AMEN! Do what YOU like! heh

(Don't take this wrong anyone... that never sounds good.. lol)

I am always amazed when people insist the 'right way' to do something when what really matters is that YOU like it.

We also were worried about the cost of a vent, but I found one at a good price. It is funny, but I have not seen it yet.... hell, have not seen the stove in person and only one picture of it in the configuration I wanted.. heh.

I do not think the OTR microwave vents work that well, but I guess they work a little.. or at least give us a nice warm fuzzy feeling so we can pretend they work ?;)

Don't have a picture, just bored out of my mind so figured to reply.. lol

R

Very true, Mama Goose...

R

I never had any kind of hood prior to our kitchen remodel...either apartment we have lived in, our first house and our current house...none had any kind of ventilation, not even a recirculating hood or OTR micro-vent thingy. Ventilation was one of our highest priorities in the remodel....and also the scariest part because we had never dealt with anything related...my husband, who is an engineer and can truly do just about anything!!, was petrified at the thought of running venting through the attic and through the roof, lol. But we researched and researched and researched it some more and then we did it and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my 900 CFM hood. It is louder than is optimal on the higher speeds but I'll take that any day over the constant cleaning of cabinets and repainting of the ceiling.

Until I started reading kitchen blogs I thought range hoods were one of those resturaunt-lite contrivances that people with lots of money do. I've never had one and I've never really missed it. I'm intrigued by claims that they result in less cleaning. We will put one in when we remodel but a fancy one is definitely not a priority.

@mamagoose function always trump form for me. We have always had a strong CFM vent hood.

You can't appreciate how important venting is until you get woken up at 7am on a Saturday by the smell of cabbage soup. I can't eat for the rest of the day.

We'll probably have 1200CFM.

The hood looks like this just different color.

It will be installed into the ceiling with a 12" hose so it's pretty powerful.

The installer was hung up on hearing that it was an island hood. I didn't see any difference to installing in the ceiling 6" from a wall vs. 4' from a wall. He was too confused so I called an AC company instead.

We actually downgraded our vent when we moved and renovated this kitchen. Previously had a 48" wolf 1200 cfm. It was what I was "supposed" to get with a 48" dual fuel range. Way overkill. I used to tell my husband that if we didn't see one of the kids when I was cooking it was because they had been sucked up onto the vent. It was crazy.

Now I have a 600 cfm insert with wood surround. Same type of range. So. Much. Better.

It depends on how one cooks. If one sautés or fries food, a hood is very important. If one regularly cooks highly "fragrant" foods, again, it's very important unless you want your entire house to smell of curry or chile powder or fish.

My first house had one of those old round wall vents, which wasn't even directly above the stove. It must have drawn air there though, as it was constantly covered with grease with cat and dog hair embedded in it. Eeewww!

This house came with a Big Box store over the range hood. It was awful. We replaced it a few years later with a more powerful Big Box store hood - still didn't do the job. Part of the problem was that there were two 90° angles from the hood to the outside, and outside the vent was just below our 2nd floor bedroom window. All those odors came right inside, even with good windows.

So when I set off the fire alarm that is connected to the burglar alarm a few years ago when sautéing foie de gras, I decided it was time for a serious hood. I did a lot of research and decided on a wall mounted Vent-A-Hood. I chose this behemoth, not for its looks (some of the contemporary ones are far more chic), but because it worked with the behemoth of a stove - a 1948 O'Keefe & Merritt. A contemporary hood would have looked ridiculous. Before buying it, I had figured out the venting problem. When we finished the 2nd floor of our 1 1/2 story house, we put in a zoned HVAC system, and there is a closet right above my stove that holds it with plenty of spare room. They vented the hood right up through that closet and out the roof - no more odors finding their way back into the house.

Last night, I fixed an omelet for dinner - not exactly a greasy dish to prepare. But the odor does linger, so I used my hood and had no after dinner cooking odors. It also keeps the tile behind my stove cleaner, but of course the hood itself must be cleaned weekly. I'm always amazed at the greasy residue and my cooking is pretty limited, living alone at age 72.

