kitchen "thru the wall" fan

[wallygater]

Hi everyone. Its been a while, but I`m about to start a new project. I could use some help.

I used to have a "thru the wall" exhaust fan directly behind my stove in the kitchen.
It was very old, very drafty, and very noisy.
I covered it up with Sheetrock a long, long time ago
We currently have no exhaust fan in the kitchen
My 27 year old son just got a wok for his birthday
He has been using the wok to cook his food and he loves it
It creates a lot of smoke
We need the fan back!!
He has offered to pay for a brand new one and I have agreed to install it
Can anyone suggest a very good fan, Quite and strong???
Am I better off with the range hood type or can I stay with the old style thru the wall type?
Which would be a better, stronger, quieter, choice?

[jadnashua]

A hood with a filter will trap a lot of the smoke particles and oil...just venting it outside without something to gather it first will be less effective. Moving a lot of air is noisey. Many smaller units have a low cfm - you need lots. This also means you need makeup air. Since you are exhausting lots of conditioned air and pulling in unconditioned, it is not very efficient, but that is the tradeoff of not getting grease and smoke all over the house along with the lingering smells. Some of the better ones can get quite costly. I haven't looked for awhile, so I can't make a valid suggestion. Mine specifies an 8" duct! and can move over 800cfm on high, it cost me about $1k.

[hj]

Where is he using the wok, if it is on the stove then a hood fan would be a multipurpose option. If it is on the countertop, then a through the wall one might be more appropriate. Choosing the "right" fan requires that you balance cfm, noise, cost, ease of mounting, etc., and only you can decide which mix of numbers is right for you.

[Thatguy]

and I have agreed to install it

IIRC correctly it took me 3 hours to remove the old and install the new, from Grainger.

[wallygater]

Thank you for the replies.

JD 800cfm, Wow. Also 1g, another wow, way out of the budget

HJ You are correct. ease of install is important. So is the cfm and the scones. I have a feeling that replacing the old one thru the wall would be most practical. I need to find one that is the same size, also I want it to be as quiet as possible, and I would like to find a model that has a good exterior seal when it is off. I remember that the old one was incredibly drafty. That old kitchen is cold enough as it is. I am hoping that they have improved the exterior design since 30 years ago. On a side note, I have vinyl siding on the outside of the house. I might need some kind of a mounting block, similar to the ones that I have installed for the outside light fixtures. As I`m sure you know, nothing likes to be installed on or thru vinyl siding, without the appropriate mounting block.

thatguy, I have browsed thru the Grainger web site. They have a very big selection. Which one did you get? I think 3 hours is very good. It will most likely take me all day, at least 3 trips to the store, and possibly part of the next day/

[Thatguy]

I just used the same size that was in there before.
If the house has gas appliances put in 3 CO detectors. This will give you 99.9999 % reliability, so called six-nines, aircraft level, safety. Get the sensitive kind.

"1. Location of the Exhaust Fan and Air Changes Per Hour:

Where you intend to install the exhaust fan will have a direct bearing on its size. As per the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI), different locations in your home require varying Air Changes Per Hour (ACH) in order to be ventilated properly. Here are the ACH requirements recommended by HVI.

8 ACH for bathrooms
15 ACH for kitchens
6 ACH for rooms other than bath and kitchen

ACH refers to the number of times the air should be completely changed in an hour. Thus, an 8 ACH recommendation for bathrooms means the exhaust fan should have the capacity to completely change the air in the bathroom 8 times in one hour."

E.g., a kitchen 8' W x 10' L x 8' high has a volume of 640 cu ft. 15 ACH is 9600 CFH is 160 CFM.

[jadnashua]

A lot of smoke and grease takes a lot of air movement. Some of it naturally rises because it is hot, so that helps. The fan needs to be close enough to get all of it before it spreads out. That takes a lot of air movement, and proper location. If I remember, mine is a 1hp variable speed motor.

[wallygater]

Yep. That's about the size of my kitchen, 8`x10`. So I think the 160cfm sounds good. I might go a tad bigger if I can. The old fan was located directly behind the stove. I am not sure if it was a 10" or an 8". I will have to uncover it to find out. Once it is uncovered I will be committed. I will start on the inside of course. Remove brand new wallpaper, remove drywall patch, take a look at the old girl. Tomorrow I am going to Lowes to see if they still have the wallpaper that I used still in stock. If they do than that would be a big plus.
I think the install will be fairly straightforward because its just a replacement. The only snag I see will be on the outside. As I said there is vinyl siding covering the old fan.
Any input on how to handle the vinyl siding? Making the whole ? Finishing it off? What about that block that I mentioned? anyone ever hear about anything like that?

[dlarrivee]

I'd just tell my 27 year old to move out...

[wallygater]

dlarrivee, Its just a fan. He is a fine young man. He works hard, never been in trouble, does not drink, no drugs, no smoke. Helps out around the house, and has a heart of gold.

[CollinLeon]

dlarrivee, Its just a fan. He is a fine young man. He works hard, never been in trouble, does not drink, no drugs, no smoke. Helps out around the house, and has a heart of gold.

At 27, he really should be getting his own place, but that's your problem, not ours...

Wok cooking requires high heat and most traditional ranges will not provide enough heat to really do it right... The electric woks are a joke -- they don't even come close to providing enough heat... My wife is oriental, so I'm been forced to learn a bit about these things... A gas range with a cast iron wok or even a cast iron deep wall skillet works pretty good, but the best thing that I've found is to do the wok cooking outside with a high BTU gas burner that is sufficient for large pot crawfish boiling, turkey frying, etc. I welded up a cook top that uses the type of burners in this:

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/kab4_banjo_burner.htm

At 210,000+ BTUs, it can produce some serious heat... Even running it with low pressure natural gas, you get significantly more BTUs that your typical home range might get...

You really don't want to use aluminum cookware with a high BTU burner unless you have some liquid in there to keep the temperature from getting too high... It is entirely possible to melt the aluminum... I melted a cast aluminum gas grill once when I re-engineered the burner to run off of unregulated propane... It could sear a steak very quick though...

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/743...t-iron-wok.htm

The highest rated electric wok that I've seen is 1800 watts which equates to about 6146 BTUs. That is even less than most gas range burners. The best you can probably hope for on a gas range burner is around 20,000 BTUs on some of the higher end ranges unless you go with a commercial wok burner which will probably get you up to about 90,000 BTUs and cost you quite a bit of money. As you can see, the Bayou Classic Banjo type burner is quite cost effective for the amount of BTUs that you can get out of it.

Anything worth engineering is worth over-engineering...