I have recently moved into an apartment in an older (1970-ish) building. The apartment’s great, the only thing that gets on my nerves is the stale spicy cooking smell coming from the bathroom air vent every once in a while. The grate was really gross with lots of grimy, oily dust, so I took it out and cleaned it. I tried to clean the duct itself, too, but couldn’t get very far in.
The smell is still there. Can this indicate an issue with the direction of the air flow in the duct? Would an in-line fan fix it? I’ll need one that runs on batteries, though.
I assume there is a shared air passage for multiple apartments, so a fan might just blow the smell into other peoples apartments. Best to check with building management.
That’s my guess. If you can pull the grate off and take a look, there should be a cheap valve in there to keep drafts out. I would see if it’s caked with dust (and grease) and either stuck wide open or maybe just propped open by years of grime…or maybe just non existent.
If it’s there and not closing properly, it may (or may not) be possible to clean it from below (as opposed to having to remove the fan from above).
I had taken out the grate to clean it, but I couldn’t see a valve. I will ask the manager when I see her. I don’t think there’s any way to get at it from above, since there’s another three floors with apartments above mine.
Here’s a picture (from the outside) of what you’re looking for. Depending on your exact model, you may or may not be able to access it just by taking off the grate.
In that picture it’s in the closed position, but when the fan turns on, the pressure forces it open (it pivots on that line through the center). The idea is that if it’s windy outside, cold air doesn’t get pushed back into your house.
If it’s stuck open and connected to the kitchen exhaust from another apartment, it’s probably blowing back into your apartment. It might even be that it’s not connected to a kitchen exhaust but that someone is running their bathroom vent to get the smell of whatever they were cooking out of their apartment.
If nothing else, your best bet may just be to run your fan when you notice the smell coming in.
Thank you for the illustration, but I’m not sure whether it’s applicable to the case at hand. I’m sorry if the OP wasn’t clear enough, but there is no fan; I was only thinking of installing one. Am I right in assuming that without a fan there probably won’t be a valve?
I am also not sure if it is fresh kitchen exhaust that’s causing the problem. True, the smell comes and goes, but whenever it’s there, it smells exactly the same every time. Either one of my neighbours has really boring cooking habits, or it’s something else, some old smell that somehow got stuck in the vent.
It could just be the building. I once went to a medical clinic in a building that had B.O. It was a mid-sized office building, fairly modern (built in the '80s, I suppose) and housed accountants and mortgage brokers and a few other offices along with a small family practice clinic. The entire building smelled strongly of body odor, always. Winter, summer, rainy, sunny; nothing changed it. I used to worry that I smelled like that after appointments there.
If the smell is coming from your bathroom ceiling vent (the one you turn on to exhaust steam when you shower), the smell could be coming from outside the building, perhaps from a nearby restaurant. Have you mentioned it to any of your neighbors?