With today's "open concept" kitchens, a good, powerful hood is even more important. Grease and odor will get on draperies, upholstered furniture, floors, to say nothing of the odor permeating the entire house.

A good hood is worth its weight in gold!

I went with what Trevor and others recommended for the stove we bought. I figured better to spend a little extra and have it than save a little and not have it, when you needed it.

R

No pics because it's not installed yet. Bought the Zephyr DCBL 42" which will go into a wood hood. Why? I can only parrot what my DH says - infinite control, we'll have induction so don't need a bazillion CFM, quiet, blah blah blah. All I know is I use my hood pretty much anytime I cook, bake, roast etc. I like my kitchen smells to stay in my kitchen and not migrate to my pillow. Nothing like getting into bed and smelling pot roast on your pillow!!!

Well, unless you HAVE pot roast in your pillow.. I mean.. come on.. who wouldn't...

(yes I am just that bored...)

And you get paid - I want your job!

lol.. well, I keep busy, but there are a lot of folks out today and when it gets quiet, I get stir crazy. I am working in the background, but since I got so much done today.. I am like.. "what's next" .. heh

Only so many times you can refresh a webpage :P

BUT.. I a multi-task.. dual monitors and all ;)

R

I have an OTR MW with a 300 cfm vent. It does the job, although I'm sure not as well as a dedicated vent. There is also a window one cabinet over and around the corner which is helpful. I don't get lingering food smells in the house, although we don't cook much that's "stinky" - an occasional piece of fish maybe. I do sautéd zucchini and onions this time of year and the vent is more than adequate for that.

Not knowing any better (hadn't come across the topic here yet) I bought an off the shelf, Air King under-cabinet 260 cfm hood. It is nice enough looking for my small kitchen, I will grant you that, but it is inadequate. It barely pulls the steam rising from a cup of coffee immediately next to the stovetop. Although, for all I know and based on some of the less than stellar installs on some other items, it might not be installed correctly through the exterior wall -- but when it is on, it does have enough force to open the exterior louvers on the duct so I'm assuming that part must be okay.

Also, it is not the type that is a smooth closed surface underneath, if you know what I mean, but is open with areas that are taller than the opening to the exhaust fan. I really don't get that design. So it is more of a pain to wipe down the inside of the hood weekly, negotiating all the 90 degree angles and deep recesses.

As soon as budget allows I am gong to replace it. Looking at this unit

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015GEQOTU/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A4MXUMMLKCFTL.  Seems to be a lot of bang for the buck.

Mama Goose, what brands did you use?

Love having a hood! We had never had one prior and regularly steamed up the windows in the house from cooking, not to mention more grease splatters on the wall, etc! We have a 36" induction cook top with a 36" Zypher hood that is 600 cfm. It's definitely all of the power we need and our house is so leaky we didn't bother with make up air (no one in the inspection process commented on this so still not sure what the rules are where we live). We rarely go above the first 2 settings of 5 anyway (so probably no more than 300 cfm most of the time).

I didn't even know venting was much of an issue until falling down the GW rabbit hole and finding myself trying to understand all the variables. After much reading, I was leaning towards an in-line blower with a silencer, but we ended up with a 42" Zephyr Monsoon insert based on the advertised decibel levels and getting assurances from the salesman that noise wouldn't be a problem.

