You might want to try contacting Modern Aire directly. They can customize anything and I believe will be less $ than Rangecraft. It never hurts to ask. Good luck!

Thanks Malhgold. I'm going to do that tomorrow. They make a very similar style it just doesn't taper as much as the Rangecraft one. Plus, I understand their customer service is excellent.

Anyone know anything about Handcrafted Metals?

"Can the switch be changed later, before installation?"

I'm sure you could change the switch, the downside would be that you nullified any warranty on the product :(

Modern-Aire can make any style of hood you want. Talk to Jeff Herman. Good luck!

You can only change the switch if the motor is compatible. 3speed motors are 3 speed and can not be make variable, if you connect a variable switch to a 3 speed motor you will only get 1 speed either high or low depending upon how you connect the wires

Ah, now I get it. I had no idea that it was the motor and not the switch that determined how many speeds it has. Thanks, Guadalupe.

I got a great quote from Modern Aire (less than half the price of Rangecraft). They said they can make the same hood, sort of; theirs isn't seamless welded. Still waiting the hear from Handcrafted Metal.

A motor can be wound with two separate windings, one low power, one high power. First gives low speed, second gives medium speed, both together give high speed. Clever, eh?
You could use a varistat, But hard-wire the hood with so both windings are always on together. It's the only way to preserve the highest speed. Then, make sure the speed control is a) rated for electric motors. b) rated for the current drawn by the motor, in amps.
In any case, the warranty will be voided. (unless the manuf. supplies the varistat)
Casey

SM - is a varistat the same thing as a Variable Frequency Drive? Used to control and operate 3 phase motors with single phase power?

I was using it as shorthand for "motor speed control". I am ignorant.
Casey

Yes, Casey, that's exactly what they do at Modern Aire. Just spoke to someone there today about whether to do 1000 cfm or 1200 cfm and he said that they were the same 4 speed motor but the *dimmer* switch was wired to the 3rd highest speed in the case of the 1000 cfm and to the highest speed in the case of the 1200 cfm. So, I wonder why Rangecraft doesn't do that.

Many of the larger roof-mounted blowers from Broan/Nutone and (and the Broan-manufactured 1500-cfm Wolf-supplied external blower I have) are single speed wound motors capable of being controlled by a motor control. While a Variac(R) and its analogues (variable autotransformers) would work nicely as a motor control, they are usually too large for easy integration into a residential wall or into a hood. SCR or triac* based motor controls, usually designed to be mounted in a standard wall receptacle box, should work nicely.

The schematic for the Wolf island hood that I have not yet installed shows a control with a shaft, electrically connected to a module with a triac symbol on it. I expect the control is continuously variable, but won't be fishing in the box for a while yet to find out. Wolf could have designed (specified) the control to have several sequential resistance settings instead of continuous variability, even though triacs are capable of continuous variability.

kas

*Triac is a General Electric originated name for a semiconductor device having the property of a bi-directional silicon controlled rectifier.

Cheril- I just had a Rangecraft hood installed with a variable-speed control and a Fantech inline blower. The builder installed the blower and Rangecraft provided the switch when they installed the hood. What size duct will you be using? You should be able to get a Fantech to suit your needs. Will also save money compared to the Rangecraft fan.

Thanks Drtom, but I can't use an inline blower and Fantech doesn't make an internal one. I'm venting straight out the back wall. I decided to go with Modern Aire. Although they don't do seamless construction, I can live with that since the hood is less than half the price of the Rangecraft and will come with a variable speed blower and dimmer on the lights.

I am thinking of installing a rangecraft hood with a fantech inline blower too. I know this is an old thread but can somebody throw some light on this. Drtom you said you did exactly this, did you have any problems. We wanted to go with a variable switch for the fan control and were not sure if we should go with the one that Rangecraft has or the one that Fantech does.

While a Fantech control will be certain to work with the Fantech blower that it is designed for, it is not certain that it can be repackaged within the Rangecraft hood unless someone has already determined that it fits, or Fantech happens to know that it fits.

kas