Hoods

[Jenise]

Does anyone know of a website that compares ventilation hoods? It's time to decide what I'm going to buy for my new range, and there doesn't seem to be anywhere one can go look, feel and listen to the various options. Quiet's important since I'm going to be buying a large (54") 1200 CFM unit.

Would appreciate hearing pros and cons associated with any of your experiences, too.

Me, too. I bought a used Dacor stove and Vent-a-Hood in nice shape, but the hood is too deep and the ductwork is offset to one side (bummer), so I'll have to buy a new one somewhere.

[Jenise]

Me, too. I bought a used Dacor stove and Vent-a-Hood in nice shape, but the hood is too deep and the ductwork is offset to one side (bummer), so I'll have to buy a new one somewhere.

That's a bummer. Can it be retrofitted? I'm wondering if you can buy/replace pieces more cheaply than purchasing anew. Vent-a-Hood's a top brand.

I've just learned that Viking sells hoods and blowers separately. That allows you to choose an internal blower or a blower that goes on the roof--moving the motor noise out of the house. I'm suddenly enchanted with this possibility.

When we remodeled our kitchen I bought a Venmar. We love it. It sits under the cabinet over my 36-inch Dacor 6 burner stove. It is powerful, but what I really love are the lights. The main light has three levels, the third being very bright. In the rear are two heating lamps. I could have had a holding rack installed on the granite back splash to hold food under the warming lights, but did not need it. Instead, I use the lamps to soften cubes of frozen butter. Works great. I can use them to keep food warm if I set the food on the back of the stove.
The filters remove easily and go right into the dishwasher. The vents are very powerful and have three levels. I can't say it is quiet...but not as noisy as my last unit.

I don't know of a hood comparison site per se but http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/appl/ is a very active site that discusses hoods among other things. You might try searching there or registering and asking questions. As usual, you'll need to sift through comments to decide what to trust - people are very opinionated but not necessarily objective. It's the best appliance resource I've found on the web, though.

On the subject of hoods, there are models with the motor in the house, on the roof, or in between. If you're after the ultimate in noise performances, having the motors externally mounted and as far away as possible is probably what you want. Keep in mind, though, that with a well designed motor most of the noise comes not from the motor but from air moving. 1200 CFM isn't going to be silent no matter where you put the motor.

Me, too. I bought a used Dacor stove and Vent-a-Hood in nice shape, but the hood is too deep and the ductwork is offset to one side (bummer), so I'll have to buy a new one somewhere.

That's a bummer. Can it be retrofitted? I'm wondering if you can buy/replace pieces more cheaply than purchasing anew. Vent-a-Hood's a top brand.

I've just learned that Viking sells hoods and blowers separately. That allows you to choose an internal blower or a blower that goes on the roof--moving the motor noise out of the house. I'm suddenly enchanted with this possibility.

It's a 9-inch and with my cabinets I need a 6-inch. My current hood is center-ducted. That's just too much hassle for me. It's a bummer, for sure.

You've seen my hood. It's got a newer Thermador ventilation system built into it. It's quiet for sure, but I'd say not as effective as I would like. Then again, I've seen a really powerful suction fan in a hood actually extinguish a burner flame on mid-level. It can be tricky. Didn't you have a really good, standard Viking hood in your last remodeled kitchen? I think it's tough to get a really great fan motor built into a custom hood arrangement.

FWIW, the guy who installed our range seemed to be very knowledgeable about this stuff and he was not a fan of Vent-a-hood. According to him, they have very strict installation specs that are hard to meet in a lot of situations. Any variance from those specs degrades performance significantly, so a lot of his customers have been unhappy when the performance wasn't what they expected. The Vent-a-hood folks are not sympathetic to such problems.

So just remember that you can only expect the performance they advertise if you can meet their installation requirements to the letter. (At least, according to our range installation guy.)

Also, Mark's recommendation of the GardenWeb site is a very good one.

I have been happy with my Broan. They offer many different options. If you like the looks of one online, I'm sure you could call them and ask how many DB's that model emits then compare that to others you are looking at.

I've got a stainless steel Broan that I think I bought in light of a comparison in found in Consumer Reports at the local library. It has a big but quiet fan (it's so quiet that there's an indicator light to tell you it's on) and real nice bright halogen lamps.

I should have added that there is at least one objective source for noise info on hoods on the web, at the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) website. Participating manufacturers submit data on all kinds of ventilation products, including bathroom fans and kitchen fans. The problem: the word "participating". Participation is strictly voluntary, some manufacturers do, some don't - you'll likely find a lot of hoods you'd like to see not represented. But you might find some useful data and a willingness to participate might tell you somethig. The current bath/kitchen fan list is here.

