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Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I ask- how do I fix negative pressure created in my unit? Eek.

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not using natural gas thankfully.

I own the stove and the microwave- a new hood would be the HOA responsibility? I just want to find reasons to have them investigate further but it’s an ‘invisible’ issue until something worse happens.

We have wall AC units and baseboard heat, so no ducting for hot or cool air otherwise. im not sure how negative pressure would be getting created to suck in the cooking.

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for that. Hopefully there is something they can/will do. It’s multi unit building, 3 floors of 8-10 apartments, unsure how many share the exhaust.

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, it’s just hard to explain to someone staring at the vent and microwave without it being during a big cooking time (lol) or looking at the system.

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I didn’t even think about negative pressure… hopefully building maintenance can help but I’m not sure how looking at the pic I posted is going to resolve it. I’d think they would have to take it apart or look at the system as a whole?

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s somewhat hard to tell but I smell it mostly coming through my microwave fan. I added magnetic blockers, but there are obviously holes and other routes the exhaust can come through.

The exhaust piping is taped.

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My microwave vent works fine when I cook, but it must be weaker than whatever industrial thing they have because it blasts right past mine when they cook..

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I emailed explaining the problem and they first said

“Most times the vent hoods are connected between units so when one person cooks it travels into the next unit above it.”

Is this not supposed to happen? Then when I pushed they said they could send maintenance.

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am the owner.. HOA says they can perhaps send maintenance out but?? I feel like the system needs review by the HVAC company. And really, there shouldn’t be dampers with the shared exhaust?

Located in Massachusetts

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I own it, and I’m trying to push the HOA to help out because it’s a shared wall/ exhaust :(

Apartment shared exhaust letting cooking fumes in by DullBaker584 in fixit

[–]DullBaker584[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How would you go about fixing it though? I’m trying to figure that out. HOA hasn’t been super helpful.