Just laws of physics, but most of your smoke and grease will dissipate throughout the kitchen (and onto your windows behind the cooktop) before it reaches all the way to the ceiling. That is why recommended hood height is 30"-36" above the cooktop. Setting that aside, how do you clean the filters? Climb up on a ladder, take the filters out from the ceiling, clean them, and climb up the ladder again? Are you --honestly--going to do that on a frequent basis?

Hmmm! Good thought. Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I somehow didn't see your post till it was brought to my attention today. Cleaning would certainly be a hassle but then again there is a huge aesthetic gain in my mind that may make the occasional hassle well worth it (allow me to be entirely honest and add that I don't do my own cleaning and don't mind one bit paying someone to do this, as long as they don't crack the glass cooktop below which I now realize would be a real risk). I have yet to find a typical range hood that I would like to have in front of the window, and one of the first things you'd see from my front door. However, I (reluctantly) accept that this is an appliance that has to work well and be used properly above all else. Our HVAC wizard has assured me that it will work well for us, can't remember which CFM he recommended but assessed the height and air makeup requirements, space in the ceiling, etc, and was confident that it would work well. However, based on additional concerns raised on another recent thread, today I found another HVAC company who has actual experience with the product so I'll have them in for another opinion next week. Thank you for the reality check!

I haven't seen that one. I've seen the Gaggenau, but haven't used it. It's black, though, and I don't think it can be altered, so probably not an option. It is MUCH bigger however. The picture in your link doesn't look significantly bigger than the cooktop. Just watching how steam moves in my kitchen, I'd think that the plume would be considerably wider than what they show. But that might just be the picture, and you have your experts.

A warning on the powder coating: I was going to have my hood "custom matching available" powder coated to match my tile. It wasn't custom matching. They have stock colors that they're willing to sort of match (and they had nothing even slightly close). My understanding (possibly faulty) is that the materials that are used for powder coating can't really be customized like paint. You could be lucky with an off white that's close enough, but even so, you might want to match the paint to the powder coating, rather than trying to match the powder coating to the paint.

I hope you'll continue to update us. It's an interesting concept and it would be great to hear how it works out for you. Good luck.

Thank you for the heads up on powder coating, Plllog! I just assumed the colours could be custom mixed to match but what you say makes sense. We recently had our driveway gates refinished and ran into some issues with limited colour choices because of the technical composition of the paint. The same issue might apply here. Also, a while back I was considering a custom coloured Blue Star oven and was surprised that, of the the 100 colours available, they don't offer a creamy off-white or even a warm super-light grey. Was told that colour is hard to create in the type of paint that is required for their application. Interesting!

Anyhoo, I had a great phone call with the HVAC tech who has installed a few Lux's before but no follow up since. No reply to emails (photos and measurements he requested) or return phone call to book a visit. So no progress there. But I did find out that a model home about an hour from me has one installed and I hope to find a day to go check it out.

Kaseki, thank you so much for all the excellent information. I have only just started to better understand ventilation and make up air and it's giving me a lot to think about, and frankly I'm getting scared off of this product as a result. I didn't realize that having too much ventilation could be a problem (other than noise). I had a very long phone call with a residential building code engineer at our municipality the other day (regarding putting the cooktop under the window, it's 100% safe and permitted in my case! yay!) as well as a great chat with a gas fireplace insert technician, both schooled me in ventilation physics and just how finely balanced a home *should* be in this regard. We have four wood burning fireplaces which all have gas starters, as well as some other gas appliances, and a large home with a weird layout. These factors, along with the height of the Lux over the cooktop, has made me realize this plan might need advanced degrees that I don't possess in order to feel confident about it.

I'll keep you posted....

Wow! Four fireplaces, cooking ventilation, probably bathroom ventilation, and indeterminate window status calls for dynamic pressure balancing. This would likely be true even without any kitchen ventilation. A large area passive make-up air path would be nice to have, but filtering it will cause too much of a pressure drop for the fireplaces unless their draw is outstanding.

While passively controlled continuous blower make-up air can deal with this (as in large buildings), most residences do not want a large MUA blower running all the time. One alternative is a blower motor drive control loop that is controlled by differential house pressure relative to exterior pressure. This is not trivial to do accurately and stably, although the existence of Fuji modular computers that can self hunt for stability parameters may be a key part of the solution.

kas

Update for anyone interested in the Zephyr Lux - yesterday I had a visit from a rep for the company who I had been told had installed a few of these in the past. Unfortunately I was misinformed, they'd never seen one before. I live in a small-ish city on an island and this is one of the limitations I wouldn't have encountered in my previous life outside a major centre. Frustrating but such is life - we still love it here. The technician studied all the specs and had a phone call with the dealer to confirm some details. End conclusion is that the Lux won't fit between my floor joists in the ceiling without major labour involving opening up much the ceiling. Even if I was willing to do that (there's decorative woodwork on the ceiling so not something I am willing to do for what feels a bit experimental), there's still doubt that it would fit vertically. The tech said that it appears to him to be designed to fit where there is attic access above (we have a second storey), or in a new build. However, he wasn't confident in his assessment, just as the first guy I had in wasn't. So I'm leaving it behind and moving on to a typical ceiling mount unit, for which standard ducting to the outside already exists.

In terms of the makeup air and sorting out the effects of ventilation throughout the house in general, I have to get someone really knowledgeable in to assess the house and give me a solid lesson in all this. I tried playing around with some of the on-line calculators but didn't get very far as we just have too many variables. It's still all way over my head and I hate not understanding, especially where our health and safety could be compromised. I'm reassured for now that the house is soooo draughty. It's chilly but fresh!

Getting ready to have a white Zephyr Lux vent installed and am trying to have the ceiling painted to match BEFORE the install. Has anyone color matched this product so that the paint matched as closely as possible and if so, what brand and color did you go with? I can’t seem to find a thing online. Thank you in advance

Carol, we have the same question! What color did you choose? Do you have any pictures of your result?!

Just be sure the ceiling is at least semi gloss. It will have to withstand a lot of scrubbing all of that grease off of it.