I have just picked out a Trade-Wind liner with in line blower to use in our Jan kitchen remodel. This is highly recommended by my sources & you may want to check it out. Vent-A-Hood has many compliants for noise on this forum. Good luck. Carol

For a grill you need 2 things : Capture area, pref. larger than your cooktop so for you 42-48" - and-

a powerful fan.

How powerful depends on your installation.

The VAH doesn't have a remote blower so one powerful enough will be much louder than types with remote or inline blowers. Their hoods work , but their marketing guys are real slick . If their system was better everyone would be using it.

FWIW, we have had the Wolf 48" rangetop with a griddle (no grill) and are very happy with the Wolf vent - remote blower is great. Outdoors we have a grill with another Wolf vent/remote blower and are also happy with the performance and noise of both vents over the past 2 years. Good luck with your choices.

we have an Abbaka over our 36" Wolf Cooktop and a 1200 cfm external blower in our vacation house - Very nice. We have a Vent-a-hood in our primary residence. It's loud.

I would recommend the Abbaka with no reservations. Here is a picture (We bought the blower on EBAY)

I'm looking at getting the 36" Wolf with 6 burners. My hubby and I both cook and often sear meat. The stove will be on an external wall with a direct duct outside.

The Wolf vents are too expensive. I hear good things about the Vent-a-hood and it is quiet but a salesman told me that it is a pain to clean since it doesn't have filters/baffles. That I'd have to get up into the canopy to clean the inside. Whereas I can just throw baffles in the dishwasher. I was also considering the Air King with 600cfm which is also quiet and has filters. However, I believe that if you go higher on the cfm's it will get very noisy.

Has anyone had experience with the Air King? Would 600 cfm's be enough on either the Vent-a-hood or the Air King? I would have to go up to 42" on the Vent-a-hood model if I wanted 900 cfm which might look odd above a 36" stove.

Can anyone clarify. Are there better options? Quiet is a priority.

thanks

With a 36" range with 6 burners, you probably should be looking at a 42" or wider hood, 24" or 27" deep, with a "real" 600 CFM or better. Unless sandwiched between cabinets (and even then), general residential recommendations are at least 3" wider on each side for the hood for wall-mount installs (islands are generally harder to ventilate reliably than wall-mount situations).

There are no "quiet" hoods that move significant amounts of air. The basic physics just can't be overcome. In my opinion, you can get "reasonably loud" or "way too loud" if you are expecting the hood to do its job. A remote blower can help some, but you can't get over the fact that you are moving a lot of air.

Personally, I wouldn't put the AirKing products into the running with the likes of Modern-Aire, Independent, and Prestige (or the ones made by this level of manufacturer for Wolf, BlueStar,...). In my opinion, your concerns about Vent-A-Hood are good ones, that, along with noise levels that some consider excessive and flow rates that some consider more marketing hype that reality, pull them out of consideration with their price peers.

If you decide that you really can't afford the better-quality hoods, something like a Kobe or Zephyr with baffle filters might be a good fall-back choice. Hoods in this class will typically only be 20" to the front, and even less for effective capture area.

I a previous remodel I had a Wolf 36" 6 burner range with a VAH 36" PRH18-236 27" deep, rated 600 CFM, equivalent CFM 900.

Cooking on a wok or cast iron griddle the unit would not draw enough of the smoke/steam/fumes etc. Cleaning is a pain as I needed to stand on a step ladder (I'm 6' tall) to reach in the unit (make sure the burners are cool) to clean the grease out and remove the blower cover.

The next kitchen remodel (different house, different city now) the hood will be 6"-12" wider than the range, have filters that can be cleaned in a dishwasher, and have as much CFM as I can get.

Thank you both very much for your input. It looks like I need to find a 42" with baffles, at least 24" wide.

Under cabinet 18" is the model type we need. I don't want or need the heating lamps. Looking at the Kobe website, they fit the bill but appear to have a heating lamp sockets standard. Looking at the Zephyr website, they look better but don't have a 42" model. Also I can't tell what the price point is on these and I haven't seen them in stores. I'm willing to consider up to $2500 CDN max for a fan. I do have to possibility of using an external blower but I assumed this would be more expensive.

Any more advise?

Do you mean that the hood is 18" tall, or 18" from the wall to the front?

When you say "undercabinet" do you mean one that the ducting above is hidden by cabinetry? Some use that term to mean the kind that tends to only be a few inches tall.

Hoods sometimes add heat lamps, increasing the overall depth of the hood, without increasing the capture area.

I'd look at Modern-Aire and give them a call if what they have sounds good to you and is in your budget. I believe they have Canadian distribution. Depending on access to your market, Independent and Prestige may have a hood that would work for you. Without having a better mental picture of what you are looking for, it is hard to suggest models.

Want the 18" high hood (will be 24" from the wall).

Ducting above will be covered by cabinets.

I don't want the heating lamps or the sockets.

I'll look into Modern-Air. I've seen the Independent and Prestige but since they only have 1 large blower system I think that makes them very loud. But I'll do more research.