[Jenise]

Mark, another question for you and everyone else looking on. In talking to my architect, he's surprised that I think I need a 54" hood for a 48" stove--he designed the latter, and thinks that 6 inches I'd lose will be important to my overhead cabs. He's right, but at the same time there's no point buying this kind of range and then under-serving it. Viking--I'm using their website because that's who made my range--is surprisingly silent on the subject. Their website doesn't, that I can find anyway, appear to make any reccomendations whatsoever. Yet most of the salesmen I've talked to recently, and it was true ten years ago when we did the Huntington Beach house, suggest some extra margin.

Any thoughts?

Mark, another question for you and everyone else looking on. In talking to my architect, he's surprised that I think I need a 54" hood for a 48" stove--he designed the latter, and thinks that 6 inches I'd lose will be important to my overhead cabs. He's right, but at the same time there's no point buying this kind of range and then under-serving it. Viking--I'm using their website because that's who made my range--is surprisingly silent on the subject. Their website doesn't, that I can find anyway, appear to make any reccomendations whatsoever. Yet most of the salesmen I've talked to recently, and it was true ten years ago when we did the Huntington Beach house, suggest some extra margin.

Any thoughts?

Jenise, my own kitchen is decidely conventional, with a 30" hood over a 30" cooktop. So I'm not talking from my own experience but I can tell you from having spent time at the GardenWeb site that the consensus definitely is that if you can have overhang on the sides, you want it. What people would recommend is exactly what you have in mind, the hood six inches wider than the cooking surface. Otherwise, you're depending on cooking fumes to go straight up or better. The extra three inches means that much more greasy stuff going up the hood and less coating your kitchen. I think it's also fair to say the consensus is that having the hood the same width as the cooktop is adequate but having that extra three inches is superior. If you have the opportunity, I'd definitely go for the extra width.

It almost goes without saying that coverage matter in the other direction - from front to back - too. The more of the front burners your hood "covers", the better. Mine doesn't quite cover the front burners and while enough CFM makes the fumes "bend", sucking them back into the hood, the further out it extends, the less stuff will escape past the front of the hood.

[Jenise]

Jenise, my own kitchen is decidely conventional, with a 30" hood over a 30" cooktop. So I'm not talking from my own experience but I can tell you from having spent time at the GardenWeb site that the consensus definitely is that if you can have overhang on the sides, you want it. What people would recommend is exactly what you have in mind, the hood six inches wider than the cooking surface. Otherwise, you're depending on cooking fumes to go straight up or better. The extra three inches means that much more greasy stuff going up the hood and less coating your kitchen. I think it's also fair to say the consensus is that having the hood the same width as the cooktop is adequate but having that extra three inches is superior. If you have the opportunity, I'd definitely go for the extra width.

It almost goes without saying that coverage matter in the other direction - from front to back - too. The more of the front burners your hood "covers", the better. Mine doesn't quite cover the front burners and while enough CFM makes the fumes "bend", sucking them back into the hood, the further out it extends, the less stuff will escape past the front of the hood.

On your reccomendation I did some reading on gardenweb.com yesterday, btw. Didn't get so far as to find any hood talk--no discipline, got caught up in somebody's drama of cherry or birch for her cabinets in a dark kitchen with little outside light and that kind of thing--but my husband (who is an ME) went over this with some HVAC engineers on his project today and they came back spouting air flow numbers in serious support of the extra width. I'm a little extra worried in that my kitchen is basically going to be open to the sky--the entire downstairs (all living space except bedrooms) is open the same 22 feet to the ceiling and therefore each other. I don't have rooms, I have 'areas' divided by minor elevation changes and an 11 foot high rock wall. Therefore escaped particles of grease are not confined but, once airborne, can really fly. I tend to think that behooves me to buy the extra width even though I hate losing the cabinet. (I can't believe how little my architect understands about cooking.)

Yes re the other direction. Craig (the architect) and I are all over that one. I'm saying I've gotta have 30" depth, and he's thinking we can get buy with 27 or 28. I bought the deeper range, which is 27" IIRC.

[Jenise]

You've seen my hood. It's got a newer Thermador ventilation system built into it. It's quiet for sure, but I'd say not as effective as I would like. Then again, I've seen a really powerful suction fan in a hood actually extinguish a burner flame on mid-level. It can be tricky. Didn't you have a really good, standard Viking hood in your last remodeled kitchen? I think it's tough to get a really great fan motor built into a custom hood arrangement.

