hood. Not sure if you want to find another place for a microwave, and do something like this for your vent:

[Kitchen Hoods And Vents design[(https://www.houzz.com/products/range-hoods-and-vents-prbr0-br~t_442) by San Diego Kitchen And Bath Jamie Goldberg, AKBD, CAPS
SparklingWater
11 years ago
I have 12" cabinet uppers and have been researching the vent hood and venting for quite some time.

Yes, if you spec it right, you should be able to mount a wall vent with wood above it. I say wood because it depends on what you choose as to whether that will be a lateral "filler" piece or full cabinets.

It would help if you describe your vent type where the microwave was? Is there a vertical duct to the outside or was this a recirculation (I don't know much about microwave OTR vents).

Best, Broan, TradeWind (now a new name but can still google it), Zephyr all come to mind for your situation. I believe I saw a couple which were 19" in depth total, meaning 12" under the cabinet and 7" extending. Keep in mind you wish to maximize coverage of your stove burners to capture effluent.
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Are you sure the hood isn't over the burners? Is the edge of the burner much more than 21" from the wall? My hood is 21", too, and only 19" if you subtract the part with the light in it. But the hobs in my induction cooktop only come out 19". When it's on, I can see the steam heading up and back into the baffles. 24" is better capture area, no doubt, but this may be just fine for you. If not, rentaltux's suggestion is good.
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Yes, you can. We had a similar issue with our 13" deep cabinets since it was made to line up at 12". KD said she'd not had this happen before. Hmmm. They came out and used some scrap lumber to run across at the mounting heights -- top and bottom, maybe the middle, securing them into the studs. For all of $10 and maybe 10 minutes, I got a sheet metal shop to cut a piece stainless the length of my hood (minus about 1/16" just to make sure it went up smoothly) and bend it for me. They crimped over one long edge to give a finished edge against the wall and then bent it at a 90 degree angle to cover the edge of the lumber and wrap behind the hood. The hood snugs flush against it and the backsplash tile flush across the bottom (we didn't need that finished edge after all -- the tile covers it, but it didn't hurt anything either). We tested the fit, then squirted some liquid nails on the inside of the trim. We loosened the hood slightly and while one of us held the hood, one snugged the trim into place. Then we tightened the screws mounting the hood again. The stainless looks like it is part of the hood. We had considered ordering some trim pieces in our tile, but that created a number of issues and would have been much more expensive. Even at 3" depth, I think you'll be fine doing something similar.
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Wow, I'm very grateful to all of you who took the time to reply! Great to see your pictures, too. Some responses (if you're interested), now that I've finally been able to go through: Sammy and The Kitchen Place are correct that we could put it in the upper above the dishwasher — that's the only upper that is the right size that wouldn't block other cabinets. (Thanks for the pictures, The Kitchen Place!) I was intrigued by nidnay's idea of bumping into the bedroom closet, but that closet is filled with custom cabinetry so it would be a huge project to put the microwave there.If Icould put a Miele microwave (/speed oven) in an upper cabinet, I'd try for that, but of course our uppers are only 13" deep and the Miele opens down, so not workable. My better half is against mounting a "normal" microwave in an upper cabinet (he thinks in that case we might as well go OTR, and that it will pull away from the pretty stove/hood that's the whole reason for this conundrum). (ci_lantro questions the whole premise of opening the kitchen. Others in our building have done it and it makes a significant difference in the feeling of the whole unit—we're confident it's the right move, long term.) Helen, HU-41121833, Buehl, Interior Concept, RTHawk and others: Thanks for saying good things about the Sharp microwave drawer. nidnay, thanks for your criticisms of it, too! The slimline microwaves are attractive too! Unfortunately induction sounds great, but not in the cards for us. I do believe everybody who says we need something more powerful than a microwave fan — the Vent-A-Hood system does look quite good. kaseki, thanks for your hood comments. pittsburrito, I hear what you're saying about external ventilation. There is a small vent in the kitchen and windows in the living room, so we try to be careful. Thank you all! Still not sure what we'll do, but I'm grateful for all the advice on the Houzz forums.
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Heh! Yes, mattress is a very good example. This is why ca. 2007 I started reading up on kitchen ventilation so I could ignore the magic that was being asserted and determine for myself what was needed. In a hood, most of the effectiveness is embedded in the sheetmetal shapes and the blower motor and fan. I rarely hear of fan failures (I can only recall one on this forum). Broan absorbed NuTone that used to provide a lifetime guarantee. Wolf uses Broan. If the hood exterior is non-magnetic stainless steel, it shouldn't ever rust or develop surface staining. What tends to fail in lower quality hoods are fan and light switches. These hoods may have thinner sheet metal, but that is not a point of failure. It might have a relationship with rattles. Mean time to failure with electronics will typically decrease with increased parts count. So some risk of shorter lifetime may be present where fancy motor control circuits are in use. It is fine to go shopping and look at hoods from the point of view of ease of use or lighting or construction quality, or aesthetics of design, but nothing should be purchased until you have gone through the process of understanding what you need a hood system to do and what its parameters have to be to achieve it. Since modern higher performance residential hoods for pro-style cooking equipment derive their requirements from commercial cooking ventilation, you may wish to start by downloading and reading the first dozen or so pages of the Greenheck Guide: https://www.tagengineering.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/KVSApplDesign_catalog.pdf
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Fori
11 years ago
You might be able to cut away the back of the cabinet and some drywall to squeeze in something.

