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Why are Range Hoods mounted with no cabinets above?

2 years ago

Why do most wall mounted range hoods have no cabinets around the chimney? Seems like a lost opportunity for more storage?

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Comments (7)

palimpsest
2 years ago
Chimney style are currently more popular, but it has been very common in the past to have an undercabinet range hood in which the chimney extended through the cabinets above it. Those cabinets are not that easy to reach unless you are tall but they are great for storing things you don't use on a regular basis, for example. I personally would not put a chimney style hood in a small kitchen where I needed to maximize storage, but it is a matter of taste.
bmorepanic
2 years ago
It's for looks but, why not? The available storage above a range hood can be fairly small and of low quality. In the average 30" wide by 24" tall cabinet used above a range, 12 or more linear inches of the "storage" will be taken up by hood guts. You wont' be able to have a shelf in it because it will be cut by the hood and the duct. The rest of it may get really warm when the range runs - particularly when the hood is running. I have never seen a hood cabinet that contained anything of merit except greasy dust.

The ductwork is usually left exposed in the cabinet and it' warms things up. Not catch on fire hot, but warm enough to ruin spices or books or other fragile things. You might be able to route the ductwork in a magic way or find a magic hood that doesn't need ductwork. Others have, but I don't know of any hoods like that.

But sometimes there are other considerations - it you want the cabinet above to match depths with the rest of the wall cabinets, you might end up with a hood that doesn't work very well because it won't be able to cover the entire surface of the range. It is suggested that you cover the range plus some extra, so a cabinet for a hood for people who cook a lot or with a lot of power will stick out further than wall cabinets. And it's fair for you to trade performance for looks or a little bit more space if it's important to you.

