There was a post a few days ago, I think in the kitchen forum, about just this. Hers was a new build or remodel, I think the theory was that the air was going up the vent, hitting the cold metal, condensing, freezing, and coming back down next time it was used.

I'll see if I can find it.

MTA: found it. Wowwee, that forum is busy. It was 11 pages in.

leaking vent

Thanks aok! I'll check it out!

One stormy day, the light fixture in my kitchen ceiling started leaking, A LOT. called a roofing company, w ho patched it up. but now, maybe 5 tears later, we have sprung several leaks throughout our first floor ceilings. now we need a new roof.

It is likely to be condensation., given the unusually cold weather. Or it could be the design of the cap?

We're not sure what it is...it's never happened before. When the precip stops, we'll get outside and look at it with binoculars to see if something is not right. But it's not on the outside...it's coming down the pipe itself. I wonder if there's a door on the vent that opens when it's running and somehow has gotten stuck open so the rain is getting in...

Well, I needed to clean the vent hood anyway.

:)

I had this happen with my vent in the bathroom. It was raining so hard and blowing so hard one day that rain was blowing into the outside vent opening and running down through the duct and coming out the exhaust fan into my bathroom. UGH! I think it had rained 6 inches in an hour that day and houses were getting flooded. But it was because it was blowing in from the south and that is the side of the house that the vent is on.

Wow seems like these things happen when the weather is at it’s worst too. Hope you find the source soon.

We had to replace the heating element in our hot water heater the other day. First time in a little over 19 years so that isn’t too bad. The tech was amazed at how good the old one looked. DH pointed to our whole house water filter and the tech said ‘yep, that is why’.

Well, at least now you can say you have a pot filler.

:)

We've had that happen in our laundry room when it rains really hard. The water will run down the vent pipe for the water heater. Fortunately, it ends up dripping into the laundry sink so no damage results.

The same thing sometimes happens with water coming in where the woodstove chimney pipe goes up through the roof, but it has to rain really hard for that to happen.

Roof vent caps shouldn't allow water in down the vent or pipe under any condition. One that does should be replaced with one of a different design.

We went up to the attic and it must be leaking around the outside of the vent as the attic floor is now wet and we have a pot up there too.

It'll be awhile before we can have it looked at as when the storm leaves, the deep arctic freeze comes in. Brrr...wind chills expected to be 20 below.

Okay, different story. Good luck.

Sorry to hear, but hopefully a relatively minor fix.

I hope it's a minor fix. What a bummer.

Short answer because we are in the car. My husband said run the fan about 20 minutes to melt ice that is damming up.

When we moved into our new house we had a sudden abundance of bees in the kitchen. It took a while to discover that they were coming down the exhaust fan piping and squeezing through a seam in the over-the-cooktop part. It was autumn, and they were getting ready for winter.

We have just spent a week with no waste line. Naturally, the problem started on a Thursday night when the MBA shower drain backed up. Plumbers came on Friday to rod -- and discoved the waste pipe had sunk and separated near the manhole at the city sewer line.

We had to wait until Monday to apply for a permit. I have to admit that I played the 'poor senior lady with blood cancer' card, but permits can take two weeks here -- and anyway, it worked. We got our permit, and the plumbers and excavator arrived at dawn Thursday and worked all day -- up in the cold and down six feet. DH and I celebrated the ability to flush *every time* like people first discovering the invention. (We had been able to use water VERY sparingly until the fix.) We're awaiting the Big Bill, but happy it was over before this polar vortex arrived.

My sister had something similar happen once and only once. Water was coming in the ceiling exhaust fan, but nothing was found that caused it. It may have been that the flap had stuck in the open position for some unknown reason.

Annie it just occurred to me. Are your vents pvc or metal? We had bathroom roof vents that leaked after around 10 years that were pvc. Replaced them with metal and no problems since.

Below is a link that may help. Same thing happened to us after we built the house, luckily the builder came out and fixed it from the roof. No clue what caused it. I think it's pretty common though,

Range hood leaking

OP, thanks for the thought, but we have metal ducting already.