I meant to say 1100 cfm. This is going over a wolf and the duct makes a bend.

Are you talking about a remote blower?

Yes. It will be on the garage roof.

Most of the noise with a vent fan is from the air moving, not the motor moving it. It's quieter having the motor on the roof, but everything else that goes with the installation is more important. Such as proper duct size, lack of turns, grease capture method, and sound insulation.

Thank you, Greendesigns. You led me to some further reading, and I now see how larger angles, large-enough ducting, rigid (as opposed to flexible) ducting, and insulation will help. I'm going to have to make sure the contractor attends to these things.

It's funny. When I started this project I assumed the range would remain on the outside wall where the current hood vented, and the contractor is actually the one who suggested the move. I don't think he really understands venting as well as I would have hoped.

Can you tell me how the grease capture method affects noise level? Or at least tell me if my guess is correct:

I'm looking at a Proline ProV Model 30W.430 because it costs less than many others but still looks nicely
finished. It has steel baffles to trap grease. I'm guessing they'll act like horns? Boy am I ever glad you opened my question.

Is the screen capture method quieter by an appreciable amount in a 30" remote blower setup like I will have?

Baffles are much quieter than the mesh. Also they are efficient in capturing the grease...which is the whole point of the system, You need the HOGS to be removed in a very efficient manner. Also for ease of cleaning you can't beat baffles. I detailed the way I do mine in another post. It takes about 5-10 min. every week.

You should plan on running the unit at least 5 min before you begin cooking to allow the airflow to begin. Then make sure and cont. running for 10 min after to remove all HOGS. You don't want anything in the actual duct work.

You should also plan on using the unit on med most of the time. If you run it on the highest setting, there is some chance of creating too much turbulence in the duct work from the increased airflow and the HOGS come back in. We have experienced this with our 1400 cfm remote. This is why you get more cfm than you need. You have some in reserve if you must use it for brief periods and the med. and low are plenty.
: Be sure they use neoprene rings on all connections of the duct and the silencer in the duct as well. It does make a difference. All of this info is available in the detailed install inst. of Tradewind's website. They have great drawings that show all the parts and what they are. Umiphx.com.

Good Luck ! c

Oh, thank you trailrunner. My contractor, while he seemed at first to be really listening, appears to lose interest in getting tiny details right. I'll tell him about the neoprene rings. He may in fact be aware, but I have no reason to think he'd automatically employ them for me.

BTW I don't know what HOGS are but after a quick google I soon will....
I still haven't gotten over giving up google, but I always using Bing now, to google things, because of the privacy deal.

Thanks again everyone. Ignorance is certainly not bliss when it comes to the finer points of range hoods.

Can't find HOGS.

Heat of the Gas stove?
Hot oven gas stench?

Heat, odor, grease?

Heat, Odor, Grease, Steam. :)

Hi Jamies,

I originally wanted a roof-mounted blower--I'm wondering if you've considered an in-line blower...?

The reason I mention this is that I've learned it can often be difficult (or close to impossible, depending on your area) to find a skilled, knowledgeable repairman willing to climb up onto the roof to repair a roof-mounted blower.

That's why I went with in-line, rather than roof-mounted.

I have a Best by Broan 58" hood (manufactured by Wolf, FYI), with baffles, with an 1100 CFM in-line blower in the attic built into a squirrel cage that is suspended/hanging from a beam so that there is minimal vibration. The duct is rigid. My range is a Wolf DF range.

The setup is sooooo quiet, even at top fan speeds!

My contractor, who is really, really knowledgeable and detail oriented, explained to me exactly what GreenDesigns said--

"Most of the noise with a vent fan is from the air moving, not the motor moving it. It's quieter having the motor on the roof, but everything else that goes with the installation is more important. Such as proper duct size, lack of turns, grease capture method, and sound insulation."

--and thereby talked me out of the roof-mounted blower, since the whole reason I wanted it was to have it as far away as possible, thereby reducing the noise.

If everything GreenDesigns mentions is done correctly, you should have a quiet system. Suspending the squirrel cage to minimize or avoid vibrations is really important, from what I understand. And I second the baffles being quieter than screens. I researched that one alot.

Good luck!!

Forgot to mention, I was advised to go a little wider than necessary for better capture, and to further reduce the noise caused by the vents sucking in the air.

The way it was explained to me, more baffles = less air resistance = less noise.

I went with 58" over a 36" range, when I could've gotten away with 42" from a functionality standpoint.

Madeline616, my contractor does, at this point, want to mount the blower in the attic of the garage. Your post is reassuring. Couple of differences here, though, that may be meaningful?

