Help with 48" range and hood

13 years ago

We are actively in process of doing some kitchen remodeling and range and hood shopping. We're planning on a 48" range, and have narrowed it down to Wolf, DCS, Capital, or American Range. If anyone has strong opinion against any of these it would help to distinguish since right now they're all so close. Our prime driver is really just to have something that's a work horse, reliable, easy to clean.

We're planning on getting the six burner and grill model, all gas ovens.

I've just started researching hoods and got completely overwhelmed, so that's where most of my questions are:

- Every range company seems to sell their own hoods, and then there's the specialized hood manufacturers. Are any of the Wolf, DCS, Capital, American Range hoods worth getting or are you basically paying for matching and brand name?

- Is 54" hood for a 48" range really necessary or has anyone had fine experience with just a matching sized hood?

- Is 1200CFM really necessary with the grill or would 600-900 be sufficient for everyday usage.

- MUA. This was a complete unknown to me that freaked me out reading threads about it in terms of cost. We live in Southern California so opening windows is generally not an issue. How can I find out if there are any laws requiring setup for this? Is open kitchen window sufficient to deal with the issue?

- I've seen a lot of names thrown out but for this size range, is there any consensus on the best, most reliable, easiest to clean hood brands for a range this size?

- I have to measure my duct size -- it's currently closed in behind a over range microwave. What's the formula or rule of thumb for the width of duct you need per CFM? The duct goes briefly up, then across to vent out the side of the house a short distance away from the initial opening.

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Comments (7)

kaseki
13 years ago
More reading on this is advised, including papers and threads at My Clippings.

However, a few truths may not be self-evident:

The hood has to overlap the cooktop by enough to capture the rising and expanding effluent.

The air flow rate has to be sufficient to contain the captured effluent before it "reflects" out of the hood. This usually (with baffles) is of the order of 90 cfm per square foot of internal hood aperture. (3 ft/s effluent velocity * 60 s/min * fudge factor for baffles that I'm guessing is around 0.5). This flow has to be pulled by the fan at the pressure loss that the ducting, baffles, hood transitions, and imperfect MUA causes. This is determined by the fan curve (flow rate vs. pressure loss).

The air speed in the duct when the fan is at full power pulling greasy exhaust should be between 1000 and 2000 ft/min, probably toward the higher end in warm climates.

So, you will probably need at least a 1200 cfm rated fan (I'd go with 1500) and a suitably scaled duct diameter, probably 10 inches. Anticipate actual flow rate to be 2/3 to 3/4 of the rated zero pressure loss fan flow rate.

The only advantage of brand named hoods is aesthetics (a personal choice among styles) and relatively turn-key (integrated) operation if using a remote fan. (See Wolf design guide.) Otherwise, other manufacturers such as Modernaire should be equivalent. With a Wolf hood you get a stick-on Wolf label medallion. :)

Baffle hoods allow the baffles to be removed in sections. These are normally stainless steel and can be run through the dishwasher for cleaning. The interior of the hood can be cleaned with cloths and suitable degreasing agents.

kas
cookncarpenter
13 years ago
As far as I know, there are no MUA requirements in So Cal. (not yet anyway) I have a 36" Bluestar with griddle, a 36" Prizer custom island hood mounted at 36" above the range. It has a 1000cfm remote blower, connected with 8" duct. It has baffles. It works fine for all but maybe the smokiest foods, which I would normally cook outside anyway. Would a wider, more powerful, larger ducted hood work better? ...probably, but my particular constraints would not allow for those
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epetti
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks. That's very helpful. I measured my duct and it's a bizarre 7", which is odd. I'm going to find out the cost of reducting with a larger size but I'm guessing that's out of my price range. I'm currently leaning toward a 48" under cabinet hood over the 48" range at an ideal 30" height and live with some smoke in the exceptional cooking circumstance.

From what I understand I should probably aim at 6" and expand to 7 rather than 8" and contract to 7". I'm leaning toward the Zephyr Typhoon at 850 CFM or one of two Kobes at around 760 CFM. All less than ideal but I think we will almost never cook with all burners at top BTU and grilling. If this handles most cases I can always open lots of windows for extreme cases.

Has anyone gotten an underpowered good and really regretted it?
epetti
Original Author
13 years ago
Following up, after talking to my contractor it turns out that replacing the ducting with 10" is really cheap so I'm going to go ahead and do that. This greatly expands my options again. Anyone have a recommendation of a good brand/model hood for 48" with 1200-1500 CFM?
deeageaux
13 years ago
Kobe SQB Series RA0248SQB1RA02DC

Kobe CH00 Series CH0048SQB1

Above are 1100 cfm, pretty good quality and less expensive.

Also on the less expensive side Best by Boan.

On the premium side

Modern Aire , Prestige, Prizer Hoods
jeweleee
12 years ago
I would love to know what kind of hood you ended up with. We are also going for a 48" BS and thinking a 52" insert with 1200 CFM and I'm completely befuddled by brands/choices. AJM is pushing the Faber as they said it is really quiet and much cheaper, but still has the 1200 CFM and the baffle filters and removable grease liner.

My local dealer was recommending a Best or Ventahood but they are at least $1K more expensive. I'm just torn if they are worth it or not. AJM guy says no different that really matters, as it is all branding. Any thoughts from the GW community?
epetti
Original Author
12 years ago
Ended up with a 48" Imperial Hood at about 1100 CFM. I liked Imperial because they're made locally and are a bit more family run, as well as not having read plenty of good reviews and reasonably priced. 48" instead of 52" was just a practical compromise decision based on what we had to work with for budget and space in the kitchen. Same with 1100 CFM. The only difference in their hoods that have different CFM ratings is the size of their ducts. They have the same fan but range from 635 CFM to 1320 CFM based on one duct or two, and 6" to 8".