I posted about this on Kitchens but hoping for some input here from the appliance pros! We're really crushed as we're nearing the end of a grueling kitchen reno, and getting our hood installed was supposed to be a celebration. Instead it is a big disppointment!

We just installed a Thermador H30HQS hood with integral VTN600Q motor (600 CFM). The installation is very clean, with just one 90 elbow and then 5 feet of rigid ducting to roof cap. Well-secured.

The noise is atrocious!!! I know we will never turn it on for normal cooking as it is now.

We did some more research and we think there's clearly a problem.

On this forum we found a great vent blower overview that states that the majority of the sound from the hood should be airflow, and the secondary component of the sound is the motor.

In our case the majority of the sound seems to be from the motor.

1) The ducting installation is good, shouldn't be an issue.

2) We turned the blower on BEFORE any ducting was installed or filters in place. The sound was atrocious. After ducting hooked up and filters in place, sound was exactly the same. It seems in a normal situation, the increased airflow resistance of ducting and filters should have INCREASED the noise level. On this case it did not. Is it possible the sound is simply airflow over the ventilator motor's blades? (It is a dual-blower model.)

3) Even on the lowest setting, you can feel the floor and cabinetry around the range vibrating slightly. On high the vibrations are easy to feel. That doesn't seem right.

4) I cannot find noise level specs for our model (discontinued model). But other hood manufacturers and even other Thermador models have specs such as 2.0 sones to 6.5 sones, low-high. Where one sone is roughly the equivalent of a refrigerator, 4 is normal conversation, 8 is city traffic. Although of course it's subjective without a meter of some sort, I would say we've got about 6+ at low and likely well over 8 at high. At lowest speed, you have to significantly raise your voice to speak to someone. I cannot hear what people are saying (in normal voices) 6 feet away. At high speed, it's like being on a subway platform when a train goes by!

It seems like maybe it's actually a problem with the motor itself....????? What do you think?

I am going to call Thermador tomorrow. I really hope they will honor the warranty and send someone out to look at it!

The hood was purchased from a local appliance store but the motor was ordered on line. As noted both are discontinued but should still be under warranty, no?

If all else fails, we might consider cutting our losses on the motor and getting a remote blower to use with the existing hood. Perhaps that would help. ???