Angled range hoods / hoods that are not monolithic?

14 years ago

I saw this hood in the Ikea kitchen catalog: Nutid hood.

While I need a much wider hood for my Bluestar RNB 36, I like the fact that this hood is angled in a way that makes the space still look open.

I have low ceilings (92 inches) and a galley kitchen, and any ideas about a wall hood that will not feel massive / use a lot of the visual space are welcome. (If I had an island, a smaller stove, and the budget, I'd absolutely get an Elica hood, but this will be for another world.)

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davidro1

14 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

The disadvantage to all these goodlooking hoods is that they don't capture air. The hot air rising from the cooking area.

Consider capturing air.

And doing so in a way that increases your impression of space.

We also have low ceilings (94.5 inches) in a galley kitchen and wanted a wall hood that would not feel massive / use a lot of the visual space. I'll use your thread to introduce my solution, and at some other time I'll put it all into a new thread.

It's a small space, landlocked. We figured we'd make it feel big and open by not having any upper cabinets above one of the two counters --- just backsplash and open space above it, using a horizontal mirror on the wall to increase light from the adjacent space and that window about eight feet away. We removed most of the dividing wall between the kitchen and the adjoining windowed area.

Above the cooking surface we felt we needed a structure that could hold the slide-out hood we would design. Reading arbordomus' thread from last January gave us both this idea and the other idea described so far, i.e. increasing visual effect by having something attractive over that other counter. Both a technically valid hood solution that took the space it needed, and an over-the-sink solution, light and airy.

For the hood wall, a basic low-cost customizable solution was a wall of three 30.375" high Ikea Akurum boxes, with frosted glass doors and fluorescent light bars inside. Light comes from the horizontal base plate on the bottom: you replace each cabinet's OSB floor with a shelf designed for this purpose. The shelf has lighting in it.

Then I did the same with each cabinet's top panel, and got more light. Then I added extra fluorescent bars with warm light bulbs to counteract the cold sameness of the IKEA fluorescent light shelving; I put these behind the cabinets, after first pushing the cabinets out from the wall (using spacers) and removing the cabinets' false backing. It's great to have two kinds of fluorescent lighting: a linear sum of white lights. The impact of this white light is WAY more appealing than either one all by itself. It's white light with increased "complexity".

The fan is an inline FG6 from fantech.net. It's suspended from the ceiling. Neoprene rings prevents the fan's normal hum or vibration from going straight into the wall of the duct and traveling down the duct. (It's so quiet it probably wouldn't need the neoprene.) The fan is eleven inches in diameter. Eleven inches is available when I install the wall cabinets at 53" height -- and that happens to be pretty much at the "industry" norm of 54" height. In your case you could go with the 15" Akurum wall cabinet and save a lot of money.

The fan has a six inch duct. I had the duct turn down and change shape to fit into my wall's stud cavity. A standard duct adaptor / transition piece, readily available in a large hardware store, turns the duct ninety degrees downwards and changes the 6" round duct into a 3.25" deep by X" wide rectangular duct. Here is where I had a guttermaking shop make another adaptor to turn the corner and transform into a wide wide rectangle for me since my wall studs are 24" O. C. apart. This big rectangular duct comes out of the wall at a 45 degree angle under the wall cabinets,at 47.5"- 53" above floor level. I cut this last angle myself since I had the metal shop just make a long straight rectangle and I didn't know yet what distance it would travel; also, I didn't know the precise height it would be installed at, near the ceiling. The filter fits in here.

A wallÂ switch gives me three speeds. I tried a few variable speed controls but they cannot match power factor so they create a little hum at low speed, which is not acceptable to me since low speed operation has to be silent for me to accept it.

Summary:
Blower motor : invisible since it is in an 11" header box above the wall cabinets.
Duct: invisible since it's inside the wall. This increases your options for space / visual effects in your wall cabinets.
Filter: under the wall cabinets at the mouth of the in-wall duct.
Glass pullout: under the wall cabinets.

