I was in your shoes just a few weeks ago. I searched high and low and couldn't find any reviews on Elica or Faber.

As far as I know, Elica is a "darling" of KDs specializing in Italian kitchens. I loved the looks but most (or all?) of their hoods had mesh filters and I wanted baffle, so I went with Faber. FWIW, two AJM sales reps thought that Faber hoods were better made than Zephyr (another brand I was eying) and it sealed the deal for me.

Are you in Canada? I couldn't find Spagna Vetro on their US site. Are you sure it has baffle filters? According to this website (see link below), it is mesh.

BTW, Faber has a similar hood and so does ModernAire, both with baffle filters.

I used my Faber only once because it had a defective part. They are replacing it. I can report back in a couple of weeks if you can wait.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spagna Vetro

Yes I'm in Canada. The SV198F1 has baffles but not the SV198F. But then yesterday someone told me that the kitchen hoods that are angled out from the wall doesn't perform very well, in fact they sad they hardly work. Is that true?

I do understand they wouldn't perform as well as a deep canopy, but not at all?

Our kitchen is very modern and minimalistic and I would like the hood to suit the kitchen's overall style. Obviously. :)

Which Faber did you go with? Yes, please tell me how you like it after you've had a chance to use it! Thanks!

My KD said the same thing about Futuro angled hoods, so I didn't want to take my chances. If you are spending $$$$, wouldn't you want it to "work-work", not "kind of work"? ðÂÂÂ

Faber STILO is very contemporary and looks similar to SV, but IDK about the price difference. I got Diamante b/c my cabinets were very contemporary but the house was not, so I needed to 'traditionalize' the kitchen a bit. I like how it looks and it worked just fine that one time I used it.

BTW, plenty of people are still putting hoods with mesh filters in their new houses. The filters work, just need to be cleaned more often. I wouldn't let that be a limiting factor.

The Faber Stilo looks nice and seems like a good deal. That's the thing, I want it to both work AND look good/modern/minimalistic. :) No point in having a hood that doesn't do the job. And I absolutely don't want a hood that is very loud, I've got 5 kids and they're loud enough. I want to be able to chat with them while I cook without having to raise my voice too much. I'm not very interested in big portions of glass either, the dirt and dust is too visible.

It is not easy finding and picking out a hood.

No, it is not easy! In fact, I had looked for months, not kidding, but partly because I was trying to keep the previous setting with lots of limitations.

I have been told time and again to get a hood with a remote blower if I wanted it to be REALLY quiet. Futuro has several that look great and allow for a remote blower (but you have to pay for the internal blower anyway, they don't give a discount for omitting one).

On the two lower settings, my Diamante is quiet enough to have a conversation but not on the third (highest) one. I think I'll only use the latter when cooking something smelly or smokey and I normally do not engage in conversations in those cases, so it does not matter to me. I just did not want to pay extra $2.5K to have an external blower as I don't cook anything greasy.

No I agree that the relatively short time you would use the hood on the highest level is fairly short and that noise level is therefore not very interesting. I'm more concerned about level 1-2, some brands have already then 5 sones (Braun is loud for some reason).

The Faber STILO is now a great contestant for my purchase. But Spagna Vetro has a few in the same style that still are about half the price of the Faber. Just curious as to how the quality is. Can't be too bad, but maybe that's wishful thinking. :)

Anyone about Spagna Vetro?? Even if you don't have the exact style. The reviews on their site are all pretty good, but that's on their site so I don't know how reliable that is. :)

I'm in the same boat! I'm looking at the SPAGNA VETRO -SV200Z. I really want baffles for the noise reduction and better grease trapping. The flat shape is necessary for me as I will have open shelving all the way across. I would love to hear from anyone that has experience with these fans! Thanks!

IDK but I have a feeling that people who get such hoods may belong to the type who hires a full-service KD firm and don't hang around kitchen forums doing insane research and posting reviews, LOL.

Normally, you get what you paid for, but with hoods, the extra $$$ are often for the looks, not the function. I really like ModernAire hoods and they have a great reputation. But they were more $ than my Faber hood, so the latter felt like a "steal" to me compared to MA hood I originally intended to get.

I would ask a few KDs and showroom appliance managers in your area. If that does not work, the SV hood is inexpensive enough to be replaced without much regret down the road if you decide you don't like it.

i am in the same boat swecan. am thinking of a 36" wolf propane range. this hood thing is quite confusing. anyone out there, please help.

i am in the same boat swecan. am thinking of a 36" wolf propane range. this hood thing is quite confusing. anyone out there, please help.

How extra $$$ are distributed will be dependent on the manufacturer and the number of hands between the manufacturer and you. Design aspects that actually cost more money ($$$ that aren't extra) before any hands intrude include:

Baffles that function correctly aerodynamically while still affordable to manufacture
Quality stainless steel
Sufficiently stiff (low gauge number) stainless steel
Perfect welding where it can be seen
Forming more complex curves
Some attempt to measure performance and adjust the design until it is optimal*
Best performance for a given aperture requires enough height and hence more metal
Technical data
Serious follow-up support, if required

From a non-recurring cost standpoint, it takes a lot less $$$ to design just for aesthetics and manufacturability and ignore the real reason for the hood.

kas

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*By this I don't mean going so far as performing end-to-end computational fluid dynamics studies on candidate designs. The cost divided by the number of sales of one model would likely be prohibitive, unless done for free by grad students.

anyone know if the lights on Faber hood have different settings ? or are they just on/off ?