Turns out noise is a big problem. I expected loud on the higher settings, but the lowest setting is 450 cfm, and it's so noisy that it isn't comfortable to talk around, let alone hear a voice or music in the next room. After living with it for a few months, we've decided, unhappily, to try an Abbaka roof-mounted fan with a silencer, and we'll sell or donate the Zephyr. There's a "thank God!" moment every time we turn off the Zephyr, and the idea of having to endure that year after year was more painful than shelling out extra money. Live and learn.

raee_gw, I purchased a Broan 390cfm power pack, from Amazon, and inserted it into a DIY surround with DIY liner. When searching the link, I noticed that they also sell a Broan 500cfm insert (at more than double the price), but the text says it's 'less than 90 sones'. The 390cfm insert is 6 sones, so that must be a typo, although one of the two reviews states that the 500cfm insert is very loud (it says 'very load', which I assume means very loud), and no other specs are listed. The text states it also needs batteries for something. Broan 500cfm power pack

ETA, Overstock sells the Broan 500, and lists the noise level at 9.0 sones (sounds more like it). Overstock listing

We have a 30" Bosch induction cooktop on our island, paired with the telescoping vent hood (Bosch) -- love the setup! Max height is 13". As long as we do our sauteeing and pasta boiling on the rear hobs next to the hood (which we do), the hood draws extremely well! Except for my banging around the kitchen, DH often can't tell when I'm cooking (lack of aromas). During the planning stages, I would have been perfectly fine with a hood coming down from the ceiling -- really straightforward venting right up into the attic (where we had easy access to work) and out the rooftop. But with kitchen 10' ceilings and open floor plan, DH just didn't want to break up the visual. Plus, guys and buttons: once he saw the Bosch demo in the showroom, he was sold! :)

From the rear:

Mushrooms a'cookin'!

We are moving into a house with a Gaggenau venty thing like Javiwa. We have a gas cooktop. I am despairing over the set-up because I have been told the downdraft doesn't work properly and the walls in the breakfast room are upholstered- so I am concerned about the setup and debating whether I should replace the vented downdraft with an unvented overhead hood. Any thoughts? Don't ask me why we can't install an overhead vent- its a long story involving neighbors who are tired of construction on our house. Any advice would be much appreciated- and we do cook- all sorts of things- no curries- lots of garlic and meat and onions- some stir frying and some regular frying- we love Chinese food.

At the risk of this being way TMI- we were not the ones who remodeled the house- we bought it remodled and then were told that the housing association put a two year moratorium on work in our house due to how long the residents had to endure construction on our place.

Abby - By "unvented" do you mean with a recirculating vent? From what I've learned here and on Houzz, recirculating vent is the least desirable, followed by downdraft and over the range micr vent, and the best is a vent to the outside (without microwave).

I have a simple 30" gas range and a pretty (to me) wood hood with Broan insert. I bought the hood unfinished and stained it to match my cabinets. Wood hood, vent insert and labor came to about $1000. It is a simple cottage / vintage style - pics in my "my pics" idea book. It looks much better than the almond hood it replaced:)

Thank you, jhmarie. Yes, I mean recirculating by unvented. So people think it's better to have a properly vented- not recirculating- downdraft than an overhead recirculating. I am so grateful for all the wisdom here.

Yes! Anglophilia my sole goal in a range hood is making sure I don't set the fire alarm off again! That alarm is so sensitive if I do more than fry eggs (three minutes tops) I set the alarm off and, yes, the alarm is located on the other side of the house.

mama-goose - I just checked my receipt - I've got the same Broan insert - it does work well. I bet your DIY hood is very pretty.

I have an OTR microwave vented to the outside. It's pretty good, and I don't notice a lot of smells afterwards but if I think something is too smelly I open the window perpendicular to the stove and that takes care of some issues. This works well for our needs. The high setting is quite loud and I usually only use it for stir-frying and switch to low when I'm done. I generally leave the vent on when we are eating and then turn it off during cleanup. My kitchen is very small. If I had room to put a counter top micro somewhere (even on the bottom shelf of a cupboard) I would have put in a regular stovetop vent hood.

i have a recirculating OTR microwave, unvented to the outside. As everyone says, it really doesn’t do much. It’s not deep enough to cover the front burners, and odors do linger. Not venting to the exterior is probably the biggest disappointment in our remodel, but I knew that going in. We live in a townhouse condo, and the range is on a fire-rated party wall to the adjacent house. It’s close enough to have an angled vent to the front wall, but that didn’t meet code, which requires the vent to be 10’ from any adjacent house and 5’ from any operable window. That condition doesn’t exist on the front wall. Also we’re in a historic district, and the kitchen is on an intermediate floor with finished space above and below. Given there was no way to run an external vent, we went with the OTR microwave, and open a window when needed. If I ever live in a single-family house, it will have an outside vent.

