Problem with My Zephyr Venezia Hood

12 years ago

I had purchased a Zephyr Venezia hood this past year to go with my 30" Viking gas range. I purchased this brand because I liked the look and, due to cost and recommendations.

It was installed around September of 2010. Was working rather well; good intake (600 cfm) - never had a problem with smoke, odors or anything in the kitchen or house at all.

I admit that I've been careless about keeping the filters clean. I've only cleaned them twice since they it was installed. My fault; I didn't read the manual to see that they should be washed monthly.

However, I'm rather sure this isn't the cause of my problem. Suddenly last week, the unit began having electrical issues. The buttons seemed to be sticking and if it wasn't that they are sticking then it's shorting out for sure. The unit turns itself on by itself in fact. A couple of times we were in the living room and heard a whooshing noise from the kitchen only to find it running. We have to really hit the buttons too hard to turn on the lights or fan, and then can not shut them off.

It also seems to be way too hot to me - but this could also be normal. I've never owned this type of hood before.

The one thing which occurred to me is this. When the hood was installed the installation people didn't removed the plastic wrap on the unit at all. It took me a good month before I realized it was encased in plastic - it was that hard to see. Obviously I ripped as much off as I could, but I never was able to get off the parts which are still on the sides touching my kitchen cabinets (very minimal, maybe 1" worth, it's rather slim there). But part of me does wonder if this may have damaged the circuit board - making the unit run too hot for that one month and it finally has caught up with it? Or maybe there is more plastic somewhere that I have not found?

Interestingly I found one reference to this online, but no useful detailed information.

Anyway - I called for service. Thankfully, there is a 1 year warranty on the unit. They are coming out Wednesday to see what is going on (that and to look at my Kitchenaid French door fridge which has been having some annoying ice maker issues since I got it *shakes fist*).

So, I'm wondering if anyone else has ever dealt with this type of issue with a hood before, or has had any problems with a Zephyr.

Thanks!

Featured Answer

kangnyank

3 years ago

We solved the issue by ordering a new control panel from the company for under $100 and replacing it ourselves. Good luck!

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Comments (14)

djg1
12 years ago
No problem with my Zephyr Tempest II in the fist month here, and the entire front of the hood is still covered with the stupid white plastic. Because -- and this will no doubt shock people -- the contractor hasn't actually gotten around to the patching and painting in the kitchen (including constructing the duct cover). So I have a different model entirely -- baffles, etc. -- but I'm not sure why a bit of plastic on the side would impede function at all. The side is a sheet, isn't it? And the motor isn't cooling itself through the surrounding cabinets. Maybe a different installation error entirely, or maybe just bad luck with a part?

I hope the repair person clears this up for you.
Laurie
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for responding.

Turns out, it's the touch panel. Apparently, I got a faulty one, my dumb luck with everything else that has gone wrong in this house lol.

They ordered a new one, and disconnected my hood for the time being so that it wouldn't keep going on and off on it's own.

It arrives in a couple of weeks; and they come back to install (1 year warranty from Zephyr).

