Venting an over the range microwave.

[jerrymrc]

When I did my kitchen the stove and vent was on an inside wall. I moved it to the outside wall and added a micro vented outside above it. In my case I have a real Jenn-air (circa 87) and it is vented outside as well.

Now in the winter we normally just use the microwave vent because as many know what goes out must come in and a Jenn-air vent can be overwhelming for normal stove top cooking. I do know that you can't hard wire the micro in, there has to be an outlet placed in the cabinet above.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

When I get home later I will get my code books out and look up these questions. That will eliminate all guessing and speculation.

[jslo]

Also, anything over 400 cfm's require automatic dampened makeup air and don't forget to rotate your microwave blower for outside exhaust vs recirculating.

[Irving]

Ran into a problem with my plans. I went and bought the stuff to run the vent up through the wall. Glad I looked first because there are two 2x4's over the top of the wall in the attic. Looks like I can't run the vent in the wall up to the attic, and I'm also going to have a slightly more difficult time running the wire down the wall for the outlet I was going to put into the cabinet.



Now I'm having to rethink what I'm going to do here. The cabinet over the stove is custom built. It is a well built, but shitty cabinet, if that makes sense. Basically what that means is that I'd have to cut that shelf out of the cabinet, or cut through it, if I want to vent through the cabinet. It's not removable like store bought cabinets.

I am really tempted to just yank the shelves on the other side of the wall, pull all the drywall out of the laundry room (I have holes to patch and pipes to replace, and other stuff I need to do in there). With all the dry wall gone, I can more easily go through the kitchen wall, up, then out through the laundry room wall and up into the ceiling. Then, since I'm re-drywalling everything anyway, I can build the new shelves easier, and box in and clean up all the crap running through that wall.

By the way, I checked on that water heater vent, it IS 3" pipe all the way out the roof, it just passes through a 4" pipe every time it goes through a wall.


EDIT: Of course each wall will have a top plate. I was talking to a friend who lives up the street in the same model home, and he was saying how he can look down all his walls from his attic. I don't know why he can do that. Just realized how silly this last post sounded.

[flogger]

Remember, a kitchen remodel should only take about 20 minutes to complete according to those DIY shows on TV (riiiight!)

At this point you might be better off venting out the back of the wall like you mentioned, you might be able to put an offset elbow in to miss the shelving in the laundry room. That way you can keep the kitchen cabinet space which is always at a premium. You had said there was a stud in the wall where you need to cut the vent through, looking at your last pictures with the gas line showing, I would advise just cutting the stud out with a sawzall, it doesn't look load bearing. Just cut out the 4" section of stud thats in the way and run the vent through.

You had also asked about covering up the copper ice maker line and ground wire by the water heater. It shouldn't be a problem BUT, if that ice line is the same copper line shown in the last picture (behind the gas line) it is running in unconditioned space with no heat through the attic to the refrigerator, it could freeze and break. Thats not good.

Good news on the WH vent though!

You better get busy, you have about 15 minutes left!

[Irving]

I checked with the stud finder and fortunately no studs where I need to cut for the vent. Copper water line goes from one interior wall, into the attic, and down into a second interior wall. Haven't had any issues with it so far.

[flogger]

Go for it Irv! Post some pic's when you get it done.

[rockhound]

first every gas stove now needs a vent, second every wall in your home will have a double plate at the top, the wall that runs parallel with the roof is not load bearing,

your easiest and best option would be to go through the wall and build a chase to the exterior wall if it is available , you could go back into the attic behind the wall, but it looks like your chase for the water heater exhaust may be in the way. do not use flex line for this vent

you need a reducing collar at the water heater vent, no way the thing is drafting properly

as for your dryer if it is an older unit, take it apart, you may find a giant ball of lint in the filter system, have seen several dryers that were not drafting properly that were internally clogged.

[Irving]

Found the problem with the dryer. There was a screen in the roof vent that was packed with lint. While trying to scrape it clean with my fingers, it popped out onto the roof. It can stay there. Damn clogged vent ran up my utility bill from running the dryer so much.

So I have the hole cut for the microwave vent and the new power source. I'm going to run new outlets (each on a dedicated circuit) for the stove, microwave, and washer/dryer since they are all on the same wall. I have a roll of 14/2 wire from remodeling the kitchen, but I'm under the impression that I should be using 12/2 instead with 20 amp circuit breaker and 20 amp outlet.

Here are some photos of the 10 minutes worth of progress.

Hold a box under your hole to keep drywall off the stove. Don't forget to tape up the stove. *Pro Tip: If you unplug the stove and turn off the gas, this reduces the chances of you nearly setting your house on fire every 10 minutes when you find yourself leaning up against the burner knobs. Or you can NOT do that and melt that plastic bag all over the stove, revealing the just as combustible cardboard laying on top of the plastic.


Use the template to drill holes in the right places under your cabinet.


Hole and old construction gang box. First attempt was just for fun (for some reason there is a piece of wood directly behind that).

[Irving]

What is the difference between these three circuit breakers?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-...9?N=5yc1vZbm16
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-...6?N=5yc1vZbm16
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-...6?N=5yc1vZbm16

The middle one has the light, but why the big price jump to the third one?

As far as receptacles go, I understand that you DON'T want a GFCI for the refrigerator because if it trips in error, the food goes bad. For the washer/dryer, I think that one would want a GFCI since it is next to the washer and there is a higher chance of the outlet getting wet (already happened to me once). Should the washer/dryer and stove be on a 20-amp circuit as well?