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supadad33

ProLine Range Hoods -- good or bad idea?

supadad33
12 years ago

So, for our 36" Wolf DF366 range, we've narrowed it down to the following 3 hoods:

1. ProLine PLZW 697.36, 1200CFM -- ~$900

This one looks great, but we're concerned about the company reputation, fan noise, and weak lights.

2. Best by Broan WT32I362SB - ~$760

This one looks pretty good, and we've read great things about the Best brand. Only concern is that it is a bit underpowered at 600 CFM. If we wanted to get a 1000 CFM Best, it would be over $2000.

3. Zephyr Venezia ZVE-E36BS -- ~$1140

This one also looks pretty good, and we've read pretty good things about the Zephyr brand. Only concern is that it is a bit underpowered at 715 CFM. Also, it's more expensive than the other 2.

We're really tempted to go with the ProLine, given its good looks, power, and price. But, we're big fans of doing our due diligence, and we just can't find enough info on the ProLine Range Hoods company, reliability, and performance.

Can anyone vouch for or against them???

Thanks!!

Comments (35)

  • willtv
    12 years ago

    We've had a Proline 36" hood for almost a year. It works great, is well built and the price was the best we could find.
    My only complaint is the lights.
    Ours has 2 20W halogen lamps behind frosted glass lenses.
    So not a lot of output.
    But that aside, we think it's the best bang for the buck.
    There's another poster on this forum that has been having a priblem with Proline since July.
    Happily, we had no problems with them at all and found them very pleasant to deal with.

  • supadad33
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks for your reply, willtv. I've seen your posts on this forum about ProLine via my searching. Are there really only 2 of you that have purchased ProLines?

    As for the weak lights, how big of a deal is it? Does it make you angry that you bought a ProLine? Can you not put stronger lights in there yourself?

    Thanks

  • ratflinger
    12 years ago

    Look, don't buy the Zephyr. I had one, over priced under performing pos. Looked good though - and that's all it did - look good. Wouldn't suck clean air in an empty room.

  • BenHewak
    12 years ago

    Hi there !

    I have purchased a Proline unit in July. I can't comment on the quality because I am still waiting for the product. I have found the customer service terrible. It took me more than 1 month to find out my product was on backorder. No follow up by this company - I have had a terrible experience so far.
    I do regret my purchase.

  • willtv
    12 years ago

    supadad, I don't find the lights to be too much of a problem although I wish they were brighter.
    I don't think they can be raplaced with brighter lights because the electronics that drive them are built into the hood.
    If you're seriously considering a Proline, you should call them and see if they've upgraded the lights.

  • ONU_Rx
    12 years ago

    I will chime in here - we just installed the 42" proline plzw 1200cfm hood. Looks great - 4 bright (warm) halogen lights . it's sort of loud but it's 1200cfm. I think all of the hoods are 'loud' but its really not bad unless on high high which sort of vibrates the floor - we call it 'air force one' and it makes us laugh.
    looks great though it took forever to get - was supposed to ship first week of sept - we received last week in sept - so shipping was delayed. the price was right. i would have kicked myself in the you know what if i would have paid 2k for a VAH for the same basic idea.

  • supadad33
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Yikes, sorry to hear about your bad experience Jamay11. In the end, we went with the Best by Broan hood, and it has been solid. We just couldn't bring ourselves to trust the unknown and seemingly (and now justifiably) sketchy ProLine.

  • Susan Domenico
    7 years ago

    Hello

    We purchased the 42 inch Wall Mount Proline for a kitchen remodel. Proline only gives you two weeks to open test and return. You cannot hang it when you test. It must be in the box & plugged in.. This hood is the loudest thing ever. Ruins the cooking experience. It's loud & the filters rattle. We have tried putting 2 way tape to keep it from rattling no help. It has 4 fan levels. But level 1 is so loud I wouldn't even think about using 4. Was a huge waste of money.

  • Susan Domenico
    7 years ago

    Also, Proline would not post my poor review.

  • kaseki
    7 years ago

    stdomenico: Do you have a short duct to outside or a long duct to the roof?

