Thanks for the responses to my tile question.
Here’s another related issue: the exhaust hood/fan. From what literature I have read, whether a fan works for you is a mystery to be determined in your house. Consumer Reports says that the Cfm don’t always correlate to function, and then there’s the back draft and other mysterious air currents. How do you separate looks vs. function? How do you get just what you need, and not pricey “overkill?” (I did find a formula that lead me to figure that with a 15,000 BTU burner, I should have at least 600 Cfm.)
For instance, i just learned about the Zephyr Tornado. 850 Cfm at $639 and claims of “self cleaning” function. Does it really work as claimed? It has a shallow profile. Does a deeper hood really work better to capture the grease or is it just a costly professional “look?” Ventahoods costs around $2000 and the claims of both companies are the same. Why such a price difference? If I sound confused it’s because I am. I know my Broan is not enough for my stir frying. I’m willing to pay for function, not simply looks, but don’t want to be taken for a ride.
Would appreciate your experience with these vents. Or wise words and recommendations on how to compare and choose.
Replies
I am shopping for one too, finally. BUT my criteria is how loud is it gonna be? Don't forget to consider that.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
I have irriatable Vowel syndrome.
I'll take a stab at the "self cleaning" part. I have been told the the "self cleaning" actually from the use of a squirrel cage type fan where the air flow keeps the the particulates toward the center of the pipe. At least this was i was told many years ago
Or, it could be a salesman's pitch....
Let me know if you go with the Zephyr Tornado and how it really works. I love to find a good replacement for the $$$ Ventahood
I just installed a Prestige hood liner with an in-line blower rated at 600 cfm. This unit was selected for a bunch of reasons, no exterior wall, no room for a downdraft, low ceiling height. The hood was mounted over a Windcrest 5 burner gas cooktop. This combo was the result of many discussions between appliance manufacturers, sales people, homeowner and of course the carpenter. After final hookup, the unit was just louder than a whisper, the client loved it. The first night, the client wanted to cook something really smoky, some kind of Thai noodles or something. She called me back the next day almost in tears, it didn't pull out the smoke as fast as she could make it.
We almost decided to get the next size up blower, which would have entailed a lot of additional carpentry and sheet metal work, doable, but disappointing. She then visited a some online forum for cooking and got into a chat on hood function. She gets an idea, that maybe we could lower the hood from 30" to 27". Not a big deal since the hood enclosure is not installed yet. So we give it a try and it works great! Still plenty of headroom, no combustible surfaces within 30". She's thrilled, all for 3".
I tell this story mainly to suggest that in spite of all the research that was done on cfm, ductwork, and capture area, the success of the thing was based on little more than trial and error. So, if it's possible, give the whole thing a test run BEFORE the final cabs/backsplash/hood enclosure/finishes are applied.
As for noise, you can't beat an inline or remote blower. In this case, the inline blower was mounted on a piece of 1/2" high density foam, and scrap of thick carpet (to decouple from the floor/framing), in a closet above the kitchen, then boxed in with birch plywood, and I wrapped foam sill seal around all the sheetmetal, to eliminate any rattles. 6"round duct from the hood to the blower was ~4' with one 90 elbow, and exhaust end was about 4' with another 90 elbow.
I forgot to mention that the client paid somewhere in the vicinity of $900 for the hood and blower, close to that for the carpentry, and another ~$300 for the electrical work that was necessary (some wiring had to be replaced). She's having a stainless steel enclosure built so that will add another ~$300 or so. FWIW, we dealt exclusively with a local mom and pop appliance store and got the benefit of a lot of good experience and advice. Good luck
That's more money than I want to spend. Trying different heights is a good idea.
My duct is in the wall rather than ceiling--how does that affect the whole thing?
For the project that I described, we had to go up through the ceiling because the wall behind the cooktop is not an exterior wall. To reach an exterior wall, we had to go up which fortunately was inside an existing closet, (this is where the blower is mounted), then over about 4 feet with the exhaust to a suitable location on an exterior wall. Like any vent system, shorter and straighter ducts are much better than long or curvy ducts, and round ducts (I think) are better than rectangular ducts. The idea is to minimize the surface area of duct walls which create resistance to flow. While researching for this project, I discovered that some hoods could be ducted either out the top or out the back, while others didn't give you an option. I don't believe one is inherently better than the other, although having this one ducted out the top made changing the height a simple matter. If I were ducting it out the back, and didn't have the luxury of being able to move things around for test runs, I'd simply mount it as low as possible, ~26 or 27" above the cooktop seems to be about the lowest reasonable distance that I've heard mentioned.
Thanks for your detailed and helpful responses!
How about the Dacor vents? They seem priced inbetween Ventahoods and Zephyrs. (Are they made by Broan?) Are they any good?
We just saw some glass laminated tiles from Porcelanosa--big ones--35x12. Glass is easiest to clean, I hear, and the bigger the tile the fewer grout lines, the better. Any experience with these huge wall tiles for a back splash?
Check with your local building codes also, here in St. paul/Minneapolis if you have anything over 300 CFM you need a makeup air which can easily run 2 - 3 K.
Kitchen exhaust fan "sizing" actually has very little to do with the BTU rating of your burners. The size of the fan depends a lot more upon how large a total cooking area you're trying to exhaust; how far above the burner is the hood; how large the capture area of the hood is relative to the cooking surface; whether the cooking area is bounded on 3 sides (vs. an open island); where the makeup air is coming from; how long (ie., resistive) is your exhaust duct path; etc... As another poster pointed out, lowering the hood closer to the burners can make a substantial difference, as can any of numerous other variables...
Take a shop vacuum analogy - held away from the dust, the suction doesn't pick up a lot of stuff. Hold the opening closer to the dirt and much more of it gets collected...
Finally, how much ventilation you "need" ultimately depends upon how you cook. Lots of folks have 15k btu "Vikings" but rarely do more than boil water for pasta...
I'd suggest researching the manufacturer's literature, and adhering to their recommendations. A well-thought out 400-600 cfm system is all a "typical" residential cook will ever need, stir fry's or no stir frys...
Note that Broan is one of the largest manufacturers of ventilation systems - lots of other companies re-badge their systems as their own. I don't know whether Zephyr is one of them, however...
Good luck!
ps., I'd be VERY suspicious of a "self-cleaning" claim. If you do generate a lot of airborne grease (frying, stir frying, etc..), it's likely to deposit itself on the inner walls of the duct as it cools on it's way out of the house. This buildup can smell after awhile, let alone the fire hazard potential. Look at what restaurants do - their hoods trap the grease immediately at the opening of the hood with a system of filters, that are removable for cleaning. I wouldn't use any other type of scheme in my house...
What you say makes sense--but how do you find out who is actually the manufacturer?
Now I'm looking at Dacor vents, which seems to be midway between in price.
Why hide it?
Make it the center piece
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This is an old pic before it was completly done
“It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
"This is an old pic before it was completly done"No Kidding? I thought those were ketchup and mayo dispenser guns and a bottle of olive oil on the counter there. :)
BruceT
I was shopping a while back to replace a nice, big old stainless Tradewinds brand that some jackleg repairman screwed up for my parents....
Discovered in my web searches that one co. makes a whole bunch of the Nutones, Broans, etc. (came across an SEC filing)...
like everything else these days, it's buyer beware, and you're on your own figuring out what you're getting for your hard earned dollars...
I was looking a Stihl chainsaws the other day.....more models than you could shake a stick at, and no really rational naming convention (i.e. x H.P. by y Bar Length)