Dave--my DH is convinced that everything (even, or is it especially, the expensive stuff) s**ks. I feel your pain. My answer to the problem is wine with dinner, lots of it.............Ha!

Hang in there Keitel.... it will all work out. Next time you want to discuss my appliance problems, grab a Big Chief notepad and a pot of coffee because its going to be a long afternoon. And then we can move the discussion to CatMom's house for wine and hors-d'oeuvres.

The best appliance I have ever owned is a Cuisinart I bought in 1990. It just keeps working. Everything else...not so much.

Yes, wine and cheese and hors d'oeuvres! I can handle that! If you guys are anywhere near Southern NY State--you're more than welcome!

villandry--are you referring to the Cusinart food processor by chance? Mine is roughly the same age (give or take a year or two). I dropped it years ago, and kind of bent the one paddle switch, and it still works fine all these years later. Oops! Hope I didn't just jinx it!

makes me think I should order the cheapest appliances possible since I will more than likely have problems with them and then I won't feel as badly about it.

Dave......

You're really making me nervous......Ventahood being delivered today, Wolf 36" AG, Thermador French Door fridge, Wolf 30" electric oven, Wolf microwave and a Marvel wine fridge all slated to arrive on the 15th. Hopefully, I won't be as jinxed....

But.....if a road trip in order I could be convinced - southern NY state isn't that far for me.....we could make it a circuit I think......German Christmas bake goods at my place!!

Have you been dealing with the manufacturer's directly or have you been going through TASCO (I bought from them as well).

Marion K.

Yum--baked goods! Okay, now I do need to sign off and hit the gym. I'm getting way too hungry, and dinner's too far away tonight.....lol!

Ventahoods on LOW are quiet?? Ours sounds like a jet taking off. Don't ask about HIGH.

I'll bring white wine and marinated shrimp. Hmm, Marion- I can smell those goodies now!

Baked goods once my kitchen is finished.....

Sounds like it could be quite the GW party in Southern Ontario/NY state....

Cupboards to be done by the 15th, granite templating the 16th, hopefully, my kitchen will be back together, unjinxed by the end of the month.......hopefully. So far, things have been going according to plan but Dave's troubles with his appliances are making me nervous....its a lot of money to spend to find out that they don't work(???) well.....

Marion K.

I had the same problem with my hood it turned out the damper was stuck and it was not letting the air out. Make sure the damper is opening where the pipe exits the house, also check the dampers inside the hood and make sure they open.

regbob, Thank you so much! It turns out that you have offered the simple and successful solution that the appliance vendor, an appliance repair tech, the distributor, and so far Ventahood themselves could not offer. The internal damper flap was not opening causing the external damper to not open fully either. When the internal damper was completely removed, voila! The hood now performs as it once did; quiet on low and very much louder and faster on high. Wow. Problem is that even though I cleaned the internal damper, determined that there is no friction whatsoever on it, it will not open when the fan is on low, so for now I'm having to keep it out. I will call the distributor today and ask if they have lighter? dampers for my unit that will actually open.

I love this forum. While it may often serve as a place of comiseration and a vehicle for venting, this just goes to show that it also serves as a place for concrete solutions.

Thanks again.

I wish the hood manufacturers would do away with those feather-light dampers. They get covered with grease and become heavier and heavier....and impossible to clean properly. They need to install a manual damper. Open them up ..turn on the vent...viola! If I leave them open, so what! My DCS hood dampers become so heavy with grease that they would be stuck closed. I eventually had to screw them together so they would stay open.

Yes Cat mom...it's the food processor

Well villandry--I wish both of us many more happy years of use! DH has actually offered to replace mine with a newer model, but as long as it's still working (and I have all those extra disks, an extra bowl, and lid for it)--I'll keep on using it 'til it does die!

keitel--I hope all your other appliance problems (and the quirky Wolf burners some of us other owners have been experiencing as well) are resolved as easily! Happy weekend to you!

