Noisy Kitchen Vent

Hi y'all,

Anyone have a problem with a noisy kitchen vent? I didn't really notice it during home inspection, and it isn't particularly noticeable when the windows are opened during the day. But the noise becomes apparent at night when I try to watch TV. It's a continuous "swooshing" with occasional rattling of some of the metal components. Anyone have the same issue? Please let me know if there is a way to fix this... It's driving me nuts!

Aloha Ben,
The vent in the kitchen is very noisy in our unit as well. Do you have a 3C unit? I believe there's this ventilation shaft that goes vertically down the building. It's not obvious, but definitely noticeable at night, like you said. We tried peering up it & haven't really figured it out. I'm going to put that down on my warranty list and see what the contractors can do for me.

Another thing I noticed is that the back wall of the laundry room hums. It kinda vibrates with this swooshing sound. Then if you walk around to the master bedroom into the walk in closet, you'll hear a hum too. Of course, the house has to be quiet to hear this. But it got me wondering, why would the walls seem so thin? Shouldn't they have added a tad bit more of insulation.

I hope someone got some ideas on how to make our units better.

Suggestions welcomed,
Keala

Yes, 3-C. My master bedroom closet actually vibrates. Yes, VIBRATES. You can hear the humming as soon as you walk into the closet. If you put your hand on the inside portion of the closet, you can literally feel the wall shake. My guess too is a common air vent on the other side of that wall connecting the kitchen vent running all the way to the rooftop. Mechanically vented air then forces the vent shaft to vibrate. Apparently, appropriate sound insulation wasn't installed into the walls.

My quick fix so far for the vibrating closet is to keep the door closed and have foam stripping along the door jamb to reduce the rattling =(

Well, I removed the internal damper from the kitchen vent and that seems to help somewhat. The rattling isn't as bad, but now there is no way to control the air flow. Found the following in case anyone has the same problem:

http://www.airtecproducts.com

They have an built-in rubber damper, but might require some putzing around to install since they are meant to fit round openings. Will keep everyone posted...

I visited a 2 bedroom unit the other day, and their kitchen vent is virtually silent. Think this is an issue with just the 3 bedrooms.

Folks,
Had some punch list folks come in. I'm quite dismayed & really don't know what to make out it or even how. I proceeded going through the list of things still outstanding, that needed fixing with this guy name Kenny from Nordic/PCL. I mentioned the noisy kitchen vent that needs fixing. There won't be any further attention to the vent. "It's finished, it's an A & B issue".

What the?

Basically, unless A & B receives many complaints from the tenants about it, no further action will be taken.

My suggestion folks is that we all band together & get this issue solved. What annoys me is why do we need to work so hard to get a quality home?

I'm saddened by it & almost feel like I should just go and hire my own contractor to get things done the way I believe our homes should have been given to us in the beginning.

I can only say, I will never buy another A & B construction.

Update on my noisy vent...

A contractor is putting in the AirTec vent I mentioned previously. He is reducing the size of the original opening (14" x 14") to accomodate the new vent (11" x 11"). The good thing is we tested the rubber damper from fully open to partially open to fully closed, and the sound is almost non-existent. There is a slight swooshing like the ambient vent noise in the bathrooms, but this is tolerable given the sound level before. The irony is had PCL gone with the vent I'm using now, they would have saved a bundle on installation and maintenance because of the simpler design.