That hood was a Vent-a-Hood. And it was great, but would have been even more efficient if we'd been able to install it the way it was intended (we couldn't, because it really needed another foot of ceiling which of course we didn't have and did'nt realize when we bought it. Still, no complaints. So your comment " I think it's tough to get a really great fan motor built into a custom hood arrangement" is really about going with a complete manufactured unit like I'd buy from Viking?

I did a Vent a Hood 48" for a 36" BlueStar 6 burner gas cooktop. When I use my high BTU burners - 22,000 - one is at an outside corner- the extra hood is a must. I had a stainless steel face put on the cab next to the cooktop and it gets some spatter but not much. I left the duct exposed to the ceiling - 10' - and gave up the cabs on one side using the top of the vent on that side as a display shelf for a large majolica pot. I did not want it to look all boxed in. Found out that I dont miss the cab at all.
I would try to keep the needed hood width if possible.
The only thing I had trouble with was getting used to the depth of the hood - it does cover the front burners. My husband and son are still bumping their heads. I'm more altitudinally challenged at 5'5". I think you are taller so the height of the hood above the burners will be more important to you.

I had a stainless steel face put on the cab next to the cooktop and it gets some spatter but not much..

I caught this sentence because I had the same thing done to the two cabinets on each side of my stove. The gas burners get very hot and I needed to protect the sides of the cabinets. I also had them roll the stainless steel under the edge of the cabinet. I loved, loved doing a custom kitchen. I felt like a queen when the guys would wander through my house looking for me. "Karen, we need you for a minute....stand here and lean in towards the stove so we can see how high to mount the range hood!" They had dozens of questions for me during this time and I loved every one of them. Our contractor was so great, he would get together with me everyday at 5 pm and go over what they did, (as if I did not know, I was like a ever present eye, watching every move) and we were able to pick up some minor mistakes and add some great ideas, like the pot filler faucet above my stove.

Mark, another question for you and everyone else looking on. In talking to my architect, he's surprised that I think I need a 54" hood for a 48" stove--he designed the latter, and thinks that 6 inches I'd lose will be important to my overhead cabs. He's right, but at the same time there's no point buying this kind of range and then under-serving it. Viking--I'm using their website because that's who made my range--is surprisingly silent on the subject. Their website doesn't, that I can find anyway, appear to make any reccomendations whatsoever. Yet most of the salesmen I've talked to recently, and it was true ten years ago when we did the Huntington Beach house, suggest some extra margin.

Any thoughts?

Jenise, do you think you could get hold of the engineers that designed your 48" stove and ask them the minimum size hood. I very simply do NOT trust the word of the salesperson.

[Jenise]

Mark, another question for you and everyone else looking on. In talking to my architect, he's surprised that I think I need a 54" hood for a 48" stove--he designed the latter, and thinks that 6 inches I'd lose will be important to my overhead cabs. He's right, but at the same time there's no point buying this kind of range and then under-serving it. Viking--I'm using their website because that's who made my range--is surprisingly silent on the subject. Their website doesn't, that I can find anyway, appear to make any reccomendations whatsoever. Yet most of the salesmen I've talked to recently, and it was true ten years ago when we did the Huntington Beach house, suggest some extra margin.

Any thoughts?

Jenise, do you think you could get hold of the engineers that designed your 48" stove and ask them the minimum size hood. I very simply do NOT trust the word of the salesperson.

Nope! Just had a conversation with a salesman about that. Said I hate that Viking doesn't offer direct consumer consultation--we're having to order from catalogs and websites in many cases things we've never seen or touched, which might actually spring forth questions we wouldn't think to ask just reading flat specs and sales literature. It leaves me in the position of having to take his word for a lot, and not that he's not good at what he does but he's no engineer. He actually polled his co-workers. Two said we absolutely must have the 27", or the 30" if we can figure out a way, where the third opined that we could get by with 24". Which is why you can't trust salesmen, but since you have to, then you have to talk to 6 or 8 and so you can hear the same opinion several times over to convince yourself, which is what I'm doing. It helps that my hubby's a Mech Engr, though, and he has HVAC guys working for him, so they're working up numbers all of which say yes, dammit, get that extra three inches!

