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Imperial or Broan hood vent?

9 years ago

I'm trying to decide on an under cabinet hood for my stove, which is a 36" electric cooktop. The chain appliance store guy pointed me toward a Broan Elite E64 600 CFM. But then doing a lot of reading here, I wonder whether an Imperial (perhaps model 1900PSB-10) with 635 CFM would be a be a better choice in terms of quality of venting, noise and also general design. A couple people have said the Broan bulbs are a pain and that it's easy to burn your hand on them. Kobe hoods are not available within driving distance of me, so they're out, because I won't buy sight unseen. I know I don't need that many CFM for my current stove, but we'd like to possibly switch to gas (cook top, not super pro style) at some point in the future. In a related question, I read that I should have a wider vent than stove, but the appliance guy said not, and I'm not sure whether to insist (smaller would also be cheaper) Any insights would be very helpful!!.

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Comments (3)

kaseki
9 years ago
Wider is intended to capture the cooking effluent plume because it expands as it rises. Please take time to read the many ventilation topics here to gain insight into the subject matter.

kas
jawoll
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you, I have read many threads on this topic. Your comment about the effluent plume isn't news to me. However, I do know that some hoods are, in fact, the same width as the stove, and based on the layout of my kitchen, this would be a preferable design. Therefore I was seeking feedback on whether it was truly necessary, as opposed to ideal, for the hood to be wider.
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Not having used either, I can't recommend between them. If the costs are similar, the flow rates are similar, and the appearances are similar, then hearing them in action would be needed to differentiate sound levels, and maybe removal of baffles would allow comparing the difficulty of removal for cleaning. Cleaning in a dishwasher is recommended for baffle filters, but it may be useful to know their sizes to see how they may fit. My Wolf Island Pro hood baffles are just a tad too tall to stand up in the bottom of my Miele Optima, so washing all ten of them requires two wash loads. Also note that baffles capture only some of the effluent that passes by, so while cleaning the baffles one should also clean the hood interior. This may be more difficult with in-hood blowers. My blower is on the roof so I have a fairly easily reachable hood interior to wipe down. kas
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There are more alternatives than one would have time to describe from scratch, but which might be ascertained by reviewing hood threads here. Requirements should be developed first, and candidate hoods selected second. As for these examples, neither of which I have owned and hence won't comment on specifically, and which may or may not meet requirements, a comparison would have to start with the respective devices' blowers' fan curves to see which has the most flow rate under the pressure loss conditions of the specific installation. In any case, if you want quiet, you want a silencer in the path between the hood and the blower.
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Nothing Left to Say
9 years ago
My vent hoods have always been the same size as my cooking surface and it's always been fine with me. (I cook a lot, but never fry and rarely sear. I occasionally stir fry and I boil water a lot.). But you will also read people on here saying they have been fine with down draft or no vent at all. So I think it's hard to know just how much of a difference bigger makes unless you have experienced it?

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