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kmgard_gw

Understated Island Hood That Doesn't Cost A Fortune??

kmgard
10 years ago

*Edited to add link*

Okay. We're doing a mini-kitchen remodel, meaning we're painting the cabinets and leaving everything mostly arranged as-is, but updating the appliances, countertops, fixtures, etc.

Unfortunately, our current range is in the peninsula with cabinets and a venting microwave over the top. We want those cabinets gone, but it seems like all of the island range hoods I can find are crazy expensive and huge. Our kitchen is not big at all. A huge obtrusive hood would defeat the purpose of taking out the cabinets above the peninsula. I ran across the Zephyr Trapeze hood which looks perfect for what I'm going for - kind of industrial, not too modern or obtrusive, but I about flipped my lid when I saw the price -- over 4K for a hood??!

What is happening here? Is there anything similar but cheaper? Or should I just go through the hassle of trying to rearrange appliances with the existing cabinets so I can save thousands and get a wall hood?

Here is a link that might be useful: Zephyr Trapeze Hood

This post was edited by kmgard on Fri, Jan 3, 14 at 15:55

Comments (6)

  • joeboldt
    10 years ago

    Nice looking hood. If you google island range hoods you will find lots. The thing you want to look at is CFM. Depending upon what you like to cook, bigger numbers are always better. If you fry in a wok you want at least 700. If not you can get by with less. Noise is also a huge factor in these things, so be sure to hear one running at the level you think you would have set.

    As with pretty much everything on this forum, opinions will vary like crazy

  • gothaml
    10 years ago

    XO hoods were recommended to me, but we are going with a Miele. I would have loved a custom island hood but couldn't justify 5 k for it.

  • _sophiewheeler
    10 years ago

    Island venting is double to triple the cost of a wall vent and about half as effective. Plus just the ducting alone without the pretty part is more difficult and expensive. That is why most people are advised against that choice. Not to mention the safety issue that exists with most older island cooking set ups. If you want cheap and effective venting, island cooking ain't it.

    Most of the cheaper hoods are Chinese made and only use a 6" vent pipe. The have inflated CFM claims and don't use 304 stainless. The are better than nothing, but just can't be that effective just from their specs.

    What you should be looking for is a hood that's at least 27" deep, uses at least an 8" duct, uses304 stainless, and isn't louder than 4 sones with at least 600 CFM. That isn't cheap.

  • kaseki
    10 years ago

    The Trapeze hood should have its ends blocked to reduce effluent spillage.

    If we accept as a premise that commercial cooking hoods are optimized for their function due to the dominating cost of air handling in such businesses, and observe that they are far from unobtrusive, then we might assume that the farther we morph hood design toward unobtrusive the lower the efficiency is likely to be. (By efficiency I mean effectiveness at a given flow rate.)

    This brings us to our long observed trichotomy: affordability, aesthetics (including obtrusiveness), and performance. Only the purchaser can determine the importance of each of these, or even what the evaluation scale of each of these is. In principle, a balance among all three is inherent in every hood design, but for most of us having some limit on our budget, we should expect that by establishing a modest affordability point only one of the two remaining factors is achievable.

    Perhaps the first question to be asked is how important is ventilation to the OP and perhaps the OP's guests (not necessarily how important it is to me or to some consensus in this forum)? The more important that ventilation of grease and odor is perceived to be, the more obtrusive the hood will have to be. And due to the nature of the usage, the cost for effective island hoods will be higher than for wall hoods even when aesthetics are severely compromised.

    kas

  • kmgard
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    So it's sounding like our best bet is to try to reconfigure the existing cabinets and move the range. I should've mentioned that while functionality is important, cost is more important - the end-goal is re-sale of this house in approximately three years, and in this area, an update isn't even necessary. In other words, we're doing it for us, but we don't want to sink unnecessary thousands into the house that we won't get back. We enjoy cooking, will have a gas range, but we're not making stir-frys every night. The existing microwave over the range (vents out through the roof) works great for our needs. But of *course* it works great - it's like right above the work surface, and our goal is to open it up.

    So yeah. Maybe we just need to try to move the range to a wall. But then we have to deal with moving the vent, potential flooring issues, working with existing cabinets⦠ugh. I just don't know.

  • kaseki
    10 years ago

    Most true hoods will beat a microwave vent, so given the intent to just fix up the kitchen for sale in circumstances where the kitchen upgrade won't have much influence, then a modest rectangular hood (four to six inches in height) with a vertical duct and duct covering sized to your ducting diameter will be a useful compromise providing better flow and low visual obstruction.

    I don't have any to suggest, not having owned that type, but there are many threads here asking for and receiving suggestions for such hoods. Research time here will be modest compared to the time needed to deal with reconfiguring the kitchen.

    kas