Remember the goal: to increase the visual impact and the impression of space. A header box overhead holds three recessed 50W 12VDC 12.5 degree spotlights shining onto the counter. I removed the magnetic transformer from these recessed halogen cans, and installed a single electronic transformer instead, because I couldn't stand the hum from the magnetic transformers. Each bulb shines onto the counter while also highlighting the wood frame around the frosted glass panels of the wall cabinets.

These glass panels are lifted to open, not pivoted out. The lift mechanism is Blum Aventos HF with 104 degree angle stop. The advantage is space and visual effect (again). The wall cabinet doors slide up and fold up. No opening sideways. If you get 15"h Akurum boxes WITH a lift up hinge, you'll save a lot of money and hassle time compared to my 30"h box.

The overhead halogens are in a piece of the header that extends far enough out overhead to put the halogens directly above the front edge of the counter. A portion of the header 7"h extends 11" out from the plane of the wall cabinets. This portion was built in a gently curved shape; again to increase the visual impact. When the door panels are lifted up, the halogen light shines through the frosted glass to the counter below.

-
So far so good. Next step is to finish making the filter (baffle or mesh) and the officialÂ sneeze-guard / canopy / grease surface.Â I got this far by taking my time, so stay tuned and read my next post about this, in six months from now.

The filter could be baffle or mesh or both combined. I have stainless steel that I can cut to any shape, and take to have welded together.

As sneeze-guard / canopy / grease surface, I have a clear, not frosted, tempered glass plate that I intend to slide out and tilt down on a slight angle.Â The underside of the wall cabinets will hold the supports for the slider mechanism. Note that this is already made of tempered glass -- but in addition to this I intend to use more glass to make the whole air capture area even more fireproof, cleanable and clean looking. On the wall, I'll cover the drywall with perhaps one entire piece of glass, or epoxy grouted glass tiles, perhaps with some mirror pieces in there.

53" above floor is below-eye level. A glass pullout slider puts the airstopping canopy'sÂ front piece at a sneezeguard height and angle. Making it be able to tilt downwards too, solves a number of air flow problemsÂ common to ALL the kitchen exhaust fans we see in the market today. Consider how to stop your grease-speck laden air from rising and escaping the capture area. Solving this problem with a high-space visual effect will give you both what you want and what you need.

h.t.h.

-dr

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Comments (12)