  • hbv2020
    5 years ago

    First of all customer service has been fairly responsive to my problems. The first hood they sent had a terrible vibration. They had me tighten some bolts and then decided it was damaged in shipping. They sent a new fan motor for me to replace. Went to replace the motor and found the electrical connections were different than the ones on my hood. They sent an adapter. Went to swap out the fan and the brackets were not the same. At this point I said I wanted a new fan. They had me donate the old fan to Habitat for Humanity and sent a "new" one. When it arrived it had a slight chip to the glass and the lights would not work. Upon further inspection I found some screws were missing and others were not tightened or else over tightened and stripped. Now waiting for their reply to my continuing problems.

  • robertgoulet
    5 years ago

    sounds like as of 2018...one should still avoid proline?

  • Dan Abell
    5 years ago

    What about 2019? What is the best of these cheap brands?

  • PRO
    ProHoods
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    First, our apologies for past issues it sounds like some of you have had!


    There have been a number of issues in the past but we have made some significant changes in upper management, inventory, customer service, marketing, etc.


    Thanks for all your feedback in this thread. We have recorded it and passed it on to our new management.


    We know we are biassed but we have a 4.9 rating out of 1500 Google reviews you can read for yourself right here if it is helpful for you: https://www.prolinerangehoods.com/google-reviews


  • kaseki
    4 years ago

    Helpful from my point of view would be for you to provide on your website fan curves for your fans and pressure loss vs. flow rate curves for your hoods. Then it might be possible to add duct pressure loss functions and whatever losses one can estimate for an MUA system depending on its design and calculate what the actual flow rate will be at the hood entry aperture.

    Exercising my mouse wheel checking to see if there is an actual question or answer on each of numerous Proline threads, mostly zombie threads, is probably not helpful.

  • C C
    4 years ago

    Anyone have any recent experience with proline. I am in the market for a reasonably priced range hood. Please let me know

  • PRO
    ProHoods
    4 years ago

    We know we are biased, but here are a number of recent reviews left by real customers... the good the bad and the ugly. :) Hope they help, CC. They are recent.


    https://www.resellerratings.com/store/ProLine_Range_Hoods


    Or on Google, HERE (they are scrollable on the side there.)



  • PRO
    ProHoods
    4 years ago

    Thanks for the feedback, kaseki. It has been noted. Sorry for your frustration.

  • Cathy Bryant
    3 years ago

    I bought a Proline 1100 cfm wall mounted chimney unit a couple of months ago. My contractors just installed it last week. Put some burgers on the grill of my Wolf range and turned the fan on high. Within a few minutes the hood obviously couldn’t keep up as some was billowing over the outside edges of the hood. I am so disappointed and feel like i have wasted my money. In my last kitchen, i had a Zephyr typhoon 1200 cfm. It sucked up every last bit of smoke every time. Quiet too. Can’t return the proline. Had it too long by the time i got to use it. Will throw it away and buy another Zephyr.

  • kaseki
    3 years ago

    Your kitchens may have different make-up air pressure losses. Do you even have deliberate MUA?

    One wouldn't expect such a radical difference. It may be worth while to check that the damper(s) in the duct path are actually opening. You wouldn't be the first to have a damper blocked by a screw used to ensure the ducts stay connected.

  • Larry Kiss
    3 years ago

    I just purchased a ProLine range hood and wish I hadn't. They have a 2 week replacement of any damage and you have to pay after that. My hood came with a dented chimney that I did not notice when I unpacked the box and plugged it in to make sure everything was in good shape. My kitchen guy After a 6 week delay due to a permit the hood was installed and I noticed a small dent. I tried to get them to replace it at no charge and got no where after phone calls and email. I had to pay $100 for the replacement. The second one arrived with the same kind of dent. Finally the 3rd one was not damaged. They have very poor quality control and poor customer service. I would steer clear of them.

  • HU-412790413
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Things have not improved. I recieved my first hood damaged. The hood was dented though the dent did not correspond or line up to any marks or damage to the carton, the cord was loose lacking a zip tie. I say this to say it is my position the hood was a recycled return. The unit had a loose screw rolling about in the housing.

    I contacted proline and was advised the change process has been started and to ensure all contents are placed in the box and returned. I do this and a few days later Diana says they want to see photos the units four sides. This would have been a great request to have been made before everything was repacked.