[Jenise]

I did a Vent a Hood 48" for a 36" BlueStar 6 burner gas cooktop. When I use my high BTU burners - 22,000 - one is at an outside corner- the extra hood is a must. I had a stainless steel face put on the cab next to the cooktop and it gets some spatter but not much. I left the duct exposed to the ceiling - 10' - and gave up the cabs on one side using the top of the vent on that side as a display shelf for a large majolica pot. I did not want it to look all boxed in. Found out that I dont miss the cab at all.
I would try to keep the needed hood width if possible.
The only thing I had trouble with was getting used to the depth of the hood - it does cover the front burners. My husband and son are still bumping their heads. I'm more altitudinally challenged at 5'5". I think you are taller so the height of the hood above the burners will be more important to you.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. All the more so because I won't have a ceiling overhead to stop anything that gets loose. Looks like I'm going to have to buy the island hood to get the 30" even if it's going to be installed against a wall. We're going to go with the 1500 CFM remote (roof mount) blower. Now all we have to figure out is how to secure it. I'm 5'7" and Bob is 5'10", not an issue.

You left the ductwork exposed? Personally, I love that idea. In my house, which has an industrial edge to it anyway, that would be a plus.

Great tip about the stainless steel facings! It's going on my list.

I did not leave the aluminum duct itself exposed but I did not enclose the stainless steel duct cover and the tops of the hood serve as a display shelves . It is too high to be otherwise functional.
The other somewhat industrial thing that I insisted on was full extension stainless steel wire shelves under the cooktop. The very best feature of my kitchen. No more stepping aside to open a door. No more getting down on my knees to reach to the back of the shelf. All of my pots/pans fit and the wire slots hold all of the lids upright and easily reachable. I nudge the upper shelf closed with with my knee or lower shelf with my foot and still have 2 hands in use. I love the effeciency and neatness.

Do you understand the use of the different switch combinations on the Vent a Hood ? I never got any instructions and I'm still trying to figure it out. Can't seem to find it online either. Neither is it obvious from sound or steam traffic.

[Jenise]

I did not leave the aluminum duct itself exposed but I did not enclose the stainless steel duct cover and the tops of the hood serve as a display shelves . It is too high to be otherwise functional.

Oh darn. I was going to ask you to take a picture, but that's moot if you don't have a chimney model, which it sounds like you don't. I should take a picture of my space and post the diagram of my kitchen plan so y'all can see what I'm doing.

The other somewhat industrial thing that I insisted on was full extension stainless steel wire shelves under the cooktop. The very best feature of my kitchen....I love the effeciency and neatness.

Boy do we talk the same language. I have the full range but love the open storage concept, so what I've done is add a short peninsula to the right of the stove that's going to nominally separate the cooking and cleaning spaces, and which will be open shelving below and hanging pot rack above. In the laundry room, I also surprised my architect by eliminating half his cupboards for the laundry room in favor of keeping this rolling wire unit that has seven shelves vertically stacked on one side and a hanging rack with three canvas drawers below on the other. It cost me like $60 at Costco, and I love it. Why spend the money on custom cabinetry to replace exactly those functions when I love what this does for me? We can build the cabinetry around it. As I told him this morning, "there's absolutely no need for me to open a door to get to detergent." I also moved the sink from centered under the laundry room window to the far right. It's not like I need it every day the way I do a continuous length of counter for use as a folding table. We have a running conversation about things in which he says, "It would be nice if..." and I cut him off with "I don't want nice, I want useful."

Do you understand the use of the different switch combinations on the Vent a Hood ? I never got any instructions and I'm still trying to figure it out. Can't seem to find it online either. Neither is it obvious from sound or steam traffic.

Oh sorry, I do not. Don't remember a thing about what I knew except that mine wasn't apparently as complicated as yours. There was just on or off for the various blowers, as best I can recall.

Oh, too funny ! I had a knock down, drag out argument about the tall cabinet in my laundry room as well--the space where the vacuum, brooms and other long handled
cleaning stuff resides. I refused to have a door blocking access to this space. I won out after arduous reasoning. Everything except the large vacuum is off of the floor,
shelves above are open access as well. If/when I get tired of it a nice bamboo roll up will look terrific. I also insisted on long unbroken folding counters with a sink tucked in the corner. I enjoy any job when the tools are right, easy to get at and easy to put away. I hate repeated wasting time and energy for appearance alone.

In another life I could be a professional space organizer. On the other hand, everyone has their own logic for doing things and one person's effeciencies may not fit all.

I like the off-center-ness you describe. Sounds like a very nice flow- reaching to the right up and down. I don't quite understand how the the sink relates to the peninsula.