wa8b
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
There are several manufacturers making range hoods in a similar style. Miele offers a 36" stainless steel and glass model that might suit your needs. See the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Miele angled glass range hood
blindstar
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If you do a lot of stir fry or plan to get a grill I suggest caution. We had an angled hood. Even with a very powerful external blower it could not keep up with the grill.
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Looks good, but that is a very narrow plume being collected, with a much lower expansion angle than was observed and reported in calibrated tests performed by Finnish researchers. I think this test should be repeated searing meat at a higher temperature than what was used for vegetables in the video. (One might conclude, however, that if one won't be doing any cooking more intense than the veggie cooking in the video, this device is large enough so long as the cooking is directly below it.) In general, the standard for capture video is schleiren photography, which can show by the imaged index of refraction changes in the air where heat (and presumably effluent) is going at the hood. kas Edit: This post only makes sense in the context of a commercial post that preceded it that must have been defenestrated by the admins. The removed post related to a video at the suppliers web site. This post was edited by kaseki on Tue, Apr 29, 14 at 12:13
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Gina, putting aside whether or not plywood's a suitable base, - stucco or plaster - are you kidding? You need a material that's easy to clean. Plaster or stucco is most certainly not.... There's a reason why range hoods are metal, and it's ease of cleaning, and lower flammability. I don't know what you shelled out on this kit or how it works - does it include filters etc? In the end, when you consider the cost benefits of mass-production, you will not build something cheaper, certainly when you take labour costs into account. If, however, you want the satisfaction of doing your own thing, the way you want it, and can't get what you want ready-made, then go for it. But DIY in this instance to save money? Probably not. If the end result doesn't look like a million bucks, it'll be more of a liability. My old house was owned by a cheapskate who was a very poor handyman. The 'range hood' was a plywood box, vertical, over the stove and between the cupboards....from that point of view, it was ok but not pretty to look at inside. For a fan, he used an exhaust fan out through the wall, with no filter. It was kind of disgusting, the way the grease had built up on it. No light in there either - if you're planning lighting which is a MUST for any range hood, that's another thing to consider. Apart from ease of cleaning, filters and other factors, and, as you mentioned, the greater efficiency of placing the hood lower down towards the stove, putting combustible wood above a stove is always going to be an iffy thing. True, kitchen cabinets are wood-based, but the (usually laminate) coverings on them make them much more difficult to set alight. If you had a little experience in woodworking (and Home depot and others offer weekend classes in such things) the notion of building such a box isn't really that difficult. If you use a thick high-quality plywood or MDF you don't need any framing, it can be glued and screwed together. As for shapes, templates etc, you can get a basic shape by looking at a steel hood - but oh yeah, most will be the nice, unobtrusive slim, pull-out type, and what you want is basically an old-fashioned kind of thing, deeper and probably taller too. The real trick is to make full-sized cardboard or paper template cut-outs. Then (ideally with cardboard) you can tape it together and see how it will all come together. You could also consider making your own sheet metal one, say out of stainless or aluminum, but a lot of tool expertise is required, and special tools also....
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In principle, any hood with an internal blower could be gutted of the blower and operated with an in-line or roof mounted blower. (GreenDesigns may have meant that using it while leaving the blower inside would be a poor plan.) I can imagine construction details that might cause non-optimal internal hood flow patterns, but I have no detailed knowledge of the internal construction of myriad hoods to know whether such are prevalent. There may be nanny jurisdictions that would claim that code approval of the hood was violated when it had its blower removed. Any hood available for order without a blower likely is fully compatible with an external blower. This, of course, can be confirmed with the manufacturer. The most important adaptation requirement is that the blower be continuously controllable, and that the hood control be a continuous motor control. A hood with just a few motor speed positions on a switch might require a compatibly-wired motor. While a multi-position hood control could in principle be replaced by a continuous control, par. 2 may apply. When I was doing my kitchen reno, I chose a compatible hood/roof blower combination (supplied by Wolf) because the entire scope of the project (gutting and reconstructing part of a house) made playing with the details of the blower circuit a side project of tertiary importance that I couldn't afford the time to deal with. As it happens, inside my Wolf (Independent) hood is a diac/triac motor control circuit, about the simplest design available that goes back to the '70s. The compatible Wolf (Broan) roof blower uses a typical induction motor that is easily controlled by this type of circuit. The cost versus time value trade-off needs to be considered when dealing with issues like this. kas
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We are installing a 36" wide gas range in an angled corner. I've already built the wall to the boss' specifications (e.g. the wife) so that she has ~3.5" of space behind the range, to place things like olive oil, salt/pepper, etc. Think of those "recessed shelves" that some kitchens have, behind the range top. I was able to achieve this by just pushing the wall back a bit further and leaving the cabinets in place. Since we are using wood counter tops, it worked out very well to reach back further (deeper than 25"). I've been on the fence about this question for a while as I planned this: Is there an issue mounting a Range Hood back on the rear wall, 3.5"? This means the hood would not completely cover the very front-most of the range (by about 1/2" from the burner edges if we are getting technical). I could make all sorts of excuses; but, i want to ask for general advice here. The actual intake of the air will actually just be over the front burner edges. The strong motor should be able to suck in any front pots. Etc etc... Alternatively, as I have not tiled these walls yet (counter-top to ceiling tile), I could extruder/build-out a wall higher up. Say, 30" above the counter top I would just add another wall at the 45 degrees. We would rather not do this, as it would look a bit odd with 1/2 the angled wall cut up with tiles "closer" to you. Another option I thought of was to try to build out very minimal "blocking" to allow the range hood to mount to; but yet, retain the existing angled wall look-n-feel. This would mean the range hood's "upper exhaust" tube would be exposed in the back. I would install some fireproofing backing, to code, if going that route. My concern with this setup is building something rigid enough to support the weight of the hood - with a constant sheering force always present. Most likely would cut 2x6's to match the range hood profile and stack them. And then wrap them in something that can be painted the color of the tiles, or sheetmetal, etc. The only other consideration is to just build out the entire wall again, to cover that 3.5", and just build in a shelf like most other kitchens. We originally decided against this, as the outer edges of the wider wall would make for a awkward looking tile arrangement on the adjacent wall. Hence, why pushing the corner back 3.5" made a lot of sense for various other reasons. Thanks!
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frenchman
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
davidro1, thank. I skimmed over your post (still waking up) and will get back to it to better understand.

