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I just started to research on the installation of this new 30" under cabinet Zephyr AK2100 range hood and bumped into a few problems. There is a under cabinet microwave in position, with a rear venting holes going to the outside wall (3-1/4 by 10 standard rectangular hole), so I guess I could skip the duct work. But here comes the problems:
1. The current venting hole on the wall is directly against the bottom edge of the cabinet. However, the venting hole on the hood is about 1.25 inch lower than the top surface of the hood (which would be touching the bottom surface of the cabinet). So there is a mismatch of about 1 inch. I checked HD and lowes, all their converters are for 45 degree or 90 degree transition and they are all rigid. Is there any off the shelf duct I could use to bridge this mismatch?
2. The hood does not come with the AC power plug, just three naked wires and wire caps. I've got a power plug and stripped out the three wires as well. I suppose you could just twist corresponding wires together and put a wire cap on it, but I've heard people claim it's not safe as well. Is it OK to just use wire cap for 110 V AC?
3. The manual said if the cabinet is framed (mine is) you'd better put two wood blocks at the four mounting positions and drive the wood screw into these blocks then the cabinet bottom plate for better support. Don't you want to attach the wood blocks first to the cabinet? Otherwise, it's still the bottom plate for cabinet taking all the gravity of the hood plus two wood blocks?
4. The manual said to drive four wood screws half way, slide them into the keyholes on the top of hood. once all the positioning is done, you then go tighten up the screws. But once the screws slide into the mounting holes (the screwheads are blocked), how would I tighten them afterwards?
5. I've seen people using 1/4' leg bolt and washer for "better support". Is it a good idea to drive those thick bolts into the thin cabinet plate?
Please bear with my ignorance, any input is greatly appreciated.
Though I admire your willingness to try, the scope of your questions say- you're over your head with this one.
So here's my input:
Hire someone who would know how to do it CORRECTLY.
Obviously, when the house was originally built it was built specifically for that setup. Changing the setup may require a lot more changes/modifications than what you see in front of you. It's possible that the cabinet would need to come out, open the wall and change the ductwork, reroute the wiring for a hard connection, etc., etc.
Figured out most of the questions in my op but here's the big one as I started to work on it : some stupid a$$ did this job in the prior ownership, the venting hole and duct is not centered. About an inch off to the right. Is there some adaptor I could use to compensate this horizontal offset without opening up the wall and shift the entire duct?
My guess would be its between two studs, so moving might be out of the question.
But with an off-set of one inch i wouldn't make a big fuss- modify the sheetmetal on the vent so it fits snug, seal, install, and crack a beer!
The amount of cfm's lost from that off-set will be minimal.
Can u elaborate a little bit more on how to modify the sheet metal and with what tools? What I can think of is to cut off the left side drywall by an inch and try to cut open the metal port. But the whole thing is a 90 degree elbow and buried inside the wall make think it difficult to work on (hard to hammer something inside ) thanks a lot
Or the vent you referred to is the range hood itself?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4
Yep!
From the pic it would appear there's some sheet metal duct sticking out the back- cut off the part that overlaps. Then I assume the rest would go inside the duct in the wall-
It's a metal collar screwed onto the hood rear venting port.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4
So make the collar smaller. It will involve some cutting, bending and aluminium tape but that's one way to do if you don't want to tear down the wall.
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