Nick pops a rivet into the (extremely) modified housing of the remote blower for the kitchen cooktop downdraft unit. The downdraft and blower are two separate appliances connected together by ductwork. The downdraft is installed behind the cooktop and is flush with the countertop when it's turned off. When it's on, it'll come up out of the counter to a height of about 7 inches. The remote blower will activate simultaneously and pull 800 cubic feet of air per minute across the top of the cooktop, through the downdraft and ductwork and out of the house, keeping grease off the ceiling and rapidly evacuating steam and smoke from the first floor airspace.
We'll mount the blower remotely on the ceiling of the basement (about 7 feet of duct downline from the downdraft). That it's a remote unit means that it's in another room downstairs and we won't have to listen to a noisy fan in the kitchen. The blower suction is a squirrel cage design (as opposed to a bladed fan normally used in overhead vents), making it very quiet.
The blower was originally about the size of a window-fitted air conditioner, and shipped too large to conveniently fit anywhere in the basement utility room without creating a huge and unsightly obstacle. A lot of engineering went into cutting down the walls by a few inches so that it will fit into the bay between our basement ceiling joists, getting it up out of the way. Thanks Nick for your hands-on help and science (and for helping void the warranty, even though it should be extended). Thanks Bo for the tool loan, and thanks to the guys at Do It Yourself Heating for all the wacky duct parts we need to tie the system together.
1 comment:
This is what our hood uses and what's nice is that the grease trap pops off and goes right in the dishwasher.
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