Is it viable to vent a range hood back into the kitchen?

Question

I live in a 2 story townhome. I would like to replace the recirculating above the counter microwave with a more stylish and more effective range hood. There are cabinets above the microwave, standard under cabinet installation.

The kitchen backs up to the next door unit making that wall inaccessible and there appears to be no easy access point to work in the ceiling and and attempt to install ductwork to the unit's back wall.

There are some heat ducts and lights and recessed lights in the ceiling so probably space, just difficult to access for non-rodents. The thought of having to rip open the ceiling is unappealing.

Venting into that crawl space is probably fairly easy but from what I've read a bad idea. The next, least cost-prohibitive option, would be to do a bit of a hack and cut holes in those cabinets and install some ductwork and angle it out over the kitchen and then cut open a hole in the ceiling and fit it with a ceiling or heating vent and attach that to the ductwork. This would not be easily but probably doable.

The range is electric. Venting this way would not be ideal yet certainly no worse that the current microwave vent, and I've noticed that with the microwave lots of air blows past the front of the vent into the room anyhow. The range hoods that inspire me are all 3-6" deeper than the mic.

A second, less cumbersome might be to mount the unit on brackets a couple inches below the cabinets and have it vent into the room that way. Maybe sounds a little strange.

Opinions, feedback, suggestions welcome.

Edited with pictures - The first picture is with the old shelves. The new shelves /cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling. There are no shelves above the refrigerator. Also to note - budget is rather limited. It may be the best solution, but opening the ceiling and running vents to the backside wall is probably not viable at this time.

Edited by Bob M - added picture of new cabinets

Answer 1

Here's what I did in a previous kitchen makeover. The original microwave (part of the range, not separate) vented into the wall, down to the basement, then to the outside. For the new microwave I brought the vent up through the cabinet above the microwave, then ran it along the top of the cabinets to the outside wall (left in this picture). This was hidden once the crown molding was installed.

Here's a close up view of the cabinet and duct work.

EDIT1 - Added picture below

Boxing in the refrigerator with a shallow cabinet over the refrig.

Answer 2

Here are the solutions that I came up with which don't involve getting overly complicated and having to open up the ceiling and running ductwork to the external wall.

1. Cutting a hole into the top of the cabinets and single ceiling hole and venting into the crawl space - that gets a vote down because it may result in mold and other nasties/residue in the crawl space.

2. Mounting the unit about 2" below the cabinets and having it vent out the front relying on carbon filters to mostly purify the air. Might or not not look okay.

3. Enabling the ductless option

4. Oddly enough, this last idea came to mind before I came back to the post and saw Steve's picture I have been trying to avoid expense unless it has cosmetic value. Cutting into the ceiling just bothers me. This AM I was thinking about creative ways to hide ductwork. It could be as simple as gluing together a couple panels and painting them white and having them cover the ductwork along the rear corner or purchasing some cabinets and laying it out similarly to what Steve has in his picture. The cabinets need to come down anyway and get remounted straight (sloppy contractor) so yes I think I can deal with this. Thx Steve and all.