Thank you

genie,
What did you decide? I am contemplating the same thing now with the same needs and concerns. I am in the Seattle area and cannot find a showroom to see the Modern Aire, Prestige or Independent in person. I am not big on ordering large purchases on the internet sight unseen.

With a char-grill, the most important thing you can do is enlarge the capture area above the cooktop. With a large capture area, you won't need a tornado of CFM's roaring to capture cooking fumes.

If you have attic space above your kitchen, you might want to consider an in-line remote blower up in the attic. it will be quieter, but it has the added advantage of allowing a side branch on your exhaust system. The main exhaust vent, of course, would be connected to the range hood, but a smaller side branch can be connected to a small exhaust vent in the kitchen ceiling or on the wall up at ceiling level (near the range). These are usually covered with a small grill painted to match the ceiling or surrounding wall. With this extra small vent, any fumes that escape the range hood, are extracted at ceiling level.

I happen to like the Fantech ventilation systems, but there are other manufacturers of similar systems.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fantech Kitchen Ventilation

I have a 36 inch GE MONOGRAM range with a grill. As far as ventilation goes, I have the 600 cfm 42 inch x 22.5 deep VAH (which they say is equivalent to 900 cfm).

The cfms are more than adequate for the grill and a few burners, but I definitely recommend a 24 inch deep capture area like wa8b said. I do have smoke escape occasionally if I have food too close to the front of the grill with the 22.5 inch deep one.

A Vent-a-Hood will be much affordable with this one. Vent-a-Hood is also useful and it was tested and on the survey, majority of the household kitchen, Vent-a-hood is always their kitchen top. So, you better make your decisions about this.

Here is a link that might be useful: vent-a-hood

I am buying a 48" Wolf range top with grill, and thought Vent a Hood would be the best ventilation, but now I have to consider more options if not buying the Wolf one...Any recent comments?

We here on this forum are knee deep (maybe hip deep) in comments, many of which are recent or still valid, ventilation engineering wise. Please search in this forum. I would summarize, but don't have time this morning.

kas

Tim Sutherland wrote:

"I[n] a previous remodel I had a Wolf 36" 6 burner range with a VAH 36" PRH18-236 27" deep, rated 600 CFM, equivalent CFM 900."

Because resurrecting this thread has resurrected this factoid, which wasn't addressed in this particular thread back in 2009, it is important to understand its meaning lest people assume too much.

Fans/blowers are rated for flow rate at zero static pressure; that is, hanging free in the air. We might give benefit of the doubt to VaH and assume that 900 CFM is the free air performance of their magic blower, and that 600 CFM is the performance of their blower and hood together (hanging in free air). Unfortunately, the performance that matters is with an exhaust duct and roof or wall cap included, and with whatever restriction exists in the make-up air (MUA) path, whether the path is deliberate or just house leakage.

The plot of the performance of blowers as the pressure loss (as it is called) rises is called the fan curve. Due to the squirrel cage design of the VaH "magic lung" blower, the fan curve has a fairly rapid decline in performance with restriction relative to, say, a Broan (Wolf) or Abbaka centrifugal roof blower, or a Fantech axial in-line blower. So this particular VaH hood rated at 600 CFM might well only move 400 CFM with nominal ducting and some MUA restriction.

But how much performance does one need? I suggest an actual flow rate of 90 CFM per square foot of hood aperture to assure capture and containment. Even then, if the aperture is not large enough to overhang the rising and expanding cooking plume, then some smoke and grease will miss the hood and it will "not draw enough of the smoke/steam/fumes etc." Preferably, the hood needs to overhang the locus of all likely pan bases by an angle of around ten degrees.

As an example, one may conclude (given some restriction assumptions and typical fan curves) that with nominal levels of restriction, a hood with a six square foot entrance aperture needs 540 actual CFM, which likely requires a centrifugal blower rated for around 800 CFM if MUA is not too restricted. For a VaH, I would suggest more than a "900 CFM equivalent" is needed.

I can, of course, only guess what MUA restriction was present in Tim Sutherland's ventilation configuration when he observed poor capture and containment. The one thing we can be certain of is that no air is removed to the outside via the hood that hasn't been replaced by whatever MUA path there is. Even a screened open window presents some pressure loss.

Usually, these upper-hundred CFM levels of flow rate cannot depend on house leakage because the house pressure would be lowered too much. When combustion appliances are present, the pressure drop in the house due to lack of MUA will certainly back-draft their exhausts. Back-drafting risks pulling carbon monoxide into the house. This is why many governmental areas have included MUA requirements into their enforcement process.

For norma castelo: These comments scale with hood size, so if a 48-inch range is in play, with (preferably) a 54-inch hood at least 24 inches deep, then the 9 square feet of hood needs 810 actual CFM and, depending on other factors, a conventional blower rated around 1200 CFM. If using VaH, I would want two of those 600 rated CFM blowers.

Cook like a pro, ventilate like a pro.

kas

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP KASEKI!!