I know you said that slideouts don't fit, but the one BeeKW linked is also installable as a chimney hood (no cabinet) so it might be skinnier.

A slideout will leave you with a lot of new backsplash exposed--any hood will, really. Is that OK? I guess it's not a bad thing. It's a "Decorating Opportunity"!
seastar1
Original Author
11 years ago
Hi,

Thanks for the replies!

Yes, I did find another place for my microwave - in the corner, behind the fridge, where it is not visible :)

The microwave vent vents vertically up through the cabinet (14 inches high) and then through a 12 inch soffit where it appears to take a 90 degree turn to be vented outside.

I am completely OK with doing a new backsplash because I was choosing a new countertop material and tile when my microwave broke. I am so lucky it didn't happen after I installed the backsplash!

Can you explain what this means: "Yes, if you spec it right, you should be able to mount a wall vent with wood above it. I say wood because it depends on what you choose as to whether that will be a lateral "filler" piece or full cabinets. "
What is a lateral filler piece? I cannot add extra cabinets because my wood is a weird finish (pickled oak I think).

Thank you sooo much for the replies - just last week I didn't know what a vent hood was!
SparklingWater
11 years ago
Oops typo above, meant 8" diameter round duct.

To figure common common round duct size and area the formula is PI x R squared.

So, 8" round duct: 3.14 x 16 =50.24 square inches.

The more commonly found 8" round kitchen duct provides about 350 CFM of free-flow fresh air. So to get to 600 CFM's, you would need two 8" round ducts.

And since we have the 3 1/4" x 10" rectangular system which provide about 226 CFM each at a cross section of 35 square inches each, to get to 600 CFM well we would need to increase the vent outlet size so as not to be so restrictive and/or provide MUA to avoid negative back pressure.

Just notes to ponder when choosing CFM capacity of your new vent hood.

Hope this helps.
seastar1
Original Author
11 years ago
Just found out for the slide out vent, my cabinets above the hood are too short (13.5 inches) for GE, Broan, and kitchen aide models :(.
badgergal
11 years ago
Most upper cabinets are only 12 inches deep so the majority of vent hoods do stick out. They actually should so that the hood is completely above the cooking area of your range/cooktop to capture steam, grease, smells etc.
I went fromn a OTR microwave to a vent-a-hood and it did look huge at first but you will get used to the look. And you will soon appreciate how much better the ventilation is.

shallow cabinets - vent hood help!

SparklingWater

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beekeeperswife

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shallow cabinets - vent hood help!

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