Stove hood

I have a friend who is building his dream kitchen, but he's running into some conflicts between his designer and his equipment. He called me for an opinion, but I rent -- I use whatever stove I get -- so I promised I'd ask the forum for input.

He's getting a Wolf stove, which comes in modules, so he can get both gas and electric cooking elements. There are three modules, each one fifteen inches wide. He was advised at Abt to get a 48-inch hood for this set-up. However, when the hood was installed, it cut into the moulding -- which has the designer going ballistic. She wants him to return the 48-inch hood and get a 42-inch hood, so the moulding won't be interrupted (it will have to be restored, but that can be done).

But his question is, from the standpoint of actually using the stove, shouldn't he have a hood that is wider than the stove? Or is it okay to have a narrower hood, especially if it makes the designer happy.

I wish I had enough money to be worrying about something like this.

Anyway, if there are any opinions, experience, or practical knowledge out there as to how the width of the hood should relate to the width of the stove, I'd greatly appreciate hearing it.

Thanks.

First the qualifications:

20 years installing and designing kitchens

CKD/CBD for 12 years.

KEEP THE LARGER HOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case I was a little vague and wishy washy

KEEP THE LARGER HOOD!!!

You basically have a column of heated and oily air that is going up when you cook. You have to have a capture area that is wider than the surface of the cooking area in order for the hood to be effective. If it is the same width or <shudder> narrower, the column wil spill over onto your adjoining cabinets and beautiful (and extremely costly) mouldings...that will not make your designer happy either unless all they care about is their "image" and not giving their customer a useful as well as beautiful new space

...why no, I'm not bitter about witless designers, why do you ask?

After reading more carefully I would go one stpe further and say that whever designed that kitchen was sloppy to say the least. THose Wolf mosules kick out beaucoup heat and I personally would insist on a 54" hood with a remote blower.

1-1/2" left and right is sketchy at best but the lesser of two evils when compared to a narrower hood altogether.

I could go on a rant about "designers" who have never studied anything beyond colour circles and what new and sparkly from Enkeboll or Blum but that's beside the point now.

Having just endured the joys of a kitchen remodel, let me echo the advice for the larger hood, and add that a high capacity fan would be a nice thing to have as well. We had a similar situation with a kitchen designer throwing a hissy fit about some modifications that I wanted to make so that the kitchen would be a bit more functional for us. I eventually overruled him, thanked him for his great vision and told him to go away. I found that you have to take complete control of the project as it nears completion if you want it to end up exactly the way you have it envisioned.

Thanks so much. My friend will be relieved, since the wider hood is already installed. And it made sense to both of us to go wider, but a lot of things that seem to make sense aren't necessarily correct. So we really appreciate the expert input.

Thanks.

Thanks for posting for me, Cynthia. After a little bit of playing with my dog, I'm sufficiently recharged and find my LTH password still works.

Octarine, thank you. Please understand I had both a Kitchen Designer and an Interior Designer, and it was my interior designer who was upset, and I do understand her feelings, as I share some of them. It doesn't look quite right, and her world really is about the look of things. Without her help, I wouldn't have as near a beautiful home.

There's no way I could put a 54" hood in without having the hood actually run over the edges of the windows, which would be unacceptable. I do think the kitchen designer should have requested more room for a larger hood, but they also felt that 3 inches wider than the cooktop would be sufficient.

For the record, good or bad, the kitchen designer was Kitchens & Bath Unlimited in Glenview.

The Range Hood is a Best by Broan K4248SS which you can see at http://www.bestbybroan.com/display/rout ... uctID=3462 that comes with a 1,000 cubic feet/minute fan which vents out the side of the house with perhaps a six foot run from the bottom of the hood's chimney.

The Wolf module that would generate the most heat is the 18,000 BTU/hour multi-function model viewable at http://www.wolfappliance.com/products/d ... oductid=75

That's in the center, surrounded by a module with two gas burners on the left and a module with two electric cooktop burners on the right side.

That's as much of the lay of the land as I can describe. The most intense heat would come out of the center, but the normal usage would be on the left side.

Any more comments are appreciated, and will be fed back to both the kitchen designer and my architect.

Steve Levinthal

Keep the big one.

Remember that even with a hood, grease, soot and other vaporized stuff, however sweetly smelling, coming from your cooktop will want to spread out. The wider the hood, the better.

In our nightmare kitchen addition, the hood+fan cost more than the cooktop. (Thermador for both). It's very, very nice.

(Note to designers -- your customers can save big bucks if the cooktop isn't on an island, because island hoods are very pricey. There are more design options on wall-based hoods, too)

I've got a Wolf range, burners, griddle, grill, and we have a Zephyr hood designed by Fu Teng Cheng (a big concrete counter guy apparently) and ended up having to have an exterior blower installed to have enough CPMs to pull out all the smoke and stuff. Our hood install was a nightmare from start to finish, put up and taken down about 5 times.

