Should cooktop/rangetop ventilation drive my kitchen design?
bessiegranddaughter
3 years ago
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Gas Cooktop/Rangetop with Grill in High-rise Apt?
Comments (12)I have no clue about our duct work, we vent at 90 degrees to exit house, about 8 feet. Our "quiet" 600 CFM sounds like a locomotive when on high, and our smoke detectors always go off when I cook steaks inside. I have the wolf df range, and I also suggest your hood be at least 6" wider than your cooktop so that it works on your outside burners. Working within the confines of HOA will probably determine your appliance choices. At least you have some existing hood/duct work, rather than a recirculating filter system. Huge plus!...See MoreProper Ventilation for 36' Wolf Rangetop with Charbroil?
Comments (16)Owen, Anytime you are dealing with a charbroiler on a piece of cooking equipment you are going to need an absolute minimum of 900 CFM. You also need to take into consideration the overall length of duct run and the number of elbows used in the run. If you have a lengthy run of duct and a number of elbows you may need 1200 CFM. Your local dealer will be able to help determine your needs based on the total BTU's of your range and the variables I have already mentioned above. I also want to try to clear up some of the other things that have been mentioned in this thread. VAH's statement regarding equivalent CFM is something that is often unintentionally misrepresented due a sales staffs lack of understanding or more likely a sales reps lack of properly explaining it during training. The truth of the matter is that, many (not all) manufacturers rate the CFM of their "blowers" not the entire system including filters. VAH tests the entire hood system. The equivalent CFM statement is based on these differences. When you introduce filters there is approximately a 33% drop in stated CFM, thus a VAH 600 CFM system performs equally as well as a competing 900 CFM system from another manufacturer. Since VAH's system is a patented centrifugal extraction style system, no filters are required so when the hoods are tested the result is true CFM ratings. Many people think an external blower system is quieter than an internal system. External blowers are actually no quieter due to the fact that you are still sucking air across a filter which is where most noise in a ventilation system is created. VAH does offer a remote system that is typically used when there is a restriction in the width of the hood. It should be noted that a VAH external system is no better or worse than another external system and the VAH external system offers none of the features of the patented magic lung system. "Aside from this, the other thing I did not like about VAH was each blower only operates at two speeds, Low and High... and if you set one to High and one to Low they fight against each other and make more noise. The Wolf, and others, have infinite speed control so you only use the power you need." I have to disagree with the statement above. The truth is, each blower in a VAH system is in its own housing. So if it is a dual blower there is no possible way for blowers to "fight against each other" as air does not mix until after is in the duct work. In addition to that, based on sound testing done by the same third party tester HVI uses, it has been proven that adding another blower in a VAH system adds little to no additional noise to the system whether 600 or 1200 CFM which is something that is not possible with an infinite speed control. As far as fan speed is concerned, a VAH dual blower 600 CFM system offers speed selection of 300,450, & 600 CFM. The fact that there is not a variable speed switch is intentional for the reasons I mentioned above. 300 CFM has been proven to be the minimum CFM required to extract grease no matter what type of filtration system. Anything less is simply not effective in removing grease from the air stream. It should also be noted that at no time are the motors in a VAH system exposed to the flow of greasy air. The same cannot be said for a filter style system. At the end of the day, tinker toy or not, a 75 yr. track record of no fire claims is testament enough to the fact that VAH just works....See MorePick My Ventilation For My 36" Rangetop (pic included)
Comments (9)Love your mock up in the pic above! In answer to your question, we have the 42" GE Monogram hood insert over a 36" rangetop. I have always understood that it's better to have the hood just slightly larger than the rangetop it's going over. So that's why the 42" Looking at your pic, you have 2 fillers on either side of the rangetop on the bottom--I would have the hood cabinetry sized to equal the rangetop cabinetry + the 2 fillers in terms of width. Gas rangetops often have higher BTUs than gas cooktops/non-Pro ranges, so you will need to make sure you check the recommended specs for your rangetop. The Monogram insert is designed to handle the higher BTUs of a Pro gas rangetop. It is VERY powerful. DH swears all you have to do to dust the house is turn the hod on--LOL! I went back and forth on baffles or screens--the baffles look nice, but when it comes to cleaning there are significantly more parts to take down, clean and replace. There are only 2 screens in the 42" Monogram hood insert. So I simply snap them out, & soak them in hot water with 1 Cascade w/ Dawn dishwasher pac for about 10 mins. Lift out, rinse and lay out to dry before snapping back in place. Hope this helps!...See MoreNeed help with design for rangetop and induction cooktop
Comments (24)The 24" Bluestar RNB griddle is said to be pretty nice. The Platinum model has a different griddle that is a lot less popular. I think, you can configure the 36" range top with two 22kBTU burners (for wok cooking and searing) and one 24" griddle. And you could then place your induction burner next to it. But then you're back to taking up a lot of space. Or you decide that after all gas makes more sense for you, and you get a 4 burner rangetop with a 24" griddle. That would already be quite big (48"). In combination with the thermostatic griddle, I have a hard time seeing the need for more than four burners. The griddle can always be used as another "burner" to keep pots simmering. I would recommend configuring the maximum number of high powered burners though. Something like two 22kBTU burners in the front and two 15kBTU burners in the back works fine. The simmer burner is IMHO a waste of space. Their regular burners regulate down just fine for simmering. And with the big griddle you always have another alternative for simmering anyway. Or you could do what restaurants do and simmer in the oven. Bluestar recommends keeping the griddle in the center and the burners on each side. That sounds surprising at first, but it makes sense as it gives more space when you have big pots. You don't want a big pot or pan to make it hard to use the adjacent burner. This is particularly important when using a wok. You could decide keeping all burners on one side, but in that case I recommend something bigger than 48". And the next step up is 60". That is huge, requires a humongous vent hood, and a complicated make up air system....See Morebessiegranddaughter
3 years agobessiegranddaughter
3 years ago
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