help selecting a wall hood vent

10 years ago

We have a 30" dual fuel Monogram and need a wall mounted hood vent. Not even Consumer Reports reviews them. Any recommendations that don't break the bank?

Featured Answer

kaseki

10 years ago

Grease collection is never perfect, no matter what the collection means and involved air velocities (see plot below for a commercial baffle system). Lower air flow over baffles will reduce effectiveness, but so will lower fan speeds when the squirrel cage of a VaH is performing the same function as the baffles -- centrifugal extraction. Generally, if the cooking conditions allow for low speed operation, the entrained grease will be less, and so will the upward velocity of the cooking plume. It would be very interesting to see a chart like this for a VaH system.

We shouldn't forget that while baffles and VaH fan blades are performing some degree of grease extraction from the cooking plume, their higher purpose is to be a fire stop.

kas

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Comments (6)

PRO
Anglophilia
10 years ago
Spend the money and get one with at least 600cfm. I wasted money on lesser hoods and finally sprang for a Vent a Hood and have never regretted the expense.
designsaavy
10 years ago
We installed a Zephyr last summer with baffle filters and it works great. Although it's not an inexpensive purchase, I believe it's an important one and well worth the expense.
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User
10 years ago
Agree Zephyr is a good starting point. Plus their website is one of the easier ones to view products on. AJ Madison website is one of the best for looking across multiple brands.
nadianyc
10 years ago
Just don't buy an XtremeAir hood--terrible product with even worse customer service and won't stand behind their warranty.
aptosca
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
I just went through this, trying to decide between VAH and Zephyr. I went with VAH and while it wasn't completely a coin-toss, I figured I'd be happy with the Zephyr, too. Both have great reviews. Both seem pretty easy to clean. I'm not sure it's true, but the impression I got was that the VAH might be better at collecting grease when operated at lower-than-maximum speeds, that baffle systems work better at higher air flow. I generally try to run hoods as low as I can because I hate the noise. That's probably splitting hairs and might not even be true but I used it as a tie-breaker in the absence of anything else. (For what I was looking at, the VAH is more expensive than the Zephyr but not by much, in the scope of all the work I'm doing.)