Wolf Pro Wall Chimney Hood -- how do they perform?

11 years ago

I am considering the 42" Wolf Pro Wall Chimney Hood (PWC422418) with a 900 cfm internal blower to go over a 36" Wolf AG range with charbroiler. I would love to go with something like Modernaire, but $4K for a hood is out of the question. I found a good deal on an open-box Wolf hood, but want to make sure it is a good hood.

Is the Wolf good at removing HOGS? Is the blower noisy?

I considered using a 1400 cfm Abbaka Hy-Ex external blower with the Wolf hood, but the dealer says they can't be used together.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wolf hood

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Comments (5)

PRO
Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc)
11 years ago
I am pretty sure the wolf hood can be used with the Abbaka blower, your salesman might be feeding you a line on that one, you could call Abbaka and ask them if the blower will work with a Wolf Hood.

Does the open-box hood you found have a duct cover which is normally extra with Wolf Hoods?

You Modenraire pricing seems a little off...

Modernaire PS2030-342 cost is $3626 (inc 1200 cfm blower)
Modernaire PS2030-042 cost is $2644 (no blower)
Abbaka Blower $950.00

Open-box appliances can be very good buys ..... Good luck.
kaysd
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, Trevor -- I will check with Abbaka re compatability. The salesman has an Abbaka blower he could sell me instead for a just a little more than the Wolf internal blower, he just wasn't sure when I asked if it was compatible. He called me back later and said no, but I am guessing he may have called Wolf to ask and of course they would say no. Of course, my GC will charge more for installing a roof blower.

My quote for the Modernaire PS2030-342 with 1200 cfm blower and chimney extension was over $4300. I can get the Wolf with blower for around $2K (w/o duct cover) and have a duct cover fabricated locally for $400-500 (I want a seamless duct cover for a vaulted ceiling). It seems like a good deal as long as Wolf hoods work well.
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I think the sizes you reference are height, mine was when I ordered the pro wall hood (not chimney style). Anyway, the height I needed was odd sized and the tallest extension they offered at the time was maybe 12 inches. What ever the limitations were, I remember I was going to need 2 pieces which meant a seam, then I was going to have to have a sheet metal shop cut one to size (one not enough, 2 too many...) and the pieces were expensive as sin. My Wolf distributor said they rarely used Wolf's rectangular SS chase's but rather had them custom made locally by a sheet metal shop for a fraction of the price. Interestingly enough, I checked into it and he was right. I had a local specialty sheet metal shop make one out of 18 gauge brushed SS and it matched perfectly! Actually, the protective film on the SS unit made locally was the same as on the hood that came from Wolf and ou could not tell it was not part of the Wolf package. I measured the width and depth needed and subtracted 1/8 inch to give a 1/16 inch (not noticeable) inset. You will never notice if the chase sits just inside the perimeter of the hood deminsions but will more likely notice it if hangs out even ever so slightly past or outside the finished hood perimeter. Then I had the height made to fit the exact height from the mounted hood to the ceiling. I also had (and this is VERY important) a 1/2 inch lip put on all of the "free" edges of the sheet metal enclosure to stiffen up the unit walls all of the way around. I spent less than half what Wolf's would have cost.
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While we wait for Terrace1919 to respond, I can relate that I have a Wolf Pro Island Hood with their (Broan/Nutone) 1500 CFM (rated) blower on the roof. Duct length from hood to blower is in the 15 - 20 foot range (never measured it). A section of the 10-inch duct incorporates a Fantech silencer. At full power (with MUA path, baffle and other parts pressure losses) flow rate is likely to be around 900 CFM actual through the 10 sq. ft. of hood aperture. One can talk normally around and across the space under the hood. There is noise, mostly baffle hiss due to turbulence, but it is not annoyingly loud for cooking. My blower has some rumble that a re-balancing could help, I suspect. Some of my ducting wears automotive damping material to suppress any conduction of blower noise along the steel duct. This hood fully captures the cooking plume from my 3500W induction wok located under the far end of the hood. Hood height above the counter is about 35 inches. Blower control is via a conventional (at the time) triac/diac circuit above the middle baffle area on the controls side. If you replace the internal blower with an external blower, it would be safest, without evaluating the potential power capability of the existing motor control circuit, to use the same power rating external blower. Otherwise, uprating the embedded blower controller is another possibility, if Wolf is willing or you are an electronics experimentalist. kas
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Most ways of generating smoke are not "good" in the overall sense. For example, hot enough peanut oil makes nice smoke, but you won't want it on everything. Titanium tetra-chloride open to the air makes smoke, but it is pretty acrid and not recommended for breathing. Sulfur bombs for woodchuck harassment are another unpleasant option. The professional approach is to use schlieren photography of the rising heated air turbulence cells, but I would have to investigate the standard techniques used before I would suggest anyone try to set up a home recording scheme. Dry ice may be an option for observing air flow some purposes, particularly if the air is humid at the time of the experiment. The ice may need to be broken up to generate enough cold CO2 to cloud the air at the flow rate the hood should be able to achieve. Maybe just boiling water in a cool room will be sufficient to see the directions of flow. This technique, however, fails to measure the conditions that are relevant to cooking. To get a true measure of what happens with a hot pan generating a cooking plume with a meter/second upward and outward velocity distribution, schlieren photography is likely the only valid method of visualization, short of modeling it with computational fluid dynamics and presenting the results with time series imagery. ********** Schlieren photo of spillage due to insufficient air flow. (This is a commercial hood over a commercial griddle.) What is seen here are variations in the index of refraction of air due to the temperature variations from the heat input -- the same effect that causes atmospheric scintillation (star twinkle). Note that the inward air flow due to the ventilation blower cancels the normal outward expansion that would be to the right, but yet the momentum of the rising hot plume is too high to be completely contained and some of it reflects off of the baffles and other hood structures and leaks out of the hood. A companion photo (not shown here) shows that with significantly more blower air flow rate, all is captured and contained. ********* One might imagine from this example that with enough air flow, one can compensate for lack of sufficient hood overhang. This is true, but the cost in capital and electricity for the more powerful hood blower, along with comparable cost for the MUA blower, plus cost of MUA air heating or cooling as required (not to mention noise) makes this a non-optimal solution. kas
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PRO
Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc)
11 years ago
I agree the Wolf hood is a good price at $2k but if you add on the $400 - $500 with no blower I would suggest the Modernaire would be the better buy overall, I think the $4300 you were quoted was either over priced or a mistake.

Three problems I see with the Wolf from a function and design perspective in comparison to the Modenraire are.

1) It requires a transition from rectangle to round, this creates drag and extra noise.

2) The lip seems recessed which means the coverage is not 24" but closer to 23".

3) The light bar is not recessed up into the hood so the true capture are area may well be 20" or less, which is 5" less than the front burners on the AG Wolf which extend 25" from the back wall.

Hopefully someone with a Wolf hood will comment to help you out with my concerns, which may well be groundless.
kaysd
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the notes on the capture area. I am not sure what you mean about the transition from rectangle to round.

I would certainly be happy to re-consider the Modernaire hood if the $4300 price quote was a mistake -- my designer got the quote from you. The $2k price for the Wolf includes the blower ($1500 for hood and $500 for blower).
PRO
Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc)
11 years ago
I would say we have a mistake because the correct price is noted above, provided no changes were to be made ie Height, depth or width, and of course blower.

Wolf Pro Wall Chimney Hood -- how do they perform?

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Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc)

kaysd
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Wolf Pro Wall Chimney Hood -- how do they perform?

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Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc)

kaysdOriginal Author

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Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc)

kaysdOriginal Author

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kaysd
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