We have a 48" BS rangetop with 24" grill. Our propane is a 100 gallon tank which is filled to 80%. It was filled in mid October and is currently at 67%. Our gas line is 1/2 inch which BS states is a minimum and we have not had any issues with it. We use our rangetop every day and at least once a week to either grill, blacken, or wok.

Make sure you get a large powerful hood - we have a 60" Wolf insert with a decorative hood that is 29" deep. Our exhaust fan is a 1500cfm roof mount with 10" duct and silencer and 10" unconditioned make-up air. We are very pleased with its performance.

This post was edited by racmrc on Wed, Jan 7, 15 at 6:02

Thanks. So it seems you probably use about 60 - 65 gal/yr. of propane. I use 10-15 for our current consumer-style cooktop, plus maybe another 10 gal for the gas grill (which I use year-round), so that gives me an idea of what to expect.

What type of fan did you use with your Wolf hood? Their website says that a motor is required, but it doesn't show any motors that they sell.

Also, could you give me some more details of how you supply the make up air to your kitchen? I'm still pretty confused as to how people do that. Also you said that it's unconditioned. Do you live in an area where it gets cold in the winter? We currently open a window when using our current 400 cfm hood and the kitchen gets pretty cold in the dead of winter. I imagine it would be a lot worse with a 1500 cfm fan!

We currently use a 60" Wolf insert, 1500cfm Wolf remote exhaust fan, and a 10" duct with Broan MUA damper. We are now in SC so we do not have lots of cold - but sure have the heat. Our MUA grill opening is flush in the kitchen ceiling and at a 45 degree angle from the right side of the hood and rangetop. This seems to work very good, allowing the MUA to come in from the front right side where we do the blacken and wok cooking. This location also allows us to move around without severe changes to the MUA airflow.

Our previous setup had a 48" BS but the hood setup was also 48" wide and 24" deep. The blower was a 1200 cfm external BEST by Broan and it worked good, but the hood/blower setup would not remove all smoke for wok and blacken - grilling was ok. Since we got lots of snow there (WV), we mounted the blower on the outside wall of the 2nd floor (13ft from the rangetop) and did not have to worry about all the snow. For MUA, we opened a window that was about 8 feet away and it worked good, just got very cold cooking. We fixed the issues with the WV setup (hood size, MUA, etc) when we did the SC one and we're very pleased now.

Our rangetop is 48" and our decorative hood is 60" wide x 29" deep. The way we cook, anything smaller would not capture and exhaust all the smoke, etc. The bottom of the decorative hood is also 34" from the top of the rangetop. About half speed on the hood insert/blower is all that is needed for all cooking except grilling, blacken, and wok - then we just put it about 80% (sometimes 100%) and everything goes out.

We bought our BS w/grill primarily because of the grill. No regrets but you will need to clean the hood baffles and rangetop often to keep the grease smell out. Its not difficult but something that will need to be done - for us, we clean them about every 3 to 4 high smoke cookings (grill, blacken, & wok). BS also provides a grill cover which is good but we remove it anytime we use the burners.

Thanks for that info. I was just looking at the Broan site. If I understand correctly, the damper is wired to the hood and opens when the fan is turned on. Is that correct? Do you know if they have a way to heat the incoming air and if it can be dumped into the A/C return? In the summer my wife shuts off the A/C every morning and opens all of the windows because she thinks the house is stuffy. Once the house heats up, she turns the A/C back on again. This might also be a good way to get fresh air in the house during the summer without having to heat up and recool the house every day.

Do the baffles on the hood remove all of the grease, or do you need to clean the inside of the hood as well?

>Do you know if they have a way to heat the incoming air and if it can be dumped into the A/C return?

If you are going to heat the makeup air it becomes less of a "plug and play" solution and at that point you need to get an HVAC contractor involved. You can bring makeup air into the return duct, but if your furnace pulls in air that is too cold it could cause damage to your heat exchanger. Whether this will be an issue or not depends on how much air you're trying to bring in, how cold it will get, and how far up the return duct you're bringing it in. I believe Broan covers this in an application manual downloadable from their website.