    I receive one return label and notify Diana of such. She says we don’t exchange chimneys you will only return the hood. Well this would have been nice to know before telling me to repack everything.

    A month later i request from Diana the status of the return, i am told the warehouse is busy filling orders, um okays my unit will be shipped by the end of the week.

    While unpacking the unit I have rotate this unit about to remove five screws, two nuts and a rivet which are all rolling about the inside. While rotating this thing about I find two spot weld flash burns (welds made post production), the wire harness is not secured at two points (showing signs it did not just come loose but that the contact points were separated and not re secured to the housing, the twin blowers are not attached to each other though there are punts present to be conjoined they are not, each blower fan has at least three loose screws which will require the fans be removed from the unit to tighten and then reinstalled, and lastly one fan is missing a mounting screw.

    This looks like a poorly reassembled refurbished unit. I advised Diana of my findings she only says “we don’t ship refurbished units and all are inspected prior to shipping.” No comment on the loose screws, loose fan housings, loose harness...




  • James Trezza
    2 years ago

    Just ordered a Proline, may have to cancel that orde

  • PRO
    WDM Construction of SW Florida, LLC.
    2 years ago

    Stay away from proline hoods if you want anything more than a tail-light- warranty (once you don't see the delivery trucks tail lights, your warranty is up). We ordered and put in a 42 wide hood after having them ship 3 36" wide hoods. Our hood was installed in June of 2020 and by September 2020 the lights no longer worked, we contacted them and were told " just leave us a great review and we will get the parts right out to you" , over the last 9 months have called and emailed at least 6 times only today being told " we don't warrant anything and we went out of our way to order you parts" we still don't have parts 🤬🤬🤬 and were not given any info except the phone being hung up in our ears. STAY AWAY!

  • Cathy Bryant
    2 years ago

    I completely agree. Product is a piece of junk. Was unable to return. Had to give it away. What a waste of $1200.

  • Eileen
    2 years ago

    Wow! So glad I have found this post, I’m looking for a ductless range hood and proline was on the list!

  • kaseki
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Range hoods have to either move the cooking plume effluent outside (using a duct) or highly filter it for recycling its somewhat cleaned air back to the inside. At present on this forum we have only received positive information for the Vent-a-Hood ARS in the latter category. Wherever possible, external venting should be utilized. There are many threads here on hoods and hood systems, and reviewing them should enhance one's understanding of hood requirements and solutions.

  • Marcelo Oliveira
    2 years ago

    Stay away from Proline. This is not a serious company.
    I purchased a range hood model PLJW 104.36 on Oct 28, 2021. I called the company who confirmed the availability of the product. On Oct the 29th I received an email from the company saying the product was no longer available!
    Then I decided to change it to another product, now a range hood model ProV 36WC - the sales agent affirmed this new model was available. I paid additional $535.95 to change for this model. That was on Oct the 29th.
    On Nov the 1st I get another email from Proline with the same speech, product no longer available!!
    If you go to their website you will see that those products appear as available/ in stock!
    By the way, customer service is terrible, they don’t return your calls.
    Bottom line: Proline sells what they can’t delivery. Customer service is substandard.
    They are not reliable

  • falwy
    2 years ago

    I also ordered a proline hood that was supposedly in-stock according to their website. Got an e-mail thanking me for my order. Waited for several weeks eventually called. Was told that it's actually out of stock and there is NO ETA. Apparently they have an online system that doesn't talk to the actual inventory system. You would think someone would call or e-mail and let you know that the product you ordered is actually not available - SMH


  • Lanette Dykman
    2 years ago

    Horrible Customer Service and no product after a year

    I ordered a range hood from ProLine, paid in full, and a year later, had to file a complaint with the Utah Consumer Protection Agency to even get them to finally respond and refund my money. We were building a house that was delayed, so I periodically called customer service, each time with no ETA. After 9 months of waiting for the product, our house was complete and, still with no proactive updates from the company, I contacted customer service on 3 different occasions asking for them to substitute the product with something else they had in stock. On each occasion they replied they would get back with me and then never returned my phone call. At no time was I ever less than cordial on the phone with the company. At one point, I even tried to order the product through Wayfair - even though it says it is in stock, they are back ordered and they won’t tell you for how long. If you think I just have sour grapes, I encourage you to look at the complaints through the Better Business Bureau with similar accounts to what I described.

