indoor kitchen / cooking odors.....

tommym · Oct 19, 2021

In my townhouse, I only have a recirculating exhaust hood and we are not allowed to duct/vent to the exterior. I also don't have cross ventilation so that doesn't help either. I currently turn off the air conditioner and open the windows prior to and after cooking. Any suggestions on how to address this issue? Some days it is just too hot and humid to go without air conditioning.

Thanks,

Tommy

dreadnut · Oct 19, 2021

What are the odors coming from? Is something burning? Or is it just the smell of the food cooking? I consider that to be "aromas."

We have a whole house fan that I turn on sometimes while cooking in the oven, to take the heat away from the inside of the house.

tommym · Oct 19, 2021

dreadnut said:
What are the odors coming from? Is something burning? Or is it just the smell of the food cooking? I consider that to be "aromas."

We have a whole house fan that I turn on sometimes while cooking in the oven, to take the heat away from the inside of the house.

Just the smell of cooking food. It must be my age or something, as there are days that I can't stand the "aroma" of my favorite foods. I get nauseated; that never happened in the past but has been an issue for the last few years.

Yeah, a whole house fan was one of the options that I was looking at as we have access to the attic space. But that requires the AC to be off and windows open. Still, it's on my shortlist.

Tommy

geoguy · Oct 19, 2021

I think those recirculating hoods typically come with a charcoal filter. Perhaps it needs to be changed?

Otherwise, I would probably turn on a bathroom fan while cooking, and open a window that is strategically chosen so as to get some fresh air moving through the kitchen. If that is even possible.

beecee · Oct 19, 2021

An onion cut in half placed cut side down in water clears a room pretty quickly as well but yes check your filter.

Or...add 4 cloves of garlic, chopped, to lightly heated oil. Let it sit on low...very low...for a few minutes. Do not let it brown.

Remove the garlic from oil and discard.

House should smell great!! You can add some mushrooms, parsley and white vermouth to the pan as well.

dreadnut · Oct 19, 2021

Good idea to overpower the aroma you don't like with one that you do like. Sounds like the start of a great soup too! Leave the garlic in though.

beecee said:
An onion cut in half placed cut side down in water clears a room pretty quickly as well but yes check your filter.

Or...add 4 cloves of garlic, chopped, to lightly heated oil. Let it sit on low...very low...for a few minutes. Do not let it brown.

Remove the garlic from oil and discard.

House should smell great!! You can add some mushrooms, parsley and white vermouth to the pan as well.

SFIV1967 · Oct 19, 2021

geoguy said:
I think those recirculating hoods typically come with a charcoal filter. Perhaps it needs to be changed?

Could be it! But when frying onions or meat those filters come to their limits anyway. I also have only such a recirculating exhaust hood without connection to vent to the exterior...

Ralf

silverfox103 · Oct 19, 2021

So, at your condo, you can have a whole house fan, but not a kitchen exhaust to the outside?

Tom

tommym · Oct 19, 2021

silverfox103 said:
So, at your condo, you can have a whole house fan, but not a kitchen exhaust to the outside?

Tom

Yes. That's because a whole house fan (in our case) will not need to penetrate the side of the structure or roof. Essentially, it won't modify the exterior aesthetics of the building.

Tommy

tommym · Oct 19, 2021

beecee said:
....House should smell great!! You can add some mushrooms, parsley and white vermouth to the pan as well.

Yeah, the whole house does smell great! I just don't want my clothing, curtains, dog, and guitar to smell like beef stew too.

Tommy

beecee · Oct 20, 2021

There are times I wish our dogs smelled like beef stew!

silverfox103 · Oct 20, 2021

I'm not sure I'd want the whole house fan exhausting to the attic and out the vents. In condo attics many times they are common to many units. I can see a bad ending to doing that. I would try exhausting out a window, 2nd floor if possible

But the first thing I would do, is geoguy's suggestion, change the charcoal filter and give it a good cleaning. That would be an easy solution if it works. Also, maybe the exhaust fan is tired and needs to be replaced.

Tom

mavuser · Oct 20, 2021

u can try an essential oil diffuser and some good essential oils.

Guildedagain · Oct 20, 2021

So anyone can spew their toxic drier vent fumes* but you can't exhaust cooking fumes? You can run an AC unit 24/7 shunting considerable amounts of heat into the environment, but you can't exhaust frying bacon fumes? Oh, the outrage...

Try smoking weed in the house, that should take care of it ;]

Or get a Sawzall and give the stove a proper vent.

* This is the real reason I had to sell my house, someone obtained a "variance" from the city, built a house 5' away from mine, aimed the drier vent at my back door/bedroom windows, heat pump running 24/7 right outside bedroom window, but mostly the vomitous drier fumes ruined it for me.

That house was built in '49 and had a really neat all metal 8" or so fan in the wall above the stove, plumbed into a pipe exiting on the roof, perfect for the small spray painting projects, solvent fumes ect, an exhaust fan in your house, man they really knew how to build stuff back then.

The Guilds of Grot · Oct 20, 2021

Temporary fan in a window?

Opsimath · Oct 20, 2021

There was a cooking smells problem in my first apartment. It was a block of 8 units, 4 first floor and 4 second floor, all with external entry so no common hallways. All the kitchens were in the corner where the units came together. I don't know how the kitchen fans were vented but I could smell what other people were cooking. I recall it being nausea inducing on a number of occasions. I suppose they could smell what I cooked, too, but surely I only cooked things that smelled good, like chocolate cake.

Just remembering those smells right now makes me not feel so good.

Didn't you recently have issues with your HOA about a generator? Do you still have your single family home? Unless there are tremendous advantages to being in the townhome I think I would be giving serious thought to your other option.

I hope you can find a solution. I certainly understand the unpleasantness of your issue. Good luck!

tommym · Oct 20, 2021

The Guilds of Grot said:
Temporary fan in a window?

HOA won't allow for that, even on a temporary basis.

Tommy

tommym · Oct 20, 2021

silverfox103 said:
I'm not sure I'd want the whole house fan exhausting to the attic and out the vents. In condo attics many times they are common to many units. I can see a bad ending to doing that. I would try exhausting out a window, 2nd floor if possible

But the first thing I would do, is geoguy's suggestion, change the charcoal filter and give it a good cleaning. That would be an easy solution if it works. Also, maybe the exhaust fan is tired and needs to be replaced.

Tom

We are lucky in that respect as the attic space has a fire-rated separation wall between each of the units.

Tommy

tommym · Oct 20, 2021

Looks like it's going to be a combination of a more powerful range hood with higher quality filters, a whole house fan, and better awareness of which windows are open when running the whole house fan.

Tommy

Default · Oct 20, 2021

You can also try using grape seed oil instead of vegetable oil or olive oil when cooking. It have a very high flashpoint and I can cook steaks and not have a fogbank in the house. I haven't tried mixing spices with it, and brushing it on a roast, but that would work too.

indoor kitchen / cooking odors.....

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