I have read that they are quieter.

VAH are quieter?

I have a 600CFM VAH and while I'm not willing to complain about its noise (it does what I ask it to well) I will say that it is very, very awkward to clean. Perhaps it's because I'm 6'1", but whatever the reason, it requires some wicked back-bending in very awkward positions. The manual also says to put the blower box in the DW and this caused mine to rust and the paint to peel off in massive chunks within about 3 months. I have since got a new one but I don't dare do the same thing again. As a result, it's again, rather awkward to wash the big box in the sink once a week, as it's always dripping with a large pool of grease.

Sorry about that! Yes, VAH is suppose to be quieter from the
information I have read about. I am planning to go with
the VAH in my new home. Hope this is helpful.

We're shorter than Keitel (5'4" and 5'8"), so we find that it isn't akward to clean the VAH. Both the Prestige and VAH are great hood choices. Alot of it just comes down to personal preference. We have the VAH b/c I let DH pick the one he found easiest to clean. He's the main cleaner in the house, so it was his call.

We have a 1200 cfm Prestige with an in line blower. It's pretty quiet, even at high speed. One can easily talk with it on. The sound is not annoying, like other fans I've had , so I find I put the fan on more. It does a fabulous job capturing smoke and grease - I've grilled steaks, pork, did a butterflied whole chicken the other day. You can see smoke and steam getting pulled up and out. And we don't see smoke escaping beyond the hood and no setting off the smoke alarm!

Cleaning surprised me -it's fast and easy. The baffles come out easily and go back easily as well. It takes a minute or two, maybe less. I run them through the dishwasher. While I have them out, I wipe around the edge of the hood which picks up a little bit of grease. You can definitely see that the baffles are trapping the grease. I don't find any grease up inside the hood.

My Prestige with remote blower is pretty quiet. Easy to clean, too.

I was looking at Vent-A-Hood site and I can not see the noise rating of the fans. Saying quiet is a abstract term as compared to a a db. or Sone noise rating.

You're going down an empty rabbit-hole looking for quantifiable information on noise. Unfortunately, I don't believe there's any way to really know given that there are no legitimate standards of reporting. Also, each setup is so individual and the majority of noise (from what I understand) has to do with ducts and runs, so a sone rating report is undoubtedly based on some ideal set of (unreported) criteria that you'll likely never achieve. Until you get the hood installed in your specific kitchen you're simply not going to know. I'd suggest making your decision on what hood you think is going to do the best job.

Does Vent-A-Hood even give a noise figures I can not see any. Lot of the companies do .

I chose the Prestige partly b/c I was convinced it'd be easier to clean than the VAH, but the MAIN reason was because it has infinitely variable control for the venting and for the hood lights. I believe the VAH has a low/med/hi setting, while the Prestige has a dial you can make minor adjustments on. It also has similar control for the lights. (As an alternate option, you can have these controls installed on the backsplash if reaching the hood is an issue.)

(Mine hasn't been installed yet, but my hood cabinet was installed yesterday and I'm getting really excited!)

VAH is a spitoon, you are far better off with baffle filters. All they use commercially is baffles not magic lungs

Uh oh, it may get nasty. Guadalupe, you know VAH, like Blue Star, is a sacred cow around here!

Back on topic, I agree about the ease of cleaning of baffles. Pop in and out in a minute, go in the dishwasher and since they are stainless, no worry about paint peeling.

Are they similar in price?

Karin

I looked at VAH... looked like a piece of junk to me, and their advertizing is very deceptive... you can't flow 900 cfm with a 600 cfm blower.

We purchased a Wolf Pro Island hood with externally mounted 1500 cfm rooftop blower and Fantech silencer. Can't say how well it works since I have not installed it yet, but I can say it is gorgeous and impecabbly finished.

Best by Broan has inline and external blowers that appear to be from the same manufacturer that Wolf uses for their supplier. If you want quiet, this is the way to go... but it also costs more, in some cases, a lot more. Ours was around $4K for everything.