I'm getting the 30" Wolf range (16k X 4), and although I wanted a wider hood I was going with a 30" hood to maximize cabinet storage. To compensate for the width of the hood and the remote blower mount, I was upping the cfm to 1100 or 1200 which of course would up the noise.

The other difference in my case is that my duct must bend. I don't know how significantly that will affect the volume, does anyone? The garage is behind me when I'm facing the range, and the attic isn't extra tall or anything. I'd consider that a pretty steep bend.

I still have the option (a) of increasing the hood width (to 36") and decreasing the cabinet width. But if the bend in the ductwork nullifies that effort then I should take option (b) and reconfigure the kitchen layout.

What do you think, if my priority is to be able to have a conversation when the vent is running and my hearing isn't what it used to be?

I have a 54"/1400 cfm over our 36" Caldera gas cook top and the Miele 12 " wide built in deep fat fryer with 6 " between the two. So our hood = the width of the cooking surfaces. It is plenty. I can see the heat.grease,steam,odors go up :) The real way to tell if the system has been working well for over 6 years is what the woodwork looks like in the kitchen and surrounding areas and whether there are any odors after DH uses the wok almost every night as well as what the baffles look like.

Woodwork has only had dust on it in all these years. I have washed the white wood surround one tine a year so far...no grease at all. The odors are never present after even the most stinky stir fry ( sorry DH ) LOL. The baffles are really greasy and need a good scrub every single week.

We have a turn at the ceiling and then a run of probably 20 ft and then a turn again to the roof. We have no attic as it is now living space so we had to go roof mount. There is nothing to repair on a roof mount blower but even if there were ours is very very easy to get to. I pass it every time I wash the skylights :)

You really have to individualize your set up after you gather as much info as you can. I wouldn't do something that was almost 2 ft wider than my cooking area . At some point it is all over kill...knowing what that point is will be your decision. c

Hi Jamies,

We have 2 pretty significant turns in the attic, as well. The rigid piping and other details seem to compensate just fine for those turns. We do have 10 inch round duct--not sure if you've thought about what size duct to use, but the wider duct also allows for less resistance and less noise. Wolf recommends the 10 inch round.

As far as the width of the hood, Trailrunner is right, it was a bit of overkill in my case :) :)...but I had another reason to do it, and that's that my hood is 42" above the cooking surface. That's pretty high above the range of what's recommended. I was really concerned about the capture I'd lose due to this extra height.

I think most 30 inch range owners do a 36 inch hood. I'm not totally sure, but I think you're supposed to go about 6 inches wider than the cooking surface. That said, as I understand it, Trailrunner does some *serious* cooking, so if hr 30 inch hood works well, thats really saying something.

So, is your height w/in the recommended 28-36" above the cooking surface? If so, it's just a matter of deciding whether the (potential) better smoke capture and the potentially quieter sound you'd get from a wider hood is worth the trade off of loss of cabinet space.

One more thing to mention is that the closer to your head the vent will be, obviously, the louder. So this may cause you to lean toward he high end of the 28-36 inch height range, thereby making a wider vent hood--for more capture--possibly a better choice.

Finally, Wolf chimed in to a recent conversation in this forum reminding those of us on the thread that they recommend 900 CFM for a 36" range, regardless of configuration. So, perhaps you can get away with fewer than 1100 CFM without compromising your capture, and potentially reducing your noise levels.

Hope this helps just a little! I know it's a really confusing decision. It gave me the biggest headache of my whole kitchen reno :)

Hey Madeline...I am really learning a lot on this thread !! Our hood is 54" wide...it covers the 2 cooking surfaces and is exactly the same width...so no 30" here. 36+12+6=54. Our duct is 10" also and that is suggested for sure. We have ours at 33" above the cooking surface. Hope that all of the info helps the op. c

Madeline, I wish you could have seen the relief cross my face when you told me you had some turns in your ducting.

The Proline hood I'm considering does require 10 inch ducting -- and I'm glad to know that bigger ducts can translate to quieter ones. Now that I'm calmer, that seems intuitive. Funny how panic makes me stupid.

They always talk about the width of the hood vs the width of the range, but never the depth. The hood I'm looking at is pretty deep, at 24". You would think that depth might be part of the calculation, but you never see any references to hood depth.

One more complicating factor is that I'm planning to have those fake small cabs up top (to the ceiling cabs with a second small door on top.) We were going to hide the chimney etc under a couple of the smaller cabs, so that would more or less dictate how high the hood is mounted. I'll have to ask the contractor about the height of the little doors. Can you believe I don't know that?

