If you watch their site, they're always having a sale until Friday...

I am considering the same thing. Thinking of going 42" for a 36" range top and noticed that the PLZW 697.42 model has the recommended 27" depth. It looks like the baffles are limited to about 1/2 the width of the capture area, which kind of confuses me.

Will that limit capture and removal of effluent? Or increase clean up time?

This is a link to the one I'm considering: Proline PLZW 697.42

Wow, thank you so much for such a helpful, informative post! Not sure if I'm reading your comment in the first paragraph right that your feedback assumes the proline model has only a single row of baffles ("Commercial hoods (which are much taller than this hood with interior
tapered sides to the baffle area) use one set of baffles, so the Proline
is not doing anything radical in the baffle design"); it's hard to make out from the pictures for the model they post on their website, but the design has baffles on both side of the chimney (so four total baffles instead of just the two visible ones). Would that affect anything positively or negatively for the proline?

If I understand the rest of your post, I think you're saying that efficiency goes up as the distance from the opening of the capture area to the baffles goes up. And that you're also saying that the greater the baffle surface area, the higher the noise tends to be (all else equal). If so, it sounds like I should look for a deep capture area with a limited baffle size if possible to mitigate effluent capture issues and noise issues.

It's been surprisingly hard so far to find 42" wide, 27" deep models with great capture areas. Not sure if I'm willing to give the proline a chance at this point or if more research is needed. Whatever I do end up getting, I'll post how it works out. In the meantime, model advice or other feedback is definitely appreciated from anyone who wants to give it :)

par. 1: I mistook your (jviolet lee) earlier post for definitive baffle information that the provided link appeared to support. With two rows of baffles there shouldn't be a problem of relatively uniform air flow, so you can disregard for the Proline anything I wrote related to that.

par. 2: I didn't comment on efficiency exactly, only that it is possible to get away with one row of baffles if there is room to straighten the flow between baffles and aperture. Also, the more baffle area one has, the lower the air velocity through the baffles for the same blower flow rate, and hence (for equivalent baffle aerodynamics) the lower the noise. Deep capture volumes are not needed with baffles covering the entire aperture. Higher capture volume with full baffle coverage may have utility for transient plume conditions, such as suddenly removing a pan cover. In summary, as seen in the Wolf hood, high capture volume is not needed in such configurations. The caveat is that this requires that the flow rate (CFM) be sufficient that the rising plume velocity (ft/min) roughly equals that of the airflow through the baffle gaps. This is achieved at around 90 CFM/square foot of aperture area (depending on plume).

par. 3: To clarify terminology: Capture area is the effective size of the hood bottom aperture through which the cooking effluent passes. It is approximately equal to the physical size (square feet) of the opening, but may include some small fringing capture of lower velocity plume components. I do not count this peripheral area, but note that it exists. Capture volume (cubic feet) is the volume between the aperture and the baffles. In commercial hoods this is large, but in residential hoods it is modest to nil. Nil allows some modern looking designs, but I would worry that containment might be compromised with no barrier at the ends of the baffles. This flush filter scheme is probably best used with mesh filters. This is not a plug for mesh filters.

The concept of efficiency is relevant to the commercial realm. Here full capture and containment at the lowest electrical power and heating cost is the measure of maximum efficiency. Commercial hoods (with commercial make-up air systems) aim for maximum efficiency. Pro residential hoods typically strive to look pro while not degrading performance much. Efficiency is not a driver as full power operation in residences happens rarely compared with commercial settings.

kas

Thanks so much! If the baffles extended the full width (or closer to the full width) of the Proline model, I would have already placed the order. I may have to ask them how wide the actual baffles are in the 42 inch model; if they extend at least 36 inches across the total 42" width, maybe it's not much of an issue.

Whatever I choose to do model-wise, I'll post a brief review once I've spent some time with it.

did you wind up going with a proline?

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