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Range insert/liner decision - Zephyr Monsoon or Modern-Aire?

11 years ago

I'm down to the final decisions on my kitchen and I am trying to select a hood insert/liner. I will have a 36" Thermador induction cooktop, so I don't think I'll need the really high CFMs that the gas rangetops require. I generally don't cook on high, or on more than a couple of hobs at a time.

My main selection criterion at this point is the noise level. Zephyr advertises their DCBL system, which is supposed to be very quiet on the lower settings (.8 Sones), where I will normally be using it. Modern-Aire is probably not as quiet in that range.

Here is my dilemma. The center of my hood is right against a steel beam, so in order to duct to the outside, I would need to have two turns in the duct - one to the left to get around the beam, then another toward the outside wall. My understanding is that these turns will add noise. With the Modern-Aire, I could custom order a hood with the duct build on the left side, so I would be able to avoid one of the turns in the duct. I'm trying to figure out which one would be quieter. Any thoughts?

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Comments (4)

deeageaux
11 years ago
If you get an external blower and a cheap Fantech silencer the ME will be as quiet as an effective hood can be.

The external blowers ME uses, the Abakka,is famous for how quietly it operates.Plus one less turn....

Here is a link that might be useful: Fantech Silencers
soibean
Original Author
11 years ago
Based on what I've read, I don't think I can add a silencer or an inline fan because the whole duct run will be just 3-5 feet long at most, even if we ran it to the roof (single story addition with hip roof). And if the external blower is just a few feet from the hood, my understanding was that the noise level would be similar to that of an internal blower. Is that correct? I don't claim to understand any of this very well. Thanks.
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advisor: I am not sure about your post but I will respond. I talked at length with Al when I got my Caldera. My DS and DIL both graduated from NECI and used Caldera at the culinary school. It is how I found out about the product. They are made perfectly and perform year in and year out flawlessly. They are extremely well made and make all other expensive brands look pale in comparison. People are paying huge bucks for Blue Star and Culinarian and French brands and my made in the USA gas cooktop out performs them in all ways. Of course this is my opinion only based on the performance we have had and the skilled chefs we have using the equipment and of course the perfect food we prepare year in and year out...look at the pics ! You are wrong on all counts concerning no grilling or high heat/pro cooking. You are also wrong about the venting. The lowest speed is so quiet and powerful on the Tradewind that we use it for everything but the stirfry and grilling. For those we use medium. The point of " more than you need" in cfm's is due to the law of physics that causes the air to actually recirculate and come back of you have too much turbulence in the duct, this can happen on high. So you get more than you need and use it on slightly less....the cost of more cfm's is actually very little and this solves all ventilation problems. dee: you are correct about an inline silencer...they are cheap and work perfectly, I have one. But you are wrong about the hugely expensive Blue Star and Culinarian. It is way overprices and not needed. If a person gets the Caldera , which is still available and a good double oven they will do so well. Have work areas in 2 different places and way way less money. JMHO....c
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kaseki
11 years ago
Flow rate (cfm) depends on the aperture area of the hood having enough air velocity to contain the rising effluent. It is not particularly dependent on whether gas or induction is used. Further, except for the need to remove gas combustion byproducts, the rising effluent from cooking on gas or cooking on induction will be the same for the a given cooked food. Pro style gas ranges, however, often provide grills that can generate greasy smoke at higher levels than pan fried fare on induction is likely to do, barring walking away and forgetting that the setting is too high.

A given fan at the end of a short duct run will probably be equally loud as the same fan in the hood, but roof mounted fans can be larger than ones sized for the hood and can be run at lower speeds for the same cfm, reducing blade tip turbulence noise. Turbulence noise induced by a duct turn or two will probably be less than the hiss of the air through the hood filter baffles.

kas
jahrms
11 years ago
I haven't heard the Modern-Aire unit before but I have heard the Zephyr Monsoon in a showroom and it is really quiet. Looking at each unit the Monsoon seems to be more feature-rich if that stuff matters to you (LED lighting, remote control).

It also looks like Monsoon can vent out the back which might be helpful if you can't go straight up. Or to limit noise you could just increase the size of your ducting, I've had to do that before.

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