One down, fridge to go! They are replacing the freezer maker too :D
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In this response, I am interpreting your term efficiency to mean plume capture and containment efficiency by the hood. Initially we shall assume that the flow rate at the hood in the presence of all pressure losses is adequate, and then revisit that issue. Establish a perimeter at the cooktop level that roughly represents the locus of all pan bases that might be used. For computational convenience, attempt to eyeball smooth this contour into an equivalent rectangular contour. (If you have access to a planimeter, or have a suitable drawing program, the area calculations can be performed more exactly without smoothing.) Draw this on a piece of paper to scale Multiply the height of the range hood by the tangent of 10 degrees. Extend the step 2 shape by this value on the sides and front. (Extend the back also if an island hood is being analyzed.) Draw this extended contour onto the paper over the initial contour. Now draw the hood aperture to scale over this expanded contour, with hood back fitted to contour back. Note that the aperture may be smaller than the external size of the hood, however, at the wall the hood aperture may be assumed to extend to the back of the hood exterior. Also, if cabinets are in use at the sides, the hood aperture (at the cabinets) may be effectively extended, but this depends on the cabinet base height vs. the expanding plume size at that height -- for part of the side capture. Calculate the fraction of the expanded contour that the hood aperture contour overlaps. This is a measure of the capture efficiency of the hood aperture being analyzed. Redo for the other aperture. The loss or gain in efficiency is the difference between these two measurements. For the listed hoods, the efficiency of the 20-inch unit should be less than that of the 24-inch unit, noting that it is the internal dimensions of the apertures that have to be used for analysis. Assumed above is that the effluent entering the hood aperture is contained by successfully moving past the baffles or mesh filter. For this to occur for the hottest plumes, the air velocity averaged over the hood aperture (ideally uniformly) should be about 90 ft/min. (A bit less can be tolerated for induction cooktops due to lack of a hot gas combustion plume mixing with the hot greasy pan plume and raising its temperature and velocity.) 90 ft/min is equivalent to 90 CFM per square foot of aperture. For a six square foot aperture, for example, the requirement for actual flow at full cooking heat is 90 x 6 = 540 CFM. Blowers only achieve their touted flow rate at zero static pressure; i.e., hanging in the air. With baffle or mesh pressure losses, duct losses, hood interior transition losses, losses in the MUA system, the pressure across the blower will not be zero. It may be a few tenths of an inch of water column. Without a careful analysis using a lot of guesswork, along with the fan curve of the blower, or otherwise performing a house experiment with each hood, it is not possible to know the achieved flow rate. Instead, it is probably safe to assume that a rated zero static pressure flow rate of 1.5X the required actual flow rate will achieve the required actual flow rate. In the case of the six square foot aperture example above, this takes us from 540 CFM required to around 810 CFM rated. Calculating the requirements for your two candidate hoods based on their interior apertures is left as an exercise for the student. kas
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Laurie
Original Author
12 years ago
Oops I meant ice maker!
drwalt
4 years ago
I also have that problem. My Zephyr hood was installed in December of 2016 and it immediately began turning itself on. Not only that, it comes on when I use something else, like the disposal or the mixer (even across the room). I called them and they said it was because it was looking for the remote (which we don't even need and hadn't even put batteries in). She said to put batteries in the remote and that would solve it. Not so much. We've gone away on trips and had the fan turn itself on and run the whole time we're gone! When I run my hand mixer on high speed at the island, the fan comes on! It's got to be something with the frequency range of the remote or something but we now have to cut the electric to it when we leave town. What a pain!
kaseki
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
What scheme does this remote use, optical, RF, acoustic? I would disable the remote, disable* the sensor that receives its signal, and see what happens.

But my guess from this sparse information is that the unit is not well shielded from noise on the electrical lines. Some filtering of the feed power would be called for in that case. (Not something you would design yourself unless your doctorate is in electrical engineering.) However, suitable and economical devices are probably out there.

Also, if electrical noise is the culprit, one has to wonder at your wiring, and whether the house-wide grounding/bonding approach is functional.

* block or disconnect if you can get to it
kangnyank
4 years ago
Same exact issue with this hood
Philip Dayal
3 years ago
We have had the same issue with the fan and light turning on by itself specially during summer months. It’s been about two years since we installed it. Any way to fix it?
scshyu
3 years ago
Same issue with my just out of 1 year warranty Zephyr DUO range hood. It turned on by itself in a quiet night or when other appliances start/stop. It seems the problem is not limited to only one model. Sad.
Andy Garcia
3 years ago
We had this same problem and the customer support told us to synchronize the remote. I hadn't realized that we even have a remote. Either way, I located it and followed the synch directions (this is key!).

It DID turn on one more time but that was when we took a power hit to the home.

It's been a week now with no issue so I'll call that a success.
Rolanda Desrosiers-Lewis
2 years ago
The first hood never linked to the remote and it would go on at all hours. 3 remotes later a new hood was installed. Again the hood turns on and off by itself. Ugh!
ksd4423
2 years ago
I ordered a Savona Zephyr hood. It says on their website FAQ that there is a Clean Air feature that automatically turns on every 4 hours for 10 minutes to circulate the air in your home. It can be turned off if you want.
Geoff Ping
2 years ago
Same issue here. Sometimes the fan turns on for 1 second and back off. Other times I’ll come home and it’s running on high for who knows how long. Today I woke up to find the light on high.
ksd4423
2 years ago
Update to my previous post: I've had my Zephyr hood since October and I'm not experiencing this problem. I wonder if it is on the older models this is occurring? I also no longer see a command to turn off the fan to keep it from turning itself on but I know I did see it on their website. I really love it though! I can see when cooking the hood sucks the smoke and vapers right up

Problem with My Zephyr Venezia Hood

kangnyank

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djg1

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Problem with My Zephyr Venezia Hood

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