I have the same questions and am in the same situation (sorry no answers!). I've been looking at the Best by Broan and the Thermador 42" chimney hoods if anyone has experience with those.

Vent a Hood seems to be quieter than most for the same CFM. That said, the installation and a number of other variables can affect this.

My KD has a remote blower on the wall right behind her range hood. Says she doesn't get much quiet savings, which makes sense. The motor noise is relatively near by, and the wind noise will still exist. That said, you still should get some benefit, just not as much as if it were say 20 feet away.

FuturoFuturo includes sones with the specs on their fans, at their website. They are low, maybe 3- 4 if I remember correctly. Those who have them say they are quiet.

We recently installed a GE Monogram 36" 700 CFM hood. I think it is way too noisy ! If I could do it again I would install a much lower flow much quieter hood. What use is a high CFM hood if you never use it because of the noise !!!

Dont buy a ventahood if you are looking at cleaning. My wife could never reach the underside to clean. Independent makes some of the Wolfs. We like our Independent. Noise has never been an issue. I know of friends that have hoods that are quieter but cant keep up with the smoke/steam. If there was a way to filter air and make it silent, someone would have invented it by now.

I have a 1200cfm, external with 10in duct. made by Best, it could probably suck the toupee off your melon.
I really dig it, very quiet.

Cheers

Just a note that Applianceguru always criticizes Ventahood. I would take Applianceguru's comments with a grain of salt. There are many on this forum who have the Ventahood, including me, who find it quiet. Air turbulence, which creates noise, occurs as air moves in and out of filters. Ventahood does not have filters, so that's one less avenue for air turbulence to occur. A lot of noise is created via bends in ductwork. It sounds like the OP won't have that, so the OP's hood will be quieter than some others from the getgo. Also, as Cooterboot mentions, the bigger your duct (10" is great!) the quieter the hood will be.

I can't comment on the makeup air question. I live in a '60's era house--drafty as heck. I got plenty of makeup air! But I understand that in newer, tighter homes, makeup air is a real issue, and has been put into Building Code in some areas. The OP may want to check his/her local Building Code.

I looked at VentaHood and decided I could clean it alright, but I didn't really like looking up at the unfinished insides. The KD also had me talk to an appliance guy who wasn't too keen in them. They didn't carry the Independent and the Wolf was on backorder (also preferred no or a more subtle emblem on the hood). He suggested the Best by Broan, and that's what we eventually picked.

Ours is a 42" pro style -- don't know the model # offhand, but it has 3 halogen lighta and a variable speed slide. We got a 1200cfm external blower that sits on the roof above the opposit side of the kitchen, so the blower is not that far away. We have a 90 degree turn about 3 feet above the hood and a 45 degree turn where it exits the roof. We did not have space between the joists to allow a silencer, so we hear it all.

The motor makes a hum and at the lowest setting, the airflow is really barely audible. As you move the slide up, you hear more air move, but the hum remains constant. I posted some comments comparing the noise levels to the sounds of other things in my kitchen (oven fan, DW, micro) not too long ago, but I don't remember exactly what they were right now. I think that even the highest speed is not as loud as the downdraft with only one speed that I had before (a Jennair cooktop).

I generally use it at half speed or lower, but my recent popcorn episode shows the power is there to get something as potent as popcorn before it can spread and even when it doesn't start right under the hood. I popped 90 bags of popcorn for a school event. Some was stovetop and some was in the microwave below and to one side of the cooktop (about 20 micro bags and several stovetop batches). Not only did the house not smell when I was done, not even my clothing smelled of popcorn!

It may not be the optimal hood, but it certainly does what we need it to without being obnoxious about it.

A related question - when listening to range hoods in a showroom, with no ductwork hooked up (just blowing out the top of the hood), is the noise level realistic? Or will it sound louder/quieter because of the lack of ductwork?

I think it's really hard to tell -- even harder if you are going to have an external blower. Since I didn't pick one of the very few I saw that I could turn on in a showroom, I can't cmpare their noise to my noise.

Fantech (linked below) has a table on page 5 of the "Kitchen Ventilation Solutions" brochure (accessed from the link) listing the sound levels of various hood configuratione.

By far the quietest is a remote blower with a duct silencer between the hood and the blower.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fantech

Regarding makeup air, I have learned two things:

1. When using high-volume exhaust hoods, makeup air is critically important in today's tight homes. Neglecting makeup air can result in negative pressure in the home, causing furnaces, water heaters and fireplaces to back-draft, resulting in possibly lethal gases coming into the house.

2. Nobody has a clue how to do residential makeup air, nobody is doing it, no products exist for this purpose, and nobody is using the extremely-expensive commercial makeup air systems in residences.

There clearly is a major disconnect here. I doubt much will change until a houseful of people is killed by backdrafted carbon monoxide.

IÂll share what I am doing about makeup air. I need to qualify this with the fact that we have not closed the house yet so performance is still to be determined. I researched commercial installations. If you are obsessive I recommend http://energy.ca.gov/reports/2003-06-13_500-03-034F.PDF.

A recommended setup is to replace about 80% of the exhaust air with makeup air at the cooktop. Pulling the rest of the makeup air from the room seems to improve capture. We have a sealed combustion oil fired boiler and no fireplace so I am not too worried a slight negative pressure. Even with new construction there is still some infiltration. For example, the baths and laundry are vented to outside.

Another thing to consider is the temperature of the makeup air. In cold climates it may be desirable to temper it. I am going to try it with no tempering, but I have made prevision to add a duct heater if it is required. My plan was to pull the makeup air from the outside; however, my builder suggested we pull it from the unheated attic. He thinks that increasing the air exchanges in that space would be a good thing, IÂm not sure.

There are lots of ways to deliver the makeup air. One of the better ones is to deliver the air under the cooktop. My cooktop will be mounted in such a way to create a 6" x 40" channel under it. The end of channel is covered with a decorative grate. The air flows under and to some extent through the cook top, around the front, then up and out the hood. This pattern creates very effective containment of the plume.

I need an insert type. I asked the appliance store to recommend one that is quiet on the low setting. I don't care so much about the noise level at the high setting because it's usually on for a short period of time. But if I'm simmering for a while, I want to make sure it's not too loud, especially since the kitchen is open to the family room. I don't want an external blower because the neighbours are close and I think it would bother them. He showed me the brochure of the Kobe, which specified 1.2 sones at the low setting (600cfm). That seems pretty good to me. This will be over a 36 in induction cooktop from Windcrest. I'm still a few weeks from having to commit to this purchase, but the Kobe is the frontrunner so far. Anybody has a better alternative?

Kobe is a well-advertised brand, as a Japanese range hood. Try to call them & insist to have a straight answer - where is the product made? I promise, you'll be surprised. It's made in Taiwan. Chinese quality doesn't require an explanation. It is sold in the US for the price of a European-made hood. I think the best copy is the original.

Quiet does not apply to ventilation, reasonable noise levels are all you can expect. Yo have to move air and unfortuantely some level of noise is going to occur, silent, ultra quiet and all the rest of the claims made are the same type of claims that will help you regrow hair.

I myself don't know where Kobe is made but if the answer was Taiwan, I wouldn't be bothered. Much as they might like it to be for political reasons, Taiwan is not the same as China. Taiwan has been supplying us with things like personal computers and integrated circuits for a long time, so I think they can figure out how to manufacture a range hood.

your trying too hard to find a silent blower, it is not going to happen, so go for performance and play some music, you should be running the hood on low, not high. High is for mistakes or wok cooking or grilling. Those functions require your attention and are short term not long so the noise level is short term not long term and you are not running the hood for the same length of time as a dishwasher.