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Flush ceiling-mounted hoods

Rachele Kanigel
6 years ago

I'm doing a major kitchen remodel and need to put the range under a pass-through to the dining room. I want to avoid a big hood in the middle of the pass through and I'm considering the Best Cirrus (http://www.bestrangehoods.com/store/products/productdetail.aspx?id=b7b66c7a-8d84-42b8-99f3-1630e77c7102) and the Zephyr Lux (http://zephyronline.com/products/arc/lux_island) above a 36-inch range (make and model to be determined). Has anyone had experience with either of these? We currently have no hood, just a fan, so we can deal even if they're not quite as efficient as an over-the-stove hood..

Comments (25)

  • cpartist
    6 years ago

    Are you sure you can't move the cooktop? Have you considered posting your floor plan on the kitchen forum so the kitchen gurus can take a look?

  • Rachele Kanigel
    Original Author
    6 years ago

    I have posted it and met with a kitchen designer and an architect. There's no place for the cooktop but under the pass through or on the island.

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  • weedmeister
    6 years ago

    No experience, but if it were me, I would surround the unit with some 12" frosted glass panels (or stained glass, or whatever). That wouldn't interrupt sight lines and could look nicer.

  • cpartist
    6 years ago

    I'm sorry but I don't see where you posted in the KITCHEN forum. I see you posted in design dilemma but not kitchen forum. I think there probably is a better solution than that safety hazard of your stove being in the way of the pass through. Just my 2 cents. (I looked at your layout. Sophie is correct.)

  • kaseki
    6 years ago

    Ceiling vents have to accommodate the rising and expanding cooking plumes. This requires that they cover a reasonably large area, depending on ceiling height. If you were OK with a ceiling fan, then your representative linked units won't be worse. But they will also not be adequate for good capture and containment.

    Large capture area leads to costs exceeding those of a hood based system. While the flow rate per square foot can be less than 90 CFM due to plume cooling, the large area keeps the required total flow rate large, also forcing the make-up air system to be large.

    Commercial entities sometimes use perforated ceilings where the collection area is the entire ceiling space. However, they have to use significant air and, due to grease collection in the entire ceiling manifold, often ultra-violet light to break down the grease.


    http://www.kitchen-ventilation.co.uk/heydal

    Rachele Kanigel thanked kaseki
  • kazmom
    6 years ago

    I have the same issue as you do. While there are other places we could put the stove, they all lead to major foot print changes and a cost that I am not willing to incur for this kitchen. I looked at different options and ended up going with an island hood. I am not sure how big your pass through will be, mine is more a half wall, so I am hoping the island hood won't be too obtrusive. It looks huge sitting in the basement waiting for the remodel! I googled pictures of hoods in pass throughs and hoods in between kitchen and dining rooms and the pictures I found weren't bad, so I am hoping it will work out. I did consider the ceiling hood or no hood at all (we are getting an induction range), but in the end decided on the island hood. I figure if I hate it then changing it to something else is a future project.

    Rachele Kanigel thanked kazmom
  • Stan B
    6 years ago

    What is your cooking style? Do you wok, grill, fry? Do you make curries or other aromatic dishes? Do you do this daily or a few times per year? The hood pulls out air that contains heat, grease, moisture, and odors. If you don't generate heat, grease, moisture and odors you have less need for a high functioning hood. If you DO generate these then you have MORE need for a high functioning hood.

    Rachele Kanigel thanked Stan B
  • friedajune
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    I agree with your other post where Sophie said you need to re-think your design. Me, I wouldn't want to spend a big bunch of money, only to have that expense be for a design that will frustrate me and not work well.

    Another problem with the ceiling "exhausts": when you have to clean the filter, you will need to climb a tall ladder to do it. And if you don't clean the filter, it will become clogged with grease and be blocked from exhausting, so again, a big bunch of money spent while the exhaust is rendered useless. Sometimes the filters get so clogged with grease--because it's such a chore to climb up there so that it doesn't get done--that there is no more room for the grease to go, and it drips down onto the cooktop (or perhaps your head). Ask yourself how often you will be willing to climb up there to clean the filter.

    Rachele Kanigel thanked friedajune
  • Joseph Futral
    6 years ago

    Are the ovens drawn double built-ins?