Abby,

I am not sure how the HOA can hold you a new owner to that requirement. I would challenge it. Another track is to get a doctors note saying the poor indoor air contributes to your health issues. Installing a hood takes about 1hour. Cutting the hole in the roof or exterior wall is probably the most labor intensive thing. If I were in your situation, I will reach out to the HOA and discuss this issue before assuming you can't make the necessary changes to your home. What if the previous home owner left you it a safety issue in your home? You have to wait 2years to fix it? What happens when your furnace goes out and has to be replaced? This is analogous to having a furnace or hot water heater installed.

Best of luck!

I would tell the HoA to SHOW you where they had the authority to put a moratorium on you for ANYthing.

I would be SO all over them. They can deny modifications to the outside of the house but they have NO authority to tell you that you cannot modify the inside.

Man, wish I was in that HoA.. I'd rip them a damn new one...

I am going to be fired up FOR you.. lol.. lemme at em! heh

@Abby pull the by-laws and challenge the HoA. HoAs can only control the outside of your house. They have no legal right to dictate anything you do inside.

AMEN! and if need be, tell them all of houzz will move there and vote their butts out and then sue them for harassment!.. lol

I've been there with the HOA trying to force to me to put plantation shutters in my house vs curtains. They want every windows in the community to look identical.

I simply read the by laws and declined. The neighbors were pissed but could do nothing.

Yea, my new HoA committee guy tried to tell me I could not build the house where I wanted because it obstructed his view. By the time I finished with them, the president of the HoA sent him an email telling him to "shut the hell up. I can build what and where I want".

He has been nice ever since.. lol

HoAs get me fired up :P

Homepro1, Russ & beachem, thank you so much for your kind, fighting words. I plan on challenging the dears at the HOA, thanks to your encouragement. There is one teeny-tiny mitigating factor I didn't mention- the new house is in London. So while we share a similar legal system with the English and have the same respect for property rights, I was a bit more bashful in my thinking before being encouraged by you. Now I am ready to go toe-toe and get my properly vented hood.

Abby,

No need to be bashful at all! Where are you in London? I am due for a trip to visit sometime soon so we can still come over and "talk" to the HOA for you. I have a Public school education so I can go toe to toe with the best of them:-)

Just make just make sure that you read the HoA bylaws first. It lists out what the homeowners have agreed to let the HoA control.

If it's not in the bylaws, they can't enforce anything that is not there including controlling renovations inside your house.

homepro1, et al, we'll be in South Kensington, hopefully by mid autumn. In all seriousness, please drop me an email (tashlinc at me dot com) and come over any time you are in the area.

beachem, I am going to go over those bylaws tonight.

post those buggers here and we will all slap them with some knowledge! lol

Thought I'd throw this photo up here again instead of "1,000 words" to illustrate why I miss the vent hood in my previous kitchen...

From an earlier post:

"Pan frying burgers with the intense evening sun coming in like a laser beam through the west window."

How timely! I am trying to pick a vent insert to go in a custom wood hood.

And how disappointing to hear about your experience, @AvatarWalt, as salespeople at two separate stores recommended the Zephyr Monsoon II to me just today.

Our current vent is a 16-year-old Dacor monster that is so horribly loud that I only use it when I'm cooking something smelly or generating a lot of heat. I was determined to go to a remote blower but we can't go through the roof, and if we go on the wall, it will be directly behind our hood (so apparently not much quieter) and practically on top of our neighbor's patio (houses ridiculously close to each other).

Does anyone know if the Vent-a-Hood 48" 3-blower BH346PSLD-SS is reasonably quiet? That was another option. or a GE ZVC48LSS.

