range hood

[raymondjay]

I have a ventline range hood in the kitchen. They use foam dampers which I have replaced before. They get messed up fast. When the heat comes on, I can feel a lot of cold air pouring out of the hood. Do the new ventlines use metal dampers? Can I replace the range hood with one from a lumberyard? The hood vents up through the roof.

[yakima4$]

Before buying measure width of opening and check top of existing hood and compare to vent opening of new hood.
You may need a transition fitting from rectangular to round. If rectangular pick up dampener . Make sure it opens before securing hood in place.
Hood should be rated 90cfm.

[Greg]

Also the actual location of the vent pipe, It would be my luck that it was 2" off.

Greg

[raymondjay]

OK. Got a great reply from ventline...
Thank you for your email submitted through the Ventline website. Ventline does not offer a metal damper for our range hoods. As strange as it sounds, the manufactured housing industry needs to have vents that are not “air tight” in order to bring fresh air into the home and meet whole house ventilation requirements. Sounds crazy when it’s cold! Some older systems utilized a louvered wall vent that is about 3”x10” that is left open to the outside. It took several years to get HUD to acknowledge there is enough natural infiltration through bathroom fans, range hoods, etc that those louvered vents could be abolished. I know that’s not what you want to hear but I wanted to offer an explanation as to why we have the foam damper.

[yakima4$]

He is telling you a story regarding that foam damper. If they are so great why don't we see them in site built. It is all about cost to the MFG housing industry, the idea is to keep cost low to the MFG.