Hi everyone, I've learned so much from reading these discussions, and now it's time for us to pull the trigger on a range hood selection. We have planned a 36" AG Wolf with a griddle in the middle, for a total of about 69K BTU (but who could cook on maximum for all five zones at once???!). We are planning a liner.

As everyone seems to want, we desire best performance with minimal sound. We have the option to vent out (using in-line blower), or straight up and out through the roof (external mounted blower). Not sure if a duct silencer is needed on top of that. We're splurging so price is not a factor. We just want to get this right.

The Wolf showroom suggested their 34" baffle liner and their 900 CFM remote blower. This is based somewhat on my preferences, which I stated at the time.

Our multi-product showroom dealer wants us to get VAH 34" 600 CFM liner, even though he says he would make more money selling us the Wolf components.

Talking with Abbaka, they recommend their external HyEx 1.0 blower and their 34" pro liner.

Research online, esp. in these discussions, strongly suggests a wider liner, e.g. a 40" liner from Wolf, to hang over the sides of the range.

Here's an image of the kitchen - it's basically all new construction with some aesthetic constraints - feedback is really appreciated - thank you!

Wow! Thanks, kas, I'm really pleased to have heard from you on this. I will take a little time to digest this relative to our situation, search a few other threads, and get back in touch with further questions or news.

what did you finally buy ?

Don’t buy a wolf hood the quality is poor. The lights in ours keep failing. They first time it was replaced under warranty and now they was 380 to replace a broken light. Don’t buy wolf - find a reliable quality product.

Please clarify. Is the hood quality poor because lights keep failing? Is this your only objection or are there other quantifiable defects? Are you asserting 380 US dollars is the cost of replacement, or some other denomination of currency? Does that price include installation by a service tech? Are these lights so embedded in the unit that a service tech is needed?

Are these halogen lights or some other type? If halogen, do you normally run them with the light switch on the dim setting, or fully bright setting?

The light assembly failed shortly after we got the hood the first time. It was replaced. It failed again in October (we had the hood a little over 3 years total). The tech asked if we cooked more on that side - he thought more heat there And why we weren’t having the issue on the other side. he also asked if we run the fan when we cook, which we do - since that would minimize grease getting into the assembly. it seems to me that a hood should be designed to deal with heat - it is over the cooktop. The fact that the light assembly doesn’t seal out grease if that impacts the functioning of the light or any other internal mechanism in the vent hood is a design problem. I fully expect the light assembly to continue to fail from normal use based on this experience and what the tech told me - since there is no way to clean the grease out of the light assembly and heat from using the cooktop is expected Changing light bulbs is not the issue. I am now concerned about what other mechanisms have been affected or will continue to be affected by the inability to withstand heat and grease that gets into places that you can’t clean The $380 to replace the light assembly includes $145 for the service tech to visit, $64 for the light assembly part and $149 for the installation which is removing 2 screws and reinstalling the electrical connectors and the taxes. I did contact wolf and they agreed to cover $164 of this cost and recommended that I stick with their authorized service provider. When Clarke came to my house the first time, they fixed it quickly for no charge. When they came this time it took over a month to get an appointment- they told me that it might get covered by wolf or I might have to pay for it. Despite having told clarke what the issue was when I called they did not have the part when they came to my house. I had to pay the service fee before he left (he was at my house less than 5 minutes which included going to the truck to look for the part) and they called back later to say the soonest they could come back with the part was another 5 weeks. I wish I had done better research before I selected the unit. I am very concerned about how long it will last Given how much it cost originally- I never expected to have these kind of issues and that the cost to fix them would be so exorbitant I now will do better research on what the best long term solution is I will say that the dual fuel range and the wall oven from wolf have had no issues and they work well - I had a wolf cook top and double oven in my previous home and loved them as well which is why we thought going with a wolf vent hood was a good idea

I'm not sure that better research would have led you to a different decision. In the consumer space Wolf hoods have a generally good reputation.

The photo is of a GU-10 lamp socket. Is it ceramic or phenolic resin (it looks ceramic but I can't tell)? What is all of the black stuff on there?

Thank you for your extended description, and partial answers to my question.

Note: the reason for questioning dim vs. bright is that on my Wolf hood, built by Independent, the light circuit is very simple: Direct connection to the line voltage for full brightness, and via a diode for dim brightness. The latter means the bulbs are receiving essentially direct current and this can shorten tungsten lamp filament lifetime. Also, the halogen cycle works under tailored conditions, and lower power may also keep the cycle from refurbishing the filament.

Anyway, your socket looks burnt. The air temperature into a hood at normal height is normally significantly cooler than a halogen bulb socket if the blower is running at an adequate speed and there is adequate MUA. This looks like flambé cooking to the extreme. Do you have a char grill in your cooktop?

Would you mind providing a photo looking up into the unit so I can see how Wolf laid out your hood? I wonder if it is the hot bulbs themselves causing this effect, in which case LED equivalents might be a better choice.

My Wolf hood, for example, protects the lights well away from the heat flow. (See image.) Please note that the bulbs in this image are replacement LED bulbs, and that they protrude slightly compared to the OEM halogens. [click to enlarge]