We’ve a microwave build into a cabinet above the range. It has an exhaust vent going into the attic but then does it go on up? It apparently once did but when the house was vacant it was vandalized by squatters. We are too old and brittle to climb. How do we test vent, flue, up from the microwave to see if it goes on up through the roof?
You don’t need a vent for the microwave oven.
You may have a exhaust fan for taking steam and fumes from your range top, that’s on the bottom of the cabinet holding the microwave, up into the attic. That probably just vents into the attic. It’s not necessary to go on up through the roof.
If I understand correctly, you know that there’s a vent into the attic, but you don’t know if it goes all the way up and through the roof? Also, is this a range top microwave as Omar suggests?
If you can’t go up in the attic you ought to find someone who can. If it was blocked you could easily tell if it wasn’t moving any air, but to tell if it passes intact through the attic you’d have to have it exhaust something smoky and see if you can spot it from outside. You shouldn’t attempt that yourself.
I think Jane has a microwave-range hood combination. No, you do not want to just vent it into the attic, as well as the grease and smell there will be lots of moisture. She needs something that will make a lot of smoke safely and go out and see if it is venting thru the roof.
Right. And the duck-work goes up a foot or so into an attic. There is a vent in the roof a few feet above the microwave. But we cannot see any connection between the two when we stick our head through the place supposed to provide attic access.
That sounds like it’s not connected. It should just be the duct for the range hood fan. There is usually a way to switch that to exhaust out the front instead of up through the flue.
This depends where you live. In melb.aus and az.usa it was standard to vent stoves and ovens just to the attic. Moisture is not a problem in some areas.
Actually, when we lived in Arizona, we had an evaporative air-conditioner running into the attic, to help keep the house cool. And my dad went up and cleared the insulation away from the oven vent, when he realized that the insulation was flammable.