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bendwoman

Vent Hood Decision

BendWoman
10 years ago

I am wondering about cost-performance tradeoffs in vent hoods. Our stove top cooking is mostly sauteing, caramelizing veg for stews/soups, reheating leftovers, frying eggs and only occasionally searing meat, seafood or stir-frying. A very effective vent hood is one of the priorities in my moderate budget. A 450 CFM Ventahood will cost me $2300 and a Jenn Air 600 CFM hood will cost only $1500. Is the Ventahood worth it? I hear it performs better and it certainly is quieter. Thanks!

Comments (6)

  • kaseki
    10 years ago

    Quiet at high flow generally requires an external (roof) blower and intermediate (in-line) sound suppressor. These along with ducts and hood are normally higher priced than hoods of similar flow with local, in-hood, blowers. VAH hoods may or may not be quieter than different examples of other hoods, reports vary; one would have to compare hoods at the same effective flow rate to be certain. In principle, whether bladed or squirrel cage, turbulence noise will be proportional to tip speed, but may vary due to second order design details. Tip speed for a given flow rate when sized for a particular duct diameter would be expected to be similar among designs, but there is room for improvement that usually costs money.

    At the low end price range, your best bet is to listen to models that have more flow than you need, as once installed, you will not get the rated flow rate. (Please see endless threads on this subject.) An easy (but more expensive) way to keep down noise is install a high flow system and run it at partial power.

    As I have a relatively large system, I can't advise you on a particular model, but others here may be able to do so.

    kas

  • williamsem
    10 years ago

    I don't know enough about hoods to know why you are looking at those particular models. Are they inserts for a custom hood? I got a 640 CFM Kobe Chx 191 series and am very happy with it. It vents well and is quiet, plus I got a great deal last year around Christmas and paid less than $600. The last model I saw was rated at around 700 CFM, not sure what the current model is. But it is 22 in deep, so decent capture compared to many, LED lights, baffles, seamless, and quiet. We rarely need to run it on high.

  • BendWoman
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Perhaps the clearest way to ask the question at this point is: does anyone have comments on the functionality of these wall-mounted Euro style vent hoods? Jenn Air's 30 inch 600 CFM model and Kitchen Aid's 30 inch 600 CFM model? Thank you!

  • BendWoman
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Perhaps the clearest way to ask the question at this point is: does anyone have comments on the functionality of these wall-mounted Euro style vent hoods? Jenn Air's 30 inch 600 CFM model and Kitchen Aid's 30 inch 600 CFM model? Thank you!

  • julieste
    10 years ago

    I don't know those particular hoods, but, as you are now doing, we agonized over the decision about a vent hood wondering how powerful we needed to go and which brand to go with. And, our cooking style is very similar to yours.

    We came to the conclusion that VAH was a waste of money. Instead we put in a euro style (I think) 600 cfm Zephyr Anzio that cost us in the $700 to &800 range. It is more than sufficient for our needs over a 30" AG Wolf range.

    Hope this helps.

  • colin3
    10 years ago

    Your question might be just a little clearer if you gave model numbers, and maybe said a word about what kind of stovetop you are looking to vent.

    Also, is quiet important to you? Kaseki's advice is always worth listening to, and one option, at least, is to split the purchase into two parts, a simple canopy with no blower in it, and an external blower.