It is all stainless, rounded, and when the final install was done, our designer wanted "his" guy to install instead of our contractor. "His" installer had a pack of keys on his belt and scratched the living h#&*( out of the hood. The designer didn't account for the newly added bathroom directly above the kitchen so he neglected to consider the bended duct, the hole in the wall, the protective box over the hole in the wall.



However, go with the largest and strongest hood you can. Nothing worse than that smoke detector....

1000 cfm sounds good. It also sounds loud, that's why I suggested the exterior blower. If it's still an option they might want to look into it.

Bummer about the scratched Zephyr, nice finishes on them but they can be a pain to maintain. I'm a big fan of Fu Teng, I've installed a few concrete tops and while I lovethe way they look they are more fragile than you think. I love the look of distressed soapstone and well used butcher block but not many people do.

Octarine wrote:1000 cfm sounds good. It also sounds loud, that's why I suggested the exterior blower. If it's still an option they might want to look into it.

It all depends on how much noise is sent down the unit. The house is 2x6 construction, so the walls are thicker than normal, and extremely well insulated. It will be tested and should easily make EnergyStar certification. As such, noise and vibration could be less of a problem. Or not.

Do you have any experience with Wolf's "Heat Sentry™" feature that claims to detect excessive heat and adjust the fan speed automagically? I'm wondering if it's set only to ramp the speed up, or if it will knock it back down and be truly auto-sensing.

I've never bought one before. The price range is so broad, while the descriptions are so similar, that it's hard to form a judgment.
On line at various reputable sellers they seem to start as low as $300-$400 and go up forever. At ABT, there didn't seem to be anything below $600 or so.

Looking for a chimney style, direct venting out through the wall. Our stove is not massive (16,000 btu, I think), but our first floor space is essentially continuous, loft-style, from kitchen through living and dining area. So, this thing does need to do the job, and also do it without sounding like an airplane taking off.

Any wisdom nuggets from actual lived experience appreicated. (At present, if I sear a small steak, all the alarms in the house go off.)

mrbarolo wrote:I've never bought one before. The price range is so broad, while the descriptions are so similar, that it's hard to form a judgment.
On line at various reputable sellers they seem to start as low as $300-$400 and go up forever. At ABT, there didn't seem to be anything below $600 or so.

I only have experience with two:
A non-venting microwave hood, with a filter. Worse than useless, as it would blow a loud greasy haze directly into my eyes (perhaps not the experience of those of human height).

Thermador island hood. Insanely expensive (non-island versions of the same were half the price). Filters removable and can be put in the dishwasher. Too much stainless steel for me to keep clean. Noise level acceptable, and does a good job.

Look for high CFM ratings (cubic feet per minute), and low number of sones or decibels. If you're venting to the outside, you may find "puller" units that have the motor on the outside -- they should be significantly quieter, but harder to install, as the electrical has to be sent out there. Get the right size for your stove -- too small and you're not going to suck up the soot.

Hi,

There is more appliance and hood information here.

Regards,

A mistake that is made more frequently than people realize is over venting.If a very large exhaust is used often in the winter when windows are shut and doors are tight,there is a possibility of reversing the draft in the house chimney and haveing carbon monoxide enter the living area.
Turn on the exhaust fan and put your hand by the draft diverter at the top of the water heater or furnace.If you feel flue spillage you may have to add fresh air to the equiptment space

I'm currently looking for a new one also. Mine doesn't suck enough!

I'm using amazon.com to review as many as I can and look at the first hand review of them.

From what I know up til this point, I'll need to spend at least 250 bucks.

Hood maintenance questions:

How often do you clean your hood and hood fan / vent / fittings? What methods or products (solvents, etc.) seem to work best? Are there any recommendable professional hood cleaning specialists or teams out there? Thanks for any insights!

Cynthia wrote:I wish I had enough money to be worrying about something like this.

Me too.

I'm wondering about low-cost solutions to solve my hood problems. We have a stove hood with a built-in microwave and light. The light and the microwave no longer work and the fan is badly vented into the attic. Of course, what I would like to do is gut the whole kitchen -- not an option.

I do not think the microwave is repairable. Do I want to replace it with a similar model or am I better off just going with a plain hood? (Now using a freestanding microwave for which we have inadequate space.) How bad are the cheap models? How easy is it to DIY install a stove hood?

LAZ wrote:

Cynthia wrote:I wish I had enough money to be worrying about something like this.

Me too.

I'm wondering about low-cost solutions to solve my hood problems. We have a stove hood with a built-in microwave and light. The light and the microwave no longer work and the fan is badly vented into the attic. Of course, what I would like to do is gut the whole kitchen -- not an option.

