My Wolf fan (purchased at the end of 2007) was made for Wolf by Broan according to Wolf. A few other Wolf fans were also made by Broan as of 2007. I cannot assert anything with respect to other Wolf fans or more modern Wolf fans. Contact Wolf for fan curves for their fans you might be interested in and compare them to Broan fan curves published on their web site. Basically what one buys when buying a hood and fan from Wolf is the comfort of knowing that compatibility has been established and no electrical hacking is going to be necessary to make a doit yourself scheme function. Wolf could impose additional reliability requirements on Broan, for example, but may not need to; a NuTone upblast roof fan I have used for my kitchen since the '70s is still fully functional today. So at least at one time the NuTone branch of Broan could build reliable devices. Using a circuit architecture that I am pretty sure GE published in the late 1960's or early 1970's, it is possible to control the amount of power available on a line by excising part of the sinusoidal voltage available. (The circuit actually allows part of the sinusoid.) While I can address the transfer functions and other details of triacs and diacs (once I recheck old literature), the circuitry to support them is pretty simple. This information is probably on line. These same circuits are used on lighting controls. The main difference between motor controls and similar lighting controls is that motor controls click on to full power, with rotation to lower power, and lighting controls do the opposite. More complex lighting controls also exist, such as zero-crossing switching, and have advantages in reduced electrical noise. These schemes could also be used for motor control, but are not in the case of my hood. By continuous I mean the the control rotates smoothly between full power to perhaps 10% power (have not measured this) over about 270-degrees of rotation. Ignoring quantum mechanics and grain boundaries, the resolution of the rotary potentiometer that is used for control is effectively infinite between those limits. The phase angle that turns on power each half cycle is adjusted by the control angle to fall between perhaps 5-degrees (out of 180) to perhaps 160 degrees. Turning on even later in the phase cycle would send power to the motor at too low a level for it to keep running. Is "infinite" a brand name? Induction motors of the type used by many fans can ususally be controlled over a reasonable range by phase angle control. They can also be controlled by variable frequency control, but this will be more limited as they are typically permanent capacitor split phase and designed for a single frequency. The Wolf hood control is mounted in the hood and is wired to the motor on the roof. I have seen its guts and that is why I know it is diac-triac type. Other control locations are possible, including wall controls. In that case a hood that does not contain a fan control would be appropriate. kas

I have this Prestige blower but mine is the 1200 CFM model with two motors. It is very powerful, and very noisy. It is very easy to take out the baffles for cleaning. It has been a solid and efficient performer since we installed it about a year ago. I did a fair amount of research before I purchased this and am happy with everything except the noise. We were very careful about having a correctly sized straight duct --all the things we were supposed to do. I took out the baffles and ran it just to see if that made much of a difference in the noise as I had heard that much of the noise is generated by the air going through the baffles. It did make a difference but not that much. I'm not sure if other models with comparable power are any quieter.

Hi Melanie - Update: I received a push button assembly and a capacitor parts from Zephyr. We consulted our electrician (who happened to be on site doing unrelated work), he told us that our existing push button assembly is working fine so that part was not needed. He did install the new capacitor and said that by the sound the unit was making he could tell that electricity is feeding the unit adequately so that's not the issue either. He carefully lifted one of the two grids on the side of the blower and noticed that the blower wheel (sorry for not knowing the proper technical terms) was stuck in place, kind of gummed up, which is probably due to some grease accumulation over the years. He manually prodded the wheel to make it spin freely. He did this to both sides of the blower and the unit started working again. However, we still have the unpleasant screeching noises but have regained use of the hood. We decided to use it sparingly as long as it extracts odors, steam etc until we can replace it (or find someone who restores these types of motors.....not sure how cost effective that route would be though....). Thank you for your question and I hope you find a satisfactory solution!

We have one that we've been using since last summer. It replaced an unvented OTR microwave/hood, so it's been a huge improvement. No performance issues at all, no complaints. We bought it based on price, taking a chance, and have been very happy.