professor john's Profile

In one of our apartments I swear that vent was the source of a pesky mouse that kept eating bread and such things that would be stored on top of the fridge! Yes, you can hear EVERYTHING from other apartments. In the bathroom i heard things I really didn't want to hear, lol! In our current building the vents have a lever so they can be opened and closed on demand such as if you burn something in the kitchen. We have two hotel style A/C units and when I cook I usually just pump the fan up on the big 240 volt unit which does a good job at circulating air. I am really not sure if the vents are sucking air or convection based. In one apartment I have seen a bathroom makeover where they installed an exhaust fan in the ceiling, covered the vent and ran the hose duct from the exhaust fan into the vent shaft. So, in theory, you may be able to do this if you get an overhead cooking exhaust fan. Good luck.