Internal vs external blower for Wolf pro hood
Terrace1919
9 years ago
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cookncarpenter
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Viking hood blower kits: In-line vs. External vs. Internal
Comments (9)heartsurgeon and cpovey, Thanks for the info. In March, after reading hours (days?) of hood information on GardenWeb, I had decided to get a VAH 42", 600 cfm (VAH doesn't make anything higher than 600 cfm for a 42" hood and 48" was too big). I had made a cardboard hood of that size and mounted above the cooktop (no cooking allowed!) to get an idea of sightlines. 32" was best for viewing across the greatroom for me, but the cook in the house was fine with 30". The VAH rep insisted to never go above 30", so we were set to go with VAH at 30". But, since there was a delay in the BlueStar cooktop we wanted, we waited. The housing market got worse and a large appliance place folded and liquidated their inventory, and I got a deal on a Viking that I couldn't pass up. The hood didn't come with a blower, so that's why I have been asking the blower questions. Since higher CFM blowers were available on the Viking, I thought I could push the hood up to 32" with higher CFM and be OK. I figured the internal motor probably has twice the noise...the air noise through the baffles and then the air noise through the squirrel cage blower. So heartsurgeon, it wouldn't surprise me that it's noisy when on high at 600 cfm. Do you even hear the motor...or is it all air? The external probably does look like the best option, as I agree with cpovey that an in-line motor would be a hassle to maintain. Looking at the specs, I think the external would fit on the roof. Cpovey, I don't know if I could install the external upside down either...is there a damper that would be upside down? I had been only considering venting out of the bottom if I used the in-line. If I use external, it would go on the roof. Now today when I picked up my hood, I scrounged around the warehouse and found that they had a 600 cfm internal blower left for that hood, which I able to pick up for a good deal as well...so I couldn't pass that up either. So I"ll start with a 600 cfm internal, mounting the hood at 30". If it end's up too noisy, it's not that much of a loss and it would allow us to find out if we need more than 600 cfm. If we don't, but want to use an external for noise reasons, we will still come out ahead cost-wise. I think I'll still use 10" duct work in case I do want to go up in CFM if we go to an external...it's not that long of a run, so it shouldn't cost that much more. Also, I would think that a 10" elbow above the hood would make less noise than a 7" elbow. I plugged the 600 cfm fan in (not inside the hood) to an outlet to see how noisy it was. It does make some noise, but it seemed less noisy when I added some wind resistance, so I won't be able to tell much until it's fully installed. It sure could blow some air when unrestricted though! This got me a little concerned that if the vent exits on the top of the roof...it will be only about 8 feet away from the deck table, pointing right at it. Will this cause an unappealing breeze to the outside dinner guests? Maybe the baffles cause enough resistance that it really doesn't blow out that fast in the real application? I am still interested to hear if someone has put an external fan this close to an outdoor sitting area and what the noise level is like. I'm guessing that it may just be a white noise-type situation outside?...See MoreWolf vs. Prestige Hood Liner w/ ext blower
Comments (4)I have had Wolf and have a Prestige now. In the Wolf, I had the 36 inch Pro Wall hood with heat lamps (not the liner) (matched with the Wolf 36/6 open burner AG) and would not hesitate to use that hood again under similar circumstances. It was extremely well made to the point of just being d@mned impressive to just look at. Down side was the internal blower which was a limitation of my installation application and limitations and not a Wolf issue...IMO all internal blowers are loud. It was 900 CFM and just barely enough, but again, I was limited to an internal blower application and that was the largest internal blower available. Anyway, the Wolf product is very good. If using it again for the same range, I would match it (or its liner cousin) with a 1200 cfm remote blower and would have over sized the hood/capture area by at least 6 inches (3 each side). I considered the Prestige high capacity hood for our current application at the recommendation of Trevor at Eurostoves so I compared the 2. The Prestige high capacity liner with its unique center vaulted baffle design was appealing due to the increased filter area. The baffles are about half the width of the Wolf so there are twice as many baffles to filter the exhaust. I find the Prestige baffles need cleaning much more often than the Wolf did which is a good thing b/c it means they are filtering better. Also, the high capacity liner offered a much higher CFM option than Wolf did. Prestige offered a 2500 CFM blower while Wolf's max was 1500. 2500 was more than I needed (my BTUs/set up was rated for 2,000) but I got the 2500 any way b/c it was only $200 more. It is mounted over a 60 inch Blue Star range w/ 8 burners and a grill. The 2500 CFM blower handles the highest of cooking smoke/output at less than full power. The CFM max capacity is not an issue for you. Whatever you do, if possible, over size the capture area and round up on CFMs and you will be happiest (IMO). I highly recommend the Prestige high capacity liner. The only other thing that comes to mind is that the Wolf had a plastic control panel and knobs. The heat took its toll on the knobs over time and had to be replaced. The Prestige is all metal everything. I looked at the Modern Aire referenced above. It also looks like a very good unit too but I would not dismiss Wolf just b/c they make your range. Actually, if you were not going with a liner, the Wolf hood matches up with the Wolf range best IMO. With the liner option, you will never really know whose it is once installed in the cabinet enclosure....See Morevent hood - converting internal to external blower
Comments (4)Thanks colin3. I was assuming that none of the fan controls on the hood would work, but hoping to get the light controls to work. For external fan, was looking at Fantech RE 10xlt - 1008 CFM for $548; and for the hood was considering several models from Signature Hardware, either the Casselle or the Treviso (both from the ProAire line). Wonder if anyone has experience with either of these, remembering that I am going to "gut" them WRT the internal fan - just take the fan out....See Morewolf hood - 1200CFM Internal blower- too loud?
Comments (4)Without going wider on the hood, as is desirable to capture rising and expanding plumes, your hood will have a bit less than six square feet of hood entry aperture. Actual flow for this should be about 90 ft/min or 90 CFM/sq.ft. 90 x 6 = 540 CFM actual. To get this, given reasonable ducting, Wolf baffles, and adequate make-up air supply, one might use a factor of 1.5 to specify a zero static pressure blower rating of 810 CFM. Wolf has both internal and external blowers that support this range. You may find them listed vs. the hood type in the back of the Wolf Design Guide, available somewhere on the SubZero/Wolf web site. From a fan curve point of view, the 900 CFM external blower based on the Broan-NuTone 801641 can yield 540 CFM at a pressure loss of 0.95 inches of water column. That is equivalent to a lot of ducting. The 900 CFM Internal blower (801645) can flow 540 CFM at about 0.65 inches. This is likely also adequate, but I would go with an external blower to be able to use a Fantech silencer in between for low noise. Your MUA needs to be sized for low differential pressure loss, but how low depends on the presence or not of combustion appliances that may draw their air from within the house, rather than from a duct to outside. Wolf external blowers electrically integrate trivially with their compatible hoods. I notice Wolf now includes in-line blowers in their listing, so one of those could also be used, with or without a silencer. You need to specify a lot about your architecture before suggestions can be refined. With six burners of flame potential, you might want your cabinet gap to be a more desirable 42 inches and widen your hood appropriately. Required and rated CFM rise proportionately....See Morekaseki
9 years agoTerrace1919
9 years agoVerna Norris
7 years agokaseki
7 years agobarryv_gw
7 years agokaseki
7 years agobarryv_gw
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