But that's part of why people go cabinet free, or turn it into a mantle look or whatever they like to solve the ventilation problem and have it look good.
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We ended up with a Broan 'Power Pack' with an external blower. (see link below photo) We had the upper cabinet constructed with a center channel for the duct so we could still have shelves on each side, plus the duct is covered so it looks great. The results are mixed. On the plus side, the appearance is great. The Broan Power Pack (the part that installs in the cabinet) it only four inches high, so it eats very little cabinet space, and it uses just an eight-inch duct, so the channel width is reasonable. (Need a bit extra width in the channel so the installers can tape the duct connections.) With the cab doors closed, everything is covered up. With the doors open, it looks clean and we get the convenient shelf space. And with the 600cfm blower, cooking odors get sucked up nicely. But there are negatives. One is that the Power Pack is cheaply made, but what should you expect for a mere $400?!? (We would have spent more on something nicer, but neither Broan nor anyone else makes something similar with better quality.) Both the fan and lights are controlled by flimsy plastic sliding switches. The housing and the decorative cover bend out of shape easily. And it's difficult, if not impossible, to get the decorative cover to lay flat against the bottom of the cabinet. (Spent only an hour on that issue so far...hoping another 2-3 hours will get it to fit right.) The remote blower (another $400) is in the attic just above the cabinets. I think the installers had never installed a remote blower. They have it sitting right on the joists so some vibration transfers to the cabinets. In the upper cabinet just to the right of the vent hood cabinet, and right below the blower, are drinking glasses. If the glasses are touching each other, we hear the tinkling sound of the glasses vibrating against each other when the blower is on. Separating them fixes the problem. The blower is a bit noisy, but not excessive. But, in some parts of the kitchen you hear an annoying low frequency noise. It's weird. You don't hear it standing at the cooktop, but three feet away you do. The installation instructions include an option to hang the blower from chains attached to the roof supports, which might have addressed the issue. I'm thinking of putting some sort of rubber-like material between the blower and the joists to act as shock absorbers. The point is if you get an external blower, think thru where and how it's mounted. (Note on photo: Backsplash tile is, literally, on a slow boat from China...was on backorder for 2-1/2 months.) Here is a link that might be useful: Broan Power Pack
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Not sure about Zephyr but you will be very happy with Vent-A-Hood. go to their site @ ventahood.com. The design of Vent-A-Hood is very safe and very quiet. two motors to produce 600 CFM will always be quieter than 1 and the squirrel cages are designed in a way that you don't need mesh filters. Filters decrease air flow and if you sear steaks, you want performance.
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Comments (9)
"had to do with the fact that a grease fire is to be factored in" A grease fire in the kitchen is the fault of the homeowner who has not cleaned the filters, whether they be on an OTR MW or on a hood. The additional height of a hood is not going to make you safer if you aren't cleaning the accumulated grease. However, an OTR MW is a higher fire risk for several reasons. First, there are exposed plastics put in range of the heat and flame which a hood does not have. Second the tiny mesh filters on an OTR MW get clogged very quickly with grease, and third, they are inadequate for exhaust so that grease wafting up from cooking will stick to the undersurface of the OTR MW rather than be exhausted out your ductwork, leaving more grease exposed to catch fire. Unless the homeowner is cleaning the filters and underside of the OTR MW frequently. Note that Vent-A-Hood ("VAH") makes a claim that its hoods are safer regarding grease fires, because they do not have filters. VAH hoods have what they call a "Magic Lung" which is a squirrel cage inside a metal housing, and the squirrel cage flings whatever is not exhausted to the outside onto the inside of the metal housing. According to VAH, "the Magic Lung is designed to keep grease and flame from entering the duct. In over 75 years, Vent-A-Hood has never received a report of an attic or wall fire when the Magic Lung" has been in use". Of course, we cannot verify those VAH claims.
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Comments (15)
Hello Houzz Community! I found this thread when Googling a similar topic. I'd like to replace my under cabinet hood with a wall mounted hood, and yes I know I have to remove the cabinet above the current hood which I'm fine with (see photo). My existing under cabinet hood vents out the wall to the side of my house - see photo, and note the vent is not blocked by those shrubs, there is space around it, you just can't tell from the angle of the photo :-) So my question is....can a wall mounted hood be installed to vent out the existing vent in the wall, or does a vent need to be created in the ceiling? Also, what type of professional can help answer any related questions I have about this? Would I ask the wall mounted vent manufacturer? Or a handyman? Thank you in advance for any guidance! I am a newbie homeowner and am learning as I go, so truly appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge with me!
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M
2 years ago
Chimney style hoods also have more exposed surfaces that need to be cleaned. I find a single flat surface much easier to keep clean. So, count me in the camp of preferring under-cabinet hoods, even if I don't use the cabinet for storage, as we mounted our hood above head height.
darbuka
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
It’s a matter of aesthetic preference. I’ve never cared for the stark look of chimney hoods. Plus, so many of them have flat bottoms, which are not effective at capturing odors and cooking effluents. My hood is surrounded by cabinets, as you describe. Click to enlarge.
Fori
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
There are beefy under-cabinet hoods available. The cabinet over mine lines up with the other cabinets (but I thought they always do?) It's a 36"wide x 18" deep x 16" high cabinet and even with the hood duct running through it, it's decent storage. I have an ice cream maker in there...

Hard to get into? Sure! It's not for daily visits because I'm short. Didn't even put knobs on it. But it is useful storage even so, and an exposed chimney would break up my cabinet wall.

(I have much higher storage in my kitchen to follow a pitched ceiling up. Do I have to stand on my counter to get to my punch bowl? Yes! I don't care!)

ETA: I think my hood has its guts in the hood itself. In the past I've had hoods with the guts in the cabinet above and it does reduce storage. But I still want it. Excuse the mess. I can't reach up there.
vinmarks
2 years ago
We have a cabinet above our venthood but it houses the ducting. Not much room for anything up there and I couldn't reach it even if there were storage space. This pic is from when we first moved in and the house wasn't actually complete.
Hillside House
2 years ago
Because I prefer how it looks and I don’t need the storage.

(I have multiple empty drawers and cabinets already.)

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