Are the Ikea cabinets just the "hood" or are they actually fully fnctional? It seems that they may be, with the mouth of the duct under them and you building a slideout there? I just got my kitchen order in from the Ikea sales (my garage is full of flat Ikea boxes) but of course could get extra cabinets regardless. That is an interesting idea, especially as I am removing the window on my wall (but opening other walls to a room with windows) and I like your lighting idea.

Hood experts, will a 6" duct be enough for my RNB 36? I was under the impression that I would have to go to 8" or 10" because of the high output of the stove.

Thanks,
YA

PS: kitchen layout with a "dummy" hood for location.
sfjeff
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You'll definitely want at least a 7" or 8" duct with a 600 CFM blower, 10" with 1200 CFM. Capture area is key -- the flat and angled hoods look great, but don't do much on removing steam, grease, smoke, and the like. There are some clever solutions out there on how to get it, but your goal should be at least 42" in width and 24" or 27" in depth.
davidro1
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
YA, frenchman, yes the Ikea cabinets are fully functional. All the interior space in the cabinets is useable. There is no motor housing inside the cabinets, which is what would be the case with all the slide-out options sold on the market today. Repeat: the volume inside is useable, presentation space or storage space, not taken over by any blower or other parts.

Yes the mouth of the duct is under the wall cabinets and I'm building a slideout there.

--
These wall cabinets block the air from rising. So they are in a sense a part of the "hood". Or, seen another way, they hold the almost-invisible glass under them, and that glass is the hood.

In your drawings, I guess teh green shading is structural stuff you cannot move.

From your drawings, it's clear the wall where you need a hood is currently designed as your open wall. On the other (sink) wall you have six wall cabinets, 15" high (or three 30"h cabintes). Since you drew the doors horizontally, I'll guess they are the 15"h ones, since that is how Ikea sells them. It makes sense you would put wall cabinets between the two columns.

Consider adding two more of these cabinets to your design. (Or reducing the six to three and moving two to the open wall). Two side by side, with a spacer and finishing panels, will give you a width of 61.5". Adding fluorescent light shelves as their structural floor panels, you will have solved some of the key requirements: 1 block air from rising away from the cooking surface; 2 light the area.

If you install these on the open wall, and put a big rectangular conduit (duct) inside the wall stud cavity (going straight up to meet the duct path you already have planned out), then you will have an opening for your duct to suck air away, a path for cooking air to leave the room instead of floating upwards. This meets another major requirement. Building a slideout is next, since the cabinets are not going to protrude forward enough to cover the whole surface you want covered. The last major requirement is to build more around it all because these lighting shelves are not designed to be 100% fireproof, although they are made of tempered glass, aluminum extrusions and some plastic. You probably want as I do to meet the level of fireproofing standards that we can be proud of, or that we would like it to.

Disclaimer: don't anyone else try this at home if this appears daunting to you.

Transition the duct to whatever size you want for your RNB 36. Do not think of a 6" duct simply because I am using that size. My mentioning a 6" duct was not a recommendation. Disregard the sizing I have used. Your needs are different. For your information, I had to use a 6" duct because that is the size already installed in my building, where I have a condo. Now you can safely forget I ever mentioned my sizing. Use the duct size you want to use.

I don't know if you are in a condo or a house you own. A remote blower (exterior or inline) can be far away. If it has to be inline and inside the kitchen space, you can put it inside a drywalled box you build at ceiling height, or inside another layer of wall cabinets.

If you do consider swapping the locations for the sink and the cooktop, you will have to let one of the six cabinets be taken up by the inline blower. Or have one row only, and a bigger header overhead.

h.t.h.
skali
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
We bought this one from Costco. The price was right; it's from Italy; it seems very well made; and it's absolutely gorgeous. We are hoping it gets installed early next week. I'll report back afterwards.
frenchman
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
h.t.h., thanks. The green stuff in my drawings is actually wall I am removing. I am keeping the rest, but actually rebuilding it a foot away to have more space. So I can pretty much do what I want here I guess.

