We purchased a Kobe hood a few years ago in the 400-700 price range and were super happy with it. We decided to go with Kobe again for our remodel, though we haven't installed the new fan yet so can't report as to its performance yet.

That's helpful- thanks!

I have a victory range hood & have been really happy with the performance & quality

Hi hi there,

I had some time on the train to work this morning so I did some research on the two brands you mentioned.

NEITHER brand offers blower curves for their blowers. In nonengineering terms this means you will have NO clue the actual cfm’s you are getting with either unit. The difference between a blower you would find in a hood, and a fan you would place near a window, is that the blower is designed to deliver a certain cfm of air under pressure while the fan is designed to deliver a certain cfm under zero pressure. You can buy a 5000 cfm fan from Home Depot for about 200 dollars, but it’s going to provide you close to zero cfm if you stuck it in some ductwork.

The two brands you listed do not provide blower curves because the actual cfm you are going to get is significantly lower than their claim. How much less is anyone’s guess, but you could start with half for a ballpark. The blowers are simply too cheap and not powerful enough. The funny part is since they are so weak, they also tend to be quieter since they are not pushing anywhere close the cfm’s they claim. They actually boast about this quietness as a feature.

If you want a true 1000 or 1200 cfm hood you will need to spend significantly more money. Good luck!

I have had a Kobe for 10 yrs. 90% of the time the lowest setting takes all steam & odors out. It is practically silent on the lowest.

Good advice from @catinthehat.

How good of a hood you need depends largely on what kind of cooking you do. If your kitchen is primarily for show then either of these will do. If you do much pan frying, wok, sauté or similar then you need as good a hood as you can get (ideally a commercial hood). Everything else falls in the middle.

More: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5161173/hood-faq#n=22

FWIW, one of my pet peeves is going in to someone's house and smelling the odors of meals past. And a surprising number of these think that their hood works.

Wow thanks so much for your feedback. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the victory range hood. I do cook a lot but only use high heat occasionally so hopefully I don't regret buying an underpowered hood. I appreciate everyone's comments.

How is it? Having The same dilemma

Me too, please report back on your Victory Range Hood M. Harrison. Thank you

The Victory’s depth front-to-back of 19-11/16” would be a non-starter for me, regardless of any other specs it has. Ranges are at least 24” front-to-back, and pro ranges several inches deeper than that. You don’t want to spend money on a hood and not have it cover the front burners.

What is your exhaust duct’s diameter size? It needs to be 8” or 10” diameter. You will have problems if the duct is smaller than that for that amount of cfms.

I am always confounded when people spend really a lot on a range, and want to spend the most minimal amount on the hood. The budget for each should go hand in hand. If you can’t afford a good hood, then you should have gotten a smaller range so that you could afford a hood for it.

@M HarrisonAlso curious how your Victory hood is working out? Victory seems to be the only company that offers direct rear venting for their wall-mount style hoods.

I'm currently looking at this one:

https://www.kitchenhoods.ca/shop/range-hoods-on-sale/professional-range-hood-48-high-cfm-victory.html

It's fine.. it's a hood and does it's job. Can't say any more than that.

This is interesting. I have a Victory hood and was thinking of contacting them soon about a minor issue. I'll report back if I do.

They finally contacted us AFTER we complained on Facebook. I told them to check their phone line and email because none of their phone calls went through and emails were bounced back. Hopefully their line works now.

Between the message above dated 11 mos ago and the one dated 13 days ago (at this writing) there was a pandemic transient. Many businesses had to shift contact people to work from home. I can only imagine the difficulty (or improbability) of successful mass forwarding of business phone numbers to home numbers by the relevant telephone companies. Forwarding of email might be easier but that too could be a clown show when it is happening to all businesses at once.

"Hopefully this answers any questions or doubts!"

1 - Without published fan curves indicating CFM performance at various static pressures this information is useless. It's marketing gobbledegook.

2 - Total depth is meaningless. The ONLY depth that matters is clear open capture area or aperture. At 20" this hood is much too shallow for effective capture but judging by the photos the actual capture area is about 14" deep. This hood will provide little to no capture of effluent from front burners which poses a serious health risk to anyone using it.

How someone wants to take the information we have to offer is up to them, but we have 100's of positive reviews on Houzz and Google so you don't need to take our word for it. If anyone has any questions about any of our range hoods or information we've published we invite you to message us directly on one of our platforms.