My ears are 26" above the range - :)

In the old days they did recommend a wider hood than range. (My old days was a Viking in 1992 before Wolfs were fire-rated to be placed next to cabinetry in the home.) I figured they changed hoods to accomodate the burgeoning pro home range market over the past 20 years, because I rarely here that advice any more. Probably, however, it's just that they want to sell more fancy ranges to people who don't have huge kitchens and can't dedicate the wall space.

I'm still thinking about the 36".

Trailruner, how could I have misread your post??!! So sorry. My only excuse is that I was scarfing down some Baskin Robbins Mint Choc Chip while reading...you could say I was a little distracted :) :)

Jamies, I'm sure the 36 inch hood will be perfect over the 30 inch range.

As far as the depth, there are some real pros over on the appliance forum who have explained exactly why a deeper hood is, in fact, beneficial. Basically, I think the smoke rises in the form of a cone, spreading out as it rises. So not only is depth a good thing, but if there is any front-to-back wiggle room, meaning extra space to work with, I've been told that you should err on the side of mounting it as far out over the burners--meaning, towards you--as possible for best capture. This make common sense, of course, as the smoke can't go any further than the backsplash, but can spread out through the kitchen.

Lol about the height of the little doors. I was positively swimming in measurements and minutiae during my reno, I totally get it! That's why GW helped me so much. I was able to get some perspective and organize my thoughts and ideas as I bounced them off other GWers.

The guys over in the appliance forum are super helpful with range hoods, too, BTW. :)

If you are doing a wood hood, it has to be wider than the range so that only the metal insert is directly above the cooking surface. You can't do a 30" above a 30", because that puts wood directly above the fire.

No, no wood. Much as I don't want to hear the mechanicals, I like seeing them.

So trailrunner, tell me, now that I have already ordered the hood (discount ended today) -- Is your hood quiet? I know it really keeps things clean and dry, but how much do you hear? Can you talk with DH while one of you is cooking up a storm?

Jamies our hood is very quiet. We can have conversations and we usually have NPR on and listen to the news/music. The very highest setting is the loudest, we rarely use it. Most often the middle is on when he is stir frying. It is very reasonable. Low is really really quiet and is what we use when cooking onions etc and it does a perfect job of removing HOGS :)

With hoods less is more we have found...the main reason we went for the higher CFM. I sure hope you are happy with your set up. I will say that a lot of the potential noise will be removed if the install is correctly done...Madeline pointed that out very well. Everything needs to be secure and padded and lined up. Please keep us all posted. c

Thank you for great topic. I am also worried about the noise.

Oh, this is great website where you will find all kinds of best range hoods.

Here is a link that might be useful: range hoods

I have a 1200 cfm hood over a 60inch Wolf range, and I too was very concerned about the noise level. I did not use the vent in my previous kitchen because it was too loud.We had to make 3 turns (yes 3) before a 10 ft run to the outside wall. The blower is mounted outside. I am happy to report that the noise is minimal. As a matter of fact, i sometimes forget to turn it off because i dont hear it anymore. I use in on medium most f the time. It is louder on high, but I only turn it on high when I am trying to clear smoke or frying fish, and even then it is not unbearable. It is truly one of my favorite things in my new kitchen. The baffles are easy to clean and it does an incredible job venting!

Great advice above. One small point. I'm about to return some baffle filters because they made loud whistling hooting sounds when air was pulled through them, like a storm was picking up. (I was trying for an upgrade over the mesh filters the hood came with, and I failed!) I don't doubt that there are better-designed baffle filters out there, but it's good to try them out.

Re external blowers, I'm a happy Abbaka owner -- if external noise is a concern, they get the motor noise down pretty low.

Breadandsuch--what kind of hood do you have? How hard is it to clean the baffles?

Posting in this so I can find it later...lots of great info in this thread!

I can't WAIT to ditch the pop-up down draft that came with this house. Thing is USELESS. Truly useless. My (probable) design-build guy already mentioned much of this...so I'm feeling even happier about him. I have feeling we'll be spending more on our hood than on our gas range...

Thanks, b&s! Do you mind sharing Catmom's "recipe?" Do you know whether the hood was made by Independent? I think they've switched to a different manufacturer now, but can't quite remember what I read.

Learned quite a bit from this thread. Shopping for hood inserts now. I'm waiting on a quote for a Best liner with inline blower. We are installing a 36" induction. I see that the recommendation is at least a 42" hood. I don't fry things and we're not exacly culinary experts. I've been know to burn some rice from time to time :>) Just wondering if we really need to go to a 42" hood or if we can stick with a 36".

Having had both in hood and remote blowers (once in the same house) a variable speed remote blower is about as quiet as you can get.

You do not need to run it full speed all the time, but when you do they get loud even from just the air.

It beats filing the house with greasy smoke through.