Jenn Air cooktop vent withi cold draft seeping in

[petek]

My buddy has an older JA cooktop with the downdraft vented across the basement rafters about 8 feet and thru the back wall of his house. There's a cold draft coming out of the cooktop vent so he keeps a wood cutting board over it.
Unfortunately the outdoor vent in the foundation has a cement porch built over it with a crawlspace . I'd like to know first before doing anything like pulling the cooktop out to see if there's a baffle near the fan that may be stuck open, rather than trying to get under the porch in this frigid weather.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Well...

I hate to be the bearer of not so nice news but it sounds like you have a flap stuck open on the exhaust hood OUTSIDE... If it was installed properly, there should be a dryer vent hood like setup (only bigger) on the outside wall but nothing under the cooktop itself. Sorry...

RCD

 

[petek]

Thanks, that's just what I wanted to know that ahead of time to save time looking and taking the thing out.

 

[aladude]

My grandma always puts a piece of aluminum foil under the grate in her GE Profile downdraft during the winter. Also just remembered my other grandma's old kitchen had a Jenn Air cooktop with four burners, a griddle, a down draft, and a storage compartment with a wood lid on it; during the winter she would swap the downdraft grate and the wooden lid.