I have a Zephyr Tempest I under cabinet hood and I LOVE it. I had to replace my old hood due to a second floor remodel that placed a beam directly over my cooktop, and my old hood was "chimney style" and wouldn't hide the beam. I looked, and looked and finally settled on the Zephyr. It is excellent. Works MUCH better than my old hood (didn't know how bad it was) and notifies me when the baffles need cleaning. They just get popped into the dishwasher and come out perfect. Bright lights for my cooktop, better than my old hood too. Only con I can think of is how loud it is on the highest level (3), but it's rare that I need that much fan. When I do, it's not on long--does the job fast. Would highly recommend.

I have this range hood, had it installed in 2012. Setup is not optimal as I vent straight out the back wall, but it works well enough in my 12x14' open kitchen plan. If I do something really strong smelling/smoky, I do have to run the fan for a couple of hours afterwards. But that's an open plan characteristic; odors go everywhere, LOL.

I don't cook as much as I used to, so am not "stressing out" the vent system as I would have done in my younger days (formal dinner parties including 10-course Chinese banquets).

Still, I'd give it a solid "B". Considering I don't have the ideal (through the roof) setup, it does a good job.

Not too noisy at low speeds, but on high fan noise is noticeable.

After 7 yrs I can't say the clean-up is ideal. The grating is just to keep things like paper towels or plastic film from getting chopped through the fans; it doesn't catch grease by itself. Spraying the fan blades with Windex works okay but eventual grease build-up on them is inevitable.

If you cook a lot, it's always going to be better to have a heavy-duty vent hood, with the type of fan blades that can be taken out and run through the DW.

I'd say for 80% of cooks the Zephyr Tycoon would probably work just fine. But if you stir-fry a lot, do Cajun cooking, etc., then even 850 cfm, especially on a straight-horizontal install like mine, is right at the edge of being underpowered.

HTH.

Jaktom Katsu, We are considering a vertical installation. Why do you consider that an inferior routing for the exhaust. I thought it would be better because the path is shorter to the the external went on the wall? Is a vertical installation noisier? We are in the process of settling on a ventilation insert in a complete reno. Our stove is also on an outside wall. Thanks for your advice.

Back in the "old days" of GW, there were very intense discussions on range hoods. An old pro there detailed the reasons why it's better to vent UP (vertical) than straight out (horizontal).

It's the natural tendency of heat to rise; the vertical exhaust assists the updraft which carries odors/steam/grease more efficiently. Doing a horizontal run like mine, you're having "push" everything out, rather than the fans helping to more naturally "pull" the exhaust out.

That's why you don't have wood-burning fireplaces that vent straight out - they'll always go upwards first before curving or turning, as necessary, to vent from the house.

HTH.

The natural rise of hot cooking effluent is essential for plume capture by the hood. It is not a significant part of moving the effluent through the ducting. Hot plumes rise toward a hood at up to roughly 3 ft/s or 180 ft/min. The minimum recommended flow rate in the duct to outside is around 1000 ft/min, with a maximum of 2000 ft/min.

For good containment of the effluent captured by the hood aperture, specific volumetric flow rate at the hood aperture should be in the neighborhood of 90 CFM/sq. ft. This will successfully entrain the effluent into the blower induced flow past the baffle openings, where the flow velocity will be near 180 ft/min due to the baffle gaps being roughly half of the baffle area.