    Joe

  • kaseki
    6 years ago

    The risk of dropping filters from that height onto range, cooktop, or counter will require protection planning. Step-ladders and an adjustable painting plank may be called for.

    Here is a photo taken a few years ago of a likely bigger hood than you need hanging from an 8-ft ceiling between what is left of my original living room and my expanded kitchen. The hood ventilates both a 36-inch induction cooktop and an induction wok. If it were to be accused of being obtrusive, I would agree that to many it would be. For me it is just a point of interest, because I believe function should be a priority over style (but achieving both is better). Most of the other stainless steel in the kitchen is overlaid, so the steeliness is attenuated. The hood could have been an insert into a wood cabinet, but then the wood might dominate the kitchen. The hood lower edge is above my height so sight lines remain good. (This photo also illustrates a spousal rule: Let no horizontal surface be left underutilized.)

    Rachele Kanigel thanked kaseki
  • David Mitchell
    6 years ago

    We are designing our kitchen right now as well and deciding between the Zephyr and Cirrus. I think the ceiling mounted hoods look cool (we don't do a lot of high grease cooking) and we like our cooktop on the island (after much consideration). I say go for the ceiling mounted hood! Let me know which one you decided on.

  • Rachele Kanigel
    Original Author
    6 years ago

    We haven't bought it yet but I'm leaning toward the Zephyr. I was able to see it in action in the Zephyr showroom in SF. It seems pretty cool.


  • cpartist
    6 years ago

    A lot depends on the height of your ceiling too. I too had looked into it originally and was told that it becomes less functional above 8'.

  • Megan Mitchell
    6 years ago

    Futuro Futuro also makes an interesting one called the skylight

    I was looking into these, but they ended up not being an option for us because we have a second floor above the kitchen... I have found it very hard to find information on them... making me wonder how great they are


  • Beth A.M.
    5 years ago

    I'm a little late to the party....but did anyone purchase the Zephyr Lux Island Hood or something similar? We just purchased ours....it will be installed next week! We're having trouble convincing the City of Oakland, CA building inspector that it can get the job done since it is ceiling mounted. Is anyone on this thread from California and got the hood installed and approved by their local permit inspector? Where do you live and what documentation did you provide to assure them that it does not need to be 30" away from the cooktop?

    Thanks!

  • User
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    They are completely useless if you cook at all. Anyone that understands ventilation knows that. It's obvious. They are way too small compared to the spread of the HOGSS at that height. Poor capture means grease and odors covering everything. Gross.

    Cleaning the grease filter is such a royal pain that it just won't get done. That will result in built up grease that is a fire hazard. They aren't even decorative. They are a waste of money. Good for CA for cracking down on false advertising!

  • Gina McEvoy
    3 years ago

    Did you install this hood? I am thinking of doing the same and would like feedback.

  • rureadyinla
    2 years ago

    We are thinking of replacing our island hood with a flush ceiling vent. We have some tall folks (6'5") in our household. We have standard 8' ceilings and we do not fry much as 90% of our meats and vegetables are baked or broiled/roasted. We are very basic in our cooking (no woks, no grilling on cooktop, etc.). We mainly use the cooktop to make soups, rice, eggs, boil water (for my tea), and occasionally brown ground turkey. The one thing that my husband does make on the cooktop about once every two months are tacos. That is really the time we need a decent vent for when he makes the shells (I do not like the smell). Any thoughts?

  • Dr Del jacq
    2 years ago

    What is the maximum ceiling height that i can use use a flush ceiling mount range ventilation ? Id also like to know the best brand for a wolf 36" gas range. I want one that really works because I hate food smells in the house

  • kaseki
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Odor elimination requires complete capture and containment of cooking plumes. These plumes expand as they rise, deviate due to drafts from hot air furnaces and/or air conditioning, and spread due to turbulence from moving people in the area.

    Normal hoods are placed in the zone between 30 and 36 inches above the cooktop. That is, to 6 feet above the floor. Commercial hoods, usually larger in capture entry area, are typically set at 7 feet unless one counts ceiling systems. (See Heydal's ceiling for example: https://cms.esi.info/Media/documents/Brita_heydal_ML.pdf) One can always use a commercial system that grows appropriately at any height. However, these are not only large in plan view, but tall in elevation view.