The OTR microwave vents work OK ... starting the vent BEFORE clouds of curry smell are all over the house is important.

I would like a real vent, but the current kitchen configuration doesn't allow it.

I want this: Retractable Vent.

It's totally cool.
Since I don't cook much, what the heck!?

Turns out noise is a big problem. I expected loud on the higher settings, but the lowest setting is 450 cfm, and it's so noisy that it isn't comfortable to talk around, let alone hear a voice or music in the next room.

Oh crap. We ordered the Zephyr Monsoon series 1. Which one did you order?I'll have to talk to our salesman.

cpartist- Ours is the Monsoon II, 42" 1200 cfm insert. It's ridiculously hard to try to figure out how loud fans are and to compare the numbers, but I downloaded a decibel meter onto my phone and, while it's certainly not a precision instrument, it reads about 80 decibels ("max 83") if I set the phone on the stovetop with the fan on the lowest setting. Various websites compare 80 decibels to an alarm clock, garbage disposal or dishwasher (not my Miele!), or a freight train at 15 meters, and a Perdue chart says that "upper 70s are annoyingly loud to some people." Indeed.

Wish I could be more reassuring, and I have no idea how the Monsoon series 1 or other fans compare, but this one is too loud for my ears.

A guy in my daughter's HOA tried to "ban" my vehicle from parking anywhere in the community other than inside DD's garage because it was an "eyesore." It was an inexpensive Ford, about 10 years old, but no dings, dents, or dirt anywhere. He was over ruled and forced to apologize to me, wherein he mentioned a couple of times how angry his wife was at him, haha! The last HOA community I lived in made us fix two shingles that appeared (to them) to be "out of alignment." Oh, did I mention it was the roof of our DOG HOUSE? Never again. Never. Again.

Onto the topic at hand. I currently have a vented hood of indeterminate brand. I'm pretty sure it's the original hood in my 37 yr old home, and I'm positive it's never been cleaned (until I moved in). If you recall, I bought this house from hoarders who never, ever cleaned their house. Even after I paid people to clean the whole range (electric coil stovetop), including the hood, it is the most vile, disgusting thing I've ever seen. It's also frighteningly loud. I'm certain it doesn't pull up anything; not grease, not odors, nothing.

When I remodel the kitchen, I'll most likely stay with a vented hood since there's already the hole in the roof. I would reconsider if there wasn't a way to use the same hole.

I know this topic has been passionately argued over for years on this forum. And I mean passionate! But I've had the recirculating vents before and, at least in my case, have found them adequate (please don't execute me at dawn for saying that!). There are a couple of secrets to keep them working well, and I assume this would also apply to OTR recirculating micros. First, many of them recirculate the air through a charcoal filter. You have to replace that filter once in a while! :-) Just like furnace or A/C filters, if you never replace them, they get dirty and cease to clean the air; in fact, they make it worse after a while. Second, while you're at it, go ahead and clean the other parts too. If you rent, make the management replace the filter when it's due.

For now, my "vent" is the two windows in my kitchen. I happen to think my cooking smells good, so the windows are basically to keep a very sensitive smoke alarm from going off.

Russ, where can I order one of those pot roast pillows?

Pot Roast Pillow... I must have typo'd somewhere and don't remember where.. lol!

Every single HoA we have been in has tried to mess with us. The one before last sent me a letter from 2 days after we had moved in, and Memorial weekend, about my boat being in the driveway. Then I was told that I could "park the boat in the driveway for 7 days, because it had the name of my company on it, but the trailer had to be moved as it did not have the name on it"...

I finally slammed them hard and they left me alone for the last 6 years...heh

The one we are moving in is great. They only have one guy that is a "know-it-all" and they pretty much tell him to go away or ignore him anyway, so no worries. It is a really small HoA and they tolerate him, but keep him in check.

Anyway, on the topic.. pictures of the new vent.. and soon.. so the HoA likes you more ;)

R