Help finding a 30" hood to replace OTR

11 years ago

We are redoing part of our kitchen due to a fire and flood. We have a 30" slide in electric glass top range that I can't afford to replace (would love gas, but we are already over budget).

Our OTR has served us well, but it is almost 10 years old and I know anything I replace it with will not last as long or vent as well.

It is on an outside wall with venting straight to outside. We'd like to keep it under the cabinet, but realize the hood will likely have to be mounted higher and the cabinet will have to be made shorter and we'll lose a bit of storage up there.

Aesthetically, I love the look of this style of hood. I have about $1000 to spend, but would like to keep cost as low as possible since the whole house is being redone unexpectedly and costs are mounting quickly.

Is Bertazonni a good make, is there another similar style that I should look at? Recommendations?

Here is a pic of our range/OTR area just before demo.

Featured Answer

Debbi Branka

11 years ago

I too have the 600 cfm Vent A Hood and it replaced an OTR microwave just like you have. I didn't have to change my upper cabinet and it vents right outside the wall (through the cabinet). The only modification in teh house I had to make was tiling my backsplash farther up as the hood is about 6" shorter than the microwave was. The VAH is over your budget, but the Bertazonni you linked looks the same (on the outside) as my VAH.
Here is the before with microwave:

Here is after with hood:

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Comments (16)

skidd5
11 years ago
We have the Kobe CH9130SQB which looks fairly similar to the one you're looking at for a bit less (I had to watch Amazon--the price varied wildly from day to day). We've only had it up and running for a month or so but are pleased so far. Moves a lot of air, nice controls, and LED lights.
daisychain01
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, sarakiddo. I will have a look at that one. I just found a nice DCS on clearance at a local store, but it has some minor scratches on it - not sure if it's worth getting half price. I'm usually good at finding reviews on products, but I'm finding vent hoods to be really difficult. Good idea to look at Amazon.
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nosoccermom
11 years ago
Maybe Costco? They have NXR under cabinet hoods (however, I have no idea what the scoop is since I can't find any NXR range hoods anywhere else.)
http://www.costco.com/NXR-RH3001-Professional-30%22-|-Under-Cabinet-All-Stainless-Steel-Range-Hood-.product.100100972.html
daisychain01
Original Author
11 years ago
Hmmm, I think I may have a foggy memory of reading somewhere that the NXR at costco is just rebranded Kobe. Thanks nosoccermom. I never go to costco and hadn't considered that.
User
11 years ago
I have the 600 cfm Vent A Hood, which is in line with your aesthetic. It's been a great hood, and I cook a lot on my gas cooktop.

Link
daisychain01
Original Author
11 years ago
Just came from visiting a couple of appliance stores and ventahood looks like the best option. It's a bit more expensive but about what I thought it would be. Love how yours looks Debbie. We'd only be getting the 300CFM but right now we have an electric range and in the future will likely have induction so I think it will be sufficient.

Thanks everyone.
Debbi Branka
11 years ago
I would think 300 would be fine for electric and induction. Your subways should be able to be added on with no problem since they are fairly generic. Since you thought you'd have to replace the cabinet and you don't, maybe the extra money on the hood will all even out :)
User
11 years ago
I'd also nudge you to increase to 600 cfm if you can extend the budget (further, more, sorry!)
nosoccermom
11 years ago
daisy, I think you're right, re. NXR and Kobe. The specs look very much the same. Debbi, that looks great. I'm tempted doing this, too.
daisychain01
Original Author
11 years ago
mimipadv, I think we will stay with the 300 cfm just because I don't think we can do the make up air to run something that is that powerful. From what I understand the Ventahood squirrel cage means that more air is pulled through so a ventahood 300 cfm is more accurately 300 than a hood with baffles. Hopefully this is correct and I wasn't sold a lot of bs by the salespeople today :)
User
11 years ago
I can tell you in action, the VAH is quite effective, so you should be just fine.

I'm glad we didn't go with baffles. BTW, the VAH is easy to clean.

Good luck!
daisychain01
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes, that's what they told me - that baffles lower the cfm's. So glad you mentioned that it is easy to clean. That was my only concern. He said it was easy to clean, but at the previous store they showed me how easy the baffles were to clean and I was a little concerned.
Maine Susan
11 years ago
IMO 1/2 price for minor scratches would be great... I would grab it on any of my appliance choices!
daisychain01
Original Author
11 years ago
Maine Susan, I probably would have, but when I got to the store to see it in real life, I discovered it was actually a 36" not a 30 inch.
kaseki
11 years ago
Well, I believe (hope at least) that VaH specifies the hood and blower combination flow rate when suspended in free air (zero static pressure system measurement). This means that all else being equal, the higher static pressure in the loop (cooktop to outside back to cooktop) with baffles will further reduce the flow rate. However, in practice this depends on the overall pressure losses of the loop versus the respective fan curves (flow rate versus pressure loss) of the competing blowers, and the VaH fan curve data that I've seen suggests that with significant duct and MUA losses, their overall flow rate can be lower than a different blower used with a baffled hood. In other words, the sales claims are true sometimes. This may not make a lot of difference in many configurations, and when having reasonable ventilation is being compared to historical inadequate ventilation schemes, such as over the range microwave oven ventilation paths, any decent system will be a great improvement.

kas