    On top of this, you need to consider, or specify, what your ceiling and joist characteristics are and if there is an attic above or a living space.

    Wolf makes a ceiling mounted hood, and the descriptive information appears on pages 139 through 142 of the Wolf Design Guide, available at Wolf's web site. The available units are only 21 inches wide in the short dimension. I would consider this to be ineffective in capture of any significant plume such as hot oil cooking (searing and wok cooking). I'd want a 5 ft x 4 ft aperture at 8 feet up, and thus embedding a custom commercial hood into the ceiling would be necessary if buying three of the wolf 4-foot units wasn't practical. Also, please note, I've never seen one of these, and have no idea whether I would consider the design details acceptable.

    I would think that such a collection area would need 1500 CFM rated (1000 actual) if we assume significant degradation of plume upward velocity; even more would be required otherwise. Make-up air is required for this level of flow rate. Most locations will need heated MUA. With filtering, the MUA might be OK passive (without blower), but if there are any combustion appliances that are using air from a space connected to the kitchen then a blower-driven MUA will be needed. (MUA threads here may be viewed for background.)

    If you want to consider a commercial based hood as a likely better choice if there is an attic above the ceiling to fit it into, @opaone may come by and provide some additional information, including what I don't know for gas flame combustion products expanding potentially wider than the cooking plume and air quality effects resulting therefrom.

  • Beth A.M.
    2 years ago

    Dr Del. We have 9’ Ceilings and a 36” gas cooktop. Because our our higher ceiling and big stove we got the stronger fan for the zypher. I think they had a formula online to calculate how strong of a fan you need and how wide of the vent to get.

  • opaone
    2 years ago

    CFM's DO NOT make up for too small of a hood.

    ------

    The effluent from cooking does not spread out linearly and the great the distance from the cooking surface the greater the interferance from air currents so while 6" wider and deeper @ 2' above the cooking surface might be acceptable, at 6' above you need to be about 24" wider and deeper (roughly).

    When commercial kitchens do a flush system they usually make the entire ceiling the hood so that the walls help to contain the effluent. They also have intricate baffle systems and multiple exhaust points to help control things.

    Flush is not a good idea in a residential setting unless all you do is boil water on an induction or you have a commercial kitchen company who is familiar with them design it.

    -----

    The best system for removing food smells will be a commercial system from Accurex, Halton or similar.

    More: https://bamasotan.us/range-exhaust-hood-faq/

  • kaseki
    2 years ago

    Most of us would like to minimize the cost impact of kitchen renovation, but the more we move into using "pro" style cooking equipment, the more we need "pro" type ventilation. The only way to avoid this is to follow the approach used by the ancient Greeks up to at least American colonial times and use a separate kitchen building. This approach provided a firestop of sorts (now provided by the cooking equipment and hood baffle assembly) and kept odors, grease, heat, and smoke out of the living quarters (a function now provided by the hood system blower and counterpart MUA system blower). Even in 19th century farms the cast iron cook stove was in a room that could be sealed off from the living quarters and cross ventilated with windows. Twentieth century middle class homes typically had doors between the kitchen and the rest of the house, and some form of modest ventilation.

    When bringing the kitchen into the living room, it is ever more important to design for both quiet and high performance capture and containment. This comes at a price that has to be accepted if open concept operation is to be tolerable for family and guests. Further, the price of equivalent performance at 8 to 10 feet in vent aperture height will be significantly higher than at 6 feet of height, as will operation over an island or peninsula vs. operation against a wall.

    A trade that can be made for adoption of ceiling flush mount is to resolve to clean the ceiling as required, and limit odor generating cooking. Some of the rising effluent including moisture and grease particulates will impact the ceiling outside the boundary of these narrow vent devices, and some portion of the impacting plume will condense on the ceiling. That which stays as an aerosol may be pulled into the vent device, but not immediately from very far away due to the flow field characteristics of slots. (See plots in Chapter 30 of the 2003 ASHRAE HANDBOOK, HVAC Applications for insight into how quickly the flow drops with distance.) Thus, ultimately, there will be a condensation grease film that may include some odor components, and a room air that contains unremoved effluent until ultimately the ventilation removes it exponentially weaker via multiple air exchanges.