Microwave Vent

homer_simpson

Well-known member
Hey TI'ers,

I've noticed many new houses have a Microwave with a vent built in over the stove range.  I guess this is a space saver from the normal hood.  Do most of you guys have it venting outside the home or just recirculating?  How bad is it when it's just recirculated?  Being Asian and loving to cook, I wonder how well this would work out for me.  ;)
 
homer_simpson said:
Hey TI'ers,

I've noticed many new houses have a Microwave with a vent built in over the stove range.  I guess this is a space saver from the normal hood.  Do most of you guys have it venting outside the home or just recirculating?  How bad is it when it's just recirculated?  Being Asian and loving to cook, I wonder how well this would work out for me.  ;)

i'm pretty sure it has to vent outstide... probably violate some code if you just recirculate your cooking fumes..  asian cooking?  that's what the california room is for...  it's usually attached to the dining room..  TIC has thought of everything for the asian buyer
 
Most of them are vented outside.  Actually, you would use same venting ducts as a normal hood would use since they are the same size. 

If you would choose to recirculate it, then you would need to wash the grease filter and replace the charcoal filter frequently.  Still, a lot of smell and grease would be circulated back into your kitchen.
 
hs, You may want to look into this thread - where more of venting hoods are discussed. http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php?topic=1254.msg15887

IMHO, recirculating is not much useful since same air will come back at your face (if you are taller, more so!) and provides a false sense of freshening. Also, I have observed when recirculating vent is used - the roof of kitchen gets discoloured with paint peel/s. If the vent takes air outside, it is better. We have downdraft that vents through our roof and it seem to work fine (it took sometime for us to get used to it). At some point of time this year, when we upgrade our kitchen - we plan to change it to up-draft so that natural flow of hot-air (hot air travels up) is not obstructed.
 
I am close to 100% positive than any cooktop venting goes to an external vent in new homes today.

They should actually enact some type of law that every bathroom has powered external venting too (as someone tells me that cracking a window isn't enough...  :-[ ).
 
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