  • Jacqueline Amidala
    2 years ago

    I will add to the stay away list simply for the awful customer "service" as Proline has refused to work with me regarding a full refund of a non delivered hood. This could have easily been resolved if they had contacted the freight shipper, but instead are just withholding my shipping fees. Who knows- perhaps they did get a refund from the shipper and are still holding my funds. I will update my review if they respond, but based on the track record I doubt they will. Be cautious of paying for a TBD backstock item as your bank only gives you a limited number of days to dispute a transaction. Mark Zuro should be ashamed of his poor business practices. I wonder if the money they give away for the photo contest comes from all the customers they have scammed…

  • HU-304548278
    last year

    Junk! My 3 yr old hood cannot get replacement lights on back order for 7 months. Useless junk!

  • James Trezza
    last year
    last modified: last year

    i went against my better judgement and bought a 36” cabinet mount Proline hood. I wrote 2 negative reviews on the Proline web site due to their terrible customer support, poor quality control, NO warranty and inferior ”what Proline considers Stainless Steel” Proline NEVER POSTED EITHER ONE, Proline “ONLY POSTS POSITIVE REVIEWS” that’s the reason they claim to have 4.9 positive comments. Call the Utah BBB, you will find hundreds of unanswered complaints against Proline. They don’t respond to customer complaints filed with the BBB, if they were an honest company they would post all of the reviews. the positive comments would be more like a -2.0. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM PROLINE UNLESS YOU WANT A PRODUCT WITH A -2 week return warranty- if you can even get a response from them in the 2 week time frame, good luck on that…BTW, now my lights are blinking. The fan is noisy even on the lowest speed, stainless is terrible, the fan covers have broken fins that were not welded, missing screws on the motor, one of the filters spring is broken, i have it taped with double faced tape so it doesn’t fall. I’m totally disgusted with Proline and their garbage hoods

  • HU-8998137
    12 months ago
    last modified: 12 months ago

    I strongly urge that you do not buy Proline.

    I recently purchased a Proline insert for my custom hood. I had the hood built around the specs for the Proline insert. I researched liners and was intrigued by videos put out by Proline. I actually called the company to get more information on a liner. After speaking with a Proline rep they convinced me that this would be a good liner. I was concerned about the low price, but the rep assured me that was a promotional price, and they wanted to get reviews on the product.

    My review: TERRIBLE, MISTAKE, CHEATED. Model: PLFL CL 3416D.

    The description of this liner is that it is quiet. FALSE. Stand next to a jet engine during takeoff...that is how loud it is. If you intend to have a conversation in the same room, be prepared to yell at each other and even then you might not be heard. This liner is unusable if you intend to be in the same room. It is so loud you can hear it outside the house. The boast "runs at a maximum noise level of 4-5 sones, or the volume of a quiet conversation, meaning that it is extremely quiet" right on their website - it's an absolute lie.

    When I contacted Proline and asked for help with a solution to the problem their attitude was "too bad, you bought it, it's your problem". They said I installed it incorrectly. It was installed by my professional, licensed general contractor. The home inspector actually failed the final inspection in part because of the Proline liner. The inspector said air was blowing back down into the cooking area. I found mounting holes in the housing for the fans that wa blowing air back down the liner. I had to cover them with duct tape.

    I remodeled my kitchen and bought a custom hood. The hood was built around the dimensions for this liner. Now i am stuck with it. IT IS ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. Buy a Venta Hood or Z-Line...don't buy a Proline.

    Junk and no support. Beyond disappointing. My plan now is to gut this piece of junk, purchase a remote blower and figure out how to install it into the attic since I am stuck with this junk. Seriously, do not buy this liner and don't do business with Proline...they make false claims on their website, they do not stand by their products and their customer support is no help at all."

    UPDATE: Proline has now changed their website on the sones rating. They duped me, maybe I have saved some other unfortunate soul from falling for their false advertising.