Z line range hood - more than TWICE the decibels - why so loud?
r m
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
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kaseki
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Will the range hood be loud?
Comments (30)I have a 1200 cfm hood over a 60inch Wolf range, and I too was very concerned about the noise level. I did not use the vent in my previous kitchen because it was too loud.We had to make 3 turns (yes 3) before a 10 ft run to the outside wall. The blower is mounted outside. I am happy to report that the noise is minimal. As a matter of fact, i sometimes forget to turn it off because i dont hear it anymore. I use in on medium most f the time. It is louder on high, but I only turn it on high when I am trying to clear smoke or frying fish, and even then it is not unbearable. It is truly one of my favorite things in my new kitchen. The baffles are easy to clean and it does an incredible job venting!...See MoreZ Line range hood owners - thoughts?
Comments (8)I hope everyone here knows by now that CFM values are those of the blower operating in free air (zero static pressure) and not in a hood, connected to the outside by a duct, and trying to pull air from a residence interior with varying success depending on the nature of the make-up air supply path. So what you see on the spec sheet is not what you get. Also, as pointed out by others here since at least 2010, sound levels of hoods have no official or manufacturer-wide standardization of measurement technique, and so should be considered indicative, but not directly comparative with those reported by other manufacturers. One hopes that they are comparative among other units of the same manufacturer's offerings. One would probably have to physically view a Wolf hood inside the baffle space as well as outside to gain some appreciation for differences. Some of these will be metal composition, thickness, and welding quality, as well as strength and baffle effectiveness and noise. However, not all manufacturing costs are sheet metal and motor winding wire; for example, Wolf will answer the phone and try to help (not that much help should be needed for a hood), so their overhead will be higher than others stamping out hoods internationally without real national support. I recall reading other comments over the past year or so related to Z-Line, so a search with Google or other search engine with this site specified may be productive....See MoreZephyr hood with "decibel suppression system"
Comments (7)"... pesky decibels flying around the house" Heh heh. Good one weedmeister. At first I thought someone had invented a new unit of measure, suppressing decibels to millibels. What Zephyr meant was noise suppression, hence a lower decibel measurement value at a given location. I suspect the author of that advertising gimmick didn't know much about the topic. One can only suppress noise from a hood with an internal blower in a limited number of ways, mainly: lower air flow rate less restrictive (but maybe less effective) baffles different blower design reducing blade tip turbulence noise (larger slower fan) As noted in the sones values, this reduction will be modest, at best. Unfortunately, decibels and sones are not particularly close (commensurate) friends; see the link for more details. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sone kas...See MoreHood, Plan B. Zephyr too loud, so now what?
Comments (5)(1) Nothing would surprise me about the limitations included in warranties; they aren't written to provide any more customer benefit than is needed to support sales. (2) Possible actions causing damage (that I can think of): Trying to force a blower assembly into a hood space it wasn't designed to fit Connecting an incompatible blower motor with a hood's included blower control. Otherwise, lock-in is a likely manufacturer goal, as is also not having to support customers who have problems when they try mix-n-match. For entertainment, review a warranty to see how many sentences provide benefit to the customer, and how many limit the liability of the company. In the case of in-line or roof or wall mounted blowers, no incompatible shape forcing is involved. If the hood has a typical continuous motor control (diac/triac, some more sophisticated control chip with SCR) module, it should work with any single-phase induction motor that is not more powerful than the one it was designed to work with. If, like the OP, there is an intent to change the control anyway, then there can be no issue with compatibility. All then that is left with a blowerless hood to warrant would be weld durability, (in the rare case of actually specifying the stainless steel it was claimed to be made of) resistance to corrosion, and maybe a lamp control circuit under one-year warranty. It would be laughable if a claim of warranty exclusion was asserted for a lamp control because the interior blower was removed. In general, I would suggest that if one is in the middle of a renovation, with all the issues that arise in design and then in execution, from lumber quality to spousal tolerance, it may be more efficient to go with a manufacturer's combination. Otherwise, given understanding by the customer or his sub-contractor of the principles involved, there should be no problem with using a different blower manufacturer than hood manufacturer when the blower is external to the hood. In general 2, I would suggest for those that can afford it that purchase from a hood manufacturer that one can determine from Internet comments stands behind their product is a good idea. This forum has some threads on lack of response or poor response from some brands' manufacturers. I don't expect there are many for Wolf, or ModernAire, inter alia. kas...See Moreopaone
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoLibby Estell
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