I do not think the microwave is repairable. Do I want to replace it with a similar model or am I better off just going with a plain hood? (Now using a freestanding microwave for which we have inadequate space.) How bad are the cheap models? How easy is it to DIY install a stove hood?

We have a GE Profile that we purchased from ABT as a dented floor model (it had a slight dimple in the side which butted against the upper cabinets and wasn't visible when installed but they couldn't sell it as "new") for somewhere in the mid-$300 range. It's a fantastic microwave with a decent hood. We didn't do the install (Abt did) but I saw that it wasn't hard. It came with a bracket that mounts to the framing and then it just hangs on it. You need 2 people to lift it into place but otherwise it's a 1-person job.

I'm with LAZ and Cynthia

LAZ wrote:

Cynthia wrote:I wish I had enough money to be worrying about something like this.

Me too.

I'm wondering about low-cost solutions to solve my hood problems. We have a stove hood with a built-in microwave and light. The light and the microwave no longer work and the fan is badly vented into the attic. Of course, what I would like to do is gut the whole kitchen -- not an option.

I do not think the microwave is repairable. Do I want to replace it with a similar model or am I better off just going with a plain hood? (Now using a freestanding microwave for which we have inadequate space.) How bad are the cheap models? How easy is it to DIY install a stove hood?

I've bought GE range hood microwaves more than once (different kitchens), and while they're not as cheap as a freestanding microwave, they're not outrageous. Try Abt.
If you've already got a micro-hood, at least you already have the needed power and venting (such as it is from the description above -- mine ended up having to blow into my face through a barely-effective filter).

The last one I did had a nice steel frame that anchored to the wall, then the micro pretty much just slid onto it, and just a couple screws to keep it in place: yes you have to lift it, and somewhat at arm's reach over a stove (move the stove out of the way while you work if you can), but you don't have to hold it up to mount it.

HI,

The only appliance I have never replaced in my kitchen is the hood. I remember once repairing the toggle switch maybe 25 years ago. It is a plain Jane by today's standards, though I think it was better than average when purchased.

I am on the 3rd refrigerator, 4 or 5th dishwasher, 4th oven, 4th freezer and maybe 5th microwave. Based on my experience, I would buy microwave and hood separately.

My hood has a grease screen that I can removed and flush out with hot water. I have never investigated doing much of anything with the vent ducts exiting the house. I also don't do anything with shooting flames where any accumulated fats might catch on fire. I do clean the exposed areas underneath occasionally with a degreaser.

Regards,

Try Abt.

What is this?

razbry wrote:

Try Abt.

What is this?

http://www.abt.com/

razbry wrote:

Try Abt.

What is this?

Abt is a vast appliance store.

Abt Electronics
1200 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Glenview, IL 60025
847-967-8830
http://www.abt.com

They have a huge selection, but their prices are high.

LAZ wrote:

razbry wrote:

Try Abt.

What is this?

Abt is a vast appliance store.

Abt Electronics
1200 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Glenview, IL 60025
847-967-8830
http://www.abt.com

They have a huge selection, but their prices are high.

Abt's listed prices may be "high" (I don't agree) but unlike other stores, they specialize in deals. You can "make them an offer" and they will invariably cut the price somewhat (the more informed you are walking in the door, the better you'll do). If you buy more than 1 item, you'll do better overall than buying each item separately. And, if there's a blemished floor model you can haggle for a low price (and they'll stand behind the warranty). A friend just purchased a 58" plasma bundled with a Blu-Ray player for less than the best price I saw online (about $500 below Abt's marked price).

spinynorman99 wrote:
Abt's listed prices may be "high" (I don't agree) but unlike other stores, they specialize in deals. You can "make them an offer" and they will invariably cut the price somewhat (the more informed you are walking in the door, the better you'll do). If you buy more than 1 item, you'll do better overall than buying each item separately. And, if there's a blemished floor model you can haggle for a low price (and they'll stand behind the warranty). A friend just purchased a 58" plasma bundled with a Blu-Ray player for less than the best price I saw online (about $500 below Abt's marked price).

Agreed. I've done really well buying things at Abt, and greatly prefer shopping there to Best Buy (I really only use Abt for electronics).

Yeah, absolutely haggle with Abt. You can even negotiate on their website. Works great.

Cathy2 wrote:
My hood has a grease screen that I can removed and flush out with hot water. I have never investigated doing much of anything with the vent ducts exiting the house. I also don't do anything with shooting flames where any accumulated fats might catch on fire. I do clean the exposed areas underneath occasionally with a degreaser.

Thanks, Cathy! We inherited the hood and I had no idea where to start. I'll check for a screen and find myself some degreaser.