How far should the internal dampers open? Or if you have a ventahood, how far does yours open?

We always have some escape from our hood, and I've chalked it up to steam bouncing off the light strip. However, escape happens ALL the time. If there's enough steam for you to see it reach the hood, there's enough so that some escapes, even with both blowers on high. Our hood is a 600cfm mounted 27.5" above the rangetop, and the duct goes straight up and out the roof of our 1-story home.

After reading about Keitel's adventures here, I decided to check my dampers. They appear to open the same amount on low as on high, and the same amount on both dampers. That amount is only about 1/2-3/4" (hard for me to estimate without climbing all the way in there.) Shouldn't they open more than that?

I linked a picture below, although you may not be able to tell much unless you've recently spent some time examining your VAH damper. The picture is a bit misleading; because of the position of the fan when it was taken, the damper looks more open than it actually is.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Alku,
I bought my VAH about 5 years ago so they may have changed since then, but this what happened with mine. After about 1-2 years, it seemed to suck up less steam/smoke even though I cleaned it regularly, & upon closer inspection, it looked as though the dampers (aluminum) were only opening about half way. I pushed them upright in the locked position & have left them like that - & the improvement was noticeable. In the winter, I ball up a thin plastic grocery bag & lightly stick it in each of the squirrel cage openings when the hood is not in use. The bags don't show & they keep out the cold & wind better than the dampers IMO.

I don't have an outside damper because I vaguelly remember VAH having very strict instructions about not installing anything, including screen, that might hamper the exhaust; maybe that has changed since 2002.

Interesting. On mine there is no "lock" position i.e. you can't make them stay open. And from day one the left damper has never opened fully. I'd say about 1.5". Then the right one did the same. I've just removed them completely for now until Ventahood offers me another solution. If I have a damper on the termination cap outside, do I really need the ones inside? They're so flimsy I can't really see them stopping cold air. Lots of gaps around them. Because the hood now operates optimally without them I may just end up leaving them out completely unless there's something I'm missing.

There's no way mine opens 1.5". My hood has been like this since the start (May). We we live in CA, we're don't get cold enough to worry much about the air coming in, so that's not an issue. I'm still under warranty, so perhaps my first course of action should be to contact VAH.

When working properly mine used to swing a full 6" until it was literally pinned vertically. You should get yours looked at as it makes all the difference in both performance and noise volume.

I remember an earlier thread about stuck VH dampers as mine also were stuck and diagnosing the problem about drove us all crazy, including a service tech and the salesperson. In our case the cause was the sheet metal screws used to attach the transition piece to the hood were too long and restricted the dampers from fully opening. Like Keitel, our dampers are fully vertical when that damper's blower is on high or low. As for not having two dampers (hood and exterior), one potential problem is that wind blowing by the external damper can cause a partial vacuum that can lift open the exterior damper and draw air from the inside, as well let outside air in. Having two dampers creats enough back pressure between the hood dampers and the outside damper to help keep the outside damper closed. Our hood was installed in '04, and came with an outside cap with damper, so I assume that's now standard VH procedure.

Thanks for the info that the dampers are supposed to open until they're vertical, and that long screws can be an issue. Valuable info...

teachmkt, that's interesting about the back pressure. Another thing I noticed about my setup from day one was that every day and frequently I can hear the outside damper opening and banging closed. I guess none of my setup is working optimally at this point. It's so strange; I bought the hood due to its simplicity. I put it where it is for the shortest, straightest run. I used a Ventahood termination cap. I feel like I followed all the rules, and yet here I am.

I must admit that of all the choices and problems in our custom kitchen renovation, the hood and range choice and installation were the most punishing for me (excluding of course having to watch my better half's decisions over tile and granite). I've also noticed that the finish on the VH blower box is coming off and it's rusting a bit. We wash it in the DW, so perhaps this contributing. Still works ok.