I like the idea of building something and will play with it. What is your slide out going to look like? Just the glass (glass and grease don't like each other much). And how are you going to hide the "mouth" of the in-wall hood, if any, and put the filter in?

It seems like you're making your filters. I wonder if one could get a ready-made hood insert and use it in your system (building my filters is just too much for me I think).

Skali, please report.
davidro1
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It's normal to overthink all this.
e.g. : ... (glass and grease don't like each other much)...

Despair not.

Since you are able to position the open counter where you want to, consider making one counter extra deep. It'll overhang the full extension drawer a little bit. No big deal, you don't need to have each inch of counter be visible from directly above like a photo; your hand can reach things in the last X inches that you can still see from an angle.

A cooking surface with air contained on most sides is a good setup, for an exhaust fan to work well.
Everyone will confirm this.
Capture, containment.

A cooking surface with air open, not contained, on most sides, is not a good setup. According to all. It's not "ideal" is what some will say, but that really means it's what you have and you have to work with it.

More options you might have:
1. Move cooktop to the sink counter. Snaidero does a lot of kitchens with everything all in a row. They are upmarket, high-end, expensive, design kitchens. See their site.
2. Swap sink and cooktop locations. Can the exterior wall be used for your exhaust fan? Can your sink drain go down through the floor underneath the open counter? Or do you have joists, and joist space in the subfloor to route the drain somewhere where it makes sense?

To see what my slide out will look like, come back in 2010 when I've gotten around to it. I'm doing several things at a time, all the time, so I won't be able to describe it fully until months from now. One thing for sure: the glass will clip out so it can go into the dishwasher. Or unscrew, or slide out of the slideout, or whatever. Because I can't weld it in, and wouldn't want to glue it in. Now, 2., the mouth of the duct opening is easy to hide, but explaining it will sound vague. Think of how overhead fluorescent fixtures "hide" the light bulbs (tubes) because the grille prevents you from seeing them unless you are standing directly underneath. Go to a big store and look again. Now, 3., as for filters, well they are easy to buy, easy as pie. Easy to make too. And by the way, mesh filters work well, for me and for my cooking habits, since I leave the fan on low or medium very often. Making a big baffle out of stainless steel, cut and welded, is easy. It's just one big rectangle, with cross members, and these are repeated X times, so it's easy to specify to someone what to do and let him have fun doing it. Stainless steel is a wonderful material. Once you weld it, you sand it or polish it as you wish on your own time (e.g. Dremel) and it's done, fini, voilà, as you wish: poli or dépoli. Same story with aluminum. You need a guy who likes welding this stuff, and you go to his shop and make yourself appear to be the world's most desirable customer, with a clear project, an interesting application, and a willingness to flatter him --next thing you know, he loves you and does everything you might have ever dreamt of, at almost no cost. This happened to me. 3rd option: you have it welded in basic steel and you polish it and take it to a nickel plating shop.
-- I find this figuring and building to be far more interesting than washing and polishing my car. So my car may carry more dust and dirt than most, because I spend my time on other things. What a trade off ! Quel sacrifice !

-dr
frenchman
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Nice French. Bravo. (And thanks for the thinking material.)
skali
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Our angled hood was installed yesterday and it has surpassed my expectations in every way. It looks beautiful. It works extremely well. It is *very* quiet on its lowest setting, and reasonably quiet on its middle setting. Even on high, it's no where close to the airline taking off that we had to endure on our old VAH.

I give it two big thumbs up!
SweCan
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I know this is an old post, but if you are still here on the forum skali, would you mind sharing your experience of an angled hood now after som time has passed?

I would love to have an angled one for the looks in my kitchen, but some posts have made me a little bit hesitant about them. Anyone else has an angled hood and would care to share their experience? good or bad.

Angled range hoods / hoods that are not monolithic?

davidro1

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wa8b

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Angled range hoods / hoods that are not monolithic?

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