Kitchen Vent Recommendations

17 years ago

We are looking for a wall-mounted hooded vent to go over a 36" or 30" gas cook top, which can produce a bit less than 60,000 BTU. The unit must have capacity for at least 600 cfm, be at least 36" wide, have two to three halogen lamps, and have filters that are easily dishwasher cleaned. It should also not be too noisy. The hood will be vented straight up through the ceiling, through the attic, and the roof. The house is a one-story ranch, about 30 years old. At this moment I do not know the size of the existing duct work, but I would imagine it might be as small as 6" and would have to be replaced with 8" or 10" for the kind of unit I anticipate.

As the heat of the cook-top suggests, I do a fair amount of wok cooking and steak searing as well as the occasional potato pancakes so the unit must be able to remove the grease, heat, and smell of high-energy oil-friendly cooking.

I realize that an easily cleaned filter might reduce the effectiveness of the air exhaust, but I won't want to spend a lot of time and hassle cleaning. As for noise level, it seems one solution is to remove the fan motor from the kitchen. The two options are an in-line motor or external motor, mounted outside the house. In a New England winter, the external option won't work. So the best solution is an in-line motor, probably placed in the attic crawl space which would be roughly 6 to 10 feet above the cook-top.

Since the other appliances right now are stainless, that would probably be the preference, but the appearance is not as important as the power, convenience, and reduced noise-level of the unit. As for the price I would like to keep it below $1,000, particularly since installation, if new duct work is needed will not be cheap.

Surfing on-line has not yet yielded exactly what I want.

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Comments (5)

weissman
17 years ago
You want it powerful, quiet, and cheap - pick two :-)
vivremanger
Original Author
17 years ago
Is around 1,000 cheap?
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ccoombs1
17 years ago
Look at the Broan Rangemaster Elite. It has two halogen lights in the front, two warming lights in the rear and the fan can be mounted either in-line or on the roof. It comes in 600 cfms and 900 cfms. The hood and blower each run around $350 or so. I have the 900 cfm model and I love it!! It comes with three mesh filters, but stainless baffles are available for it as well.
weissman
17 years ago
I was being a little facetious like the saying - you want your job done well, fast and cheap - pick two.

$1000 is about mid-price for a hood - some cost less, many cost a bit more. 600 CFM should be sufficient but if you wok a lot, I stongly suggest you get a 27" deep hood so that your front burners are covered. Getting a quiet hood is a bit tricky - a lot of it depends on your particular installation such as duct length. Some people think external blowers make a difference but most of the noise comes from air movement, not the motor itself.
ccoombs1
17 years ago
Sorry....it's not the rangemaster elite...it's the 64000 series hood that I have. It is 21" deep, but since I pulled the cooktop forward 3", I also pulled the hood forward. I had a staninless steel plate made to fill the gap in the back. I really don't agree with weissman that a 27" deep hood is necessary. I think it would be very annoying to have a hood that sticks out that far. I am really tall so I also mounted the hood a couple inches higher than suggested so I would not bump my head on it. I stir fry a lot and find that this hood is way more than adequate to full off all the smoke. You might want to consider more than 600 cfms though. And it's true that it is not silent even though the blower is remote mounted. the noise I hear is air movement and there is no way to avoid that. I rarely ever have to run the fan on high though, so most of the time it is very quiet.

Here's a pic of the underside of the hood with the 3" spacer plate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Broan 64000