Electro Industries in Minnesota is the only company I know of that currently sells a dedicated makeup air system for residential applications. It is be expensive to buy and run, but it is specifically designed for what you are trying to do. If you go this route you are going to need to look into your electrical service. The most powerful unit they make goes up to 1200 CFM. It has 20 kW of strip heat and calls for a 120 amp breaker.

It is, however, the ultimate makeup air system for serious cooks in cold climates. This is their second version. I have never used it, but it is clear from their website that they put effort into making it as straightforward as heated makeup air can be. It can sense current drawn by the range hood motor and adjust its speed and heat output accordingly. It has an LCD display with menus to make configuration easier. You don't need to buy the blower separately, everything is packaged in 1 unit. And the 1200 CFM capacity is double what the previous generation went up to. It can provide 50ú F air when it's 0 outside.

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Wed, Jan 7, 15 at 17:57

Thanks. You've been incredibly helpful. I have a boiler and baseboard for heat, and separate central A/C for cooling. My thought was that, if the air could be heated somehow, then I could distribute heated air throughout the house via the A/C fan in winter and either cooled or uncooled air the rest of the year. It might solve the A/C disputes with my wife and might also provide some amount of backup heat (if it could also be turned on without the range hood running) in the event the boiler stops working.

I don't know if these ideas are too far out there or if they would be too expensive to implement, but there's no harm looking into it.

Interestingly enough, I called my town's building dept. today (which is usually very tough and a stickler for enforcement), and they told me that I could put in any size range hood I want without a requirement for make up air. It doesn't make sense to me, but I've seen a lot of high-end kitchens with semi-commercial hoods in town, and that explains why none of them have a MUA system.

I was just updating my above post and adding info to it while you posted yours, so you might want to read mine over again.

Your final solution is going to depend on a lot of things. How cold it gets in your climate, how often and for how long periods you will be cooking.

Thanks. It looks like an incredible system, but probably very expensive. Any idea what it costs?

I currently have 200 amp service, so it's likely I'd need to upgrade that as well. Average nighttime temperatures here are in the high teens/low 20's. Occasionally it drops a bit below zero.

One other question: do the baffles remove all of the grease from the air, or do you also need to clean inside your hood?

The MUA damper we purchased came with a pressure switch that you install in the range hood duct. Then once a certain exhaust pressure is reached it will open the damper on the MUA. However, we decided not to use the pressure switch. Instead we wired it to a new wall outlet that lets us manually switch it on and off when we feel its needed.

Sorry my last post was vague, I had to run off and do something and I hit the submit button in a hurry. I have no idea what the Electro Industries unit costs. It won't be cheap, that's for sure. The fact is though, indoor grilling is a luxury and doing it properly is not going to be cheap no matter what you do. Ranges with grills on them are expensive enough and that's only one piece of the puzzle.

First of all, how tight is your house? You might still need makeup air for safety purposes even if your local codes don't require it. On the other hand, you may be able to get away with 1200+ CFM and no makeup air at all, there are people on this forum who have done that. But I can't say over the internet whether that will work for your house. You're going to need to make that judgement call yourself if you know what you're doing, if you don't then you'll have to get someone who does to take a look. This year when I upgraded my electric range from radiant to induction. I replaced my anemic hood with a 600 CFM, which is supposed to need makeup air. I know that where I am they are sticklers about it. However, this was very small job, not part of a larger renovation, and I did not pull a permit. The hood works great and does not backdraft anything. My house is old and leaky and I was very confident that it would not cause a problem. Other people may not be so lucky.

What is your climate like, how cold does it get? If you introduce it strategically and/or deal with some cold air in your house while grilling you may be able to get away without heating it. Another option might be to bring the makeup air into your return duct with the Broan damper and add electric heat strips to your A/C air handler. It may be cheaper but it too would need electrical work and probably an upgrade of your house service as well. Also it would require more thought and planning to make sure it works right.