ventilation hoods

[cls]

Hello all - I am new to this forum but it looks like there is a lot of good information here.
We are building a new house and are trying to decide on which ventilation hood to buy. We live in a very rural area and can't go see any models without driving long distances.
The choices are Vent a Hood, professional series model PR18, or Zephyr Tempest II model AK7548.
The main questions are - are the Vent a Hood's as quiet as "they" say, and how efficient is their Magic Lung at removing grease? They do not have baffles or other grease filtering devices.
I would appreciate any information from those who have experience with these hoods, especially the Vent a Hood.
Thank you, Lynn

[kboy]

Hi, I've compared the Vent-A-Hoods at our local Home Expo with some Kitchen Aid and Thermador models and I have found the following:

Vent-A-Hood has a kind of "spartan" design. They don't really have the fancy glass/stainless combinations you see with other models. Actually, I don't think they have any of those fancy glass hoods you see.

For performance, though, you seriously can't beat VAH (Vent-A-Hood). When we compared a 900 CFM Vent-A-Hood (equivalent to 1200 CFM due to the Magic-Lung design of VAH) to an 1100 CFM Thermador, there was NO CONTEST. The Thermador was deafening, whereas the VAH was at least twice as quiet and seemed to pull more air.

Also, I liked VAH's magic-lung design where you simply unclip the blower unit cover from inside the hood and toss it into the dishwasher!!

Actually, checkout VAH's Euro design line. That is the one we will be going for.

To summarize:

For performance, go with VAH

For looks, go with another brand

[panini]

I spent the little extra cash for roof motor. Love it!! Quiet!!
BTW ,had the vent=a=hood dual also great.

[deltadoc]

We've had a 1200cfm Vent-a-hood installed since 1992. It is relatively quiet. It has 4 300-cfm blowers, so we can turn on as many as we need.

Frankly, we use it in the summer and just run it day and night. It brings in fresh air, exhausts the warm air out of the house, and I subsequently save big $$ by not having to use the air conditioner.

It is somewhat difficult to clean the fan blades, and the little vent valve flappers are rather delicate and hard to clean as "How do you hold on to them to wipe them?"

That aside, we're happy with the unit, and after 12 years and no functional problems, the reliability is very high.

deltadoc

[catciao]

Just finished my kitchen remodel: I had a choice between VAH and Best by Broan and I chose the Best PIK pro-style insert model and built the exterior hood around it to match my cabinets. I'm sure I would have been equally happy with the VAH. The 1200 cfm blower is attached to the exterior roof and is extremely quiet and pulls hot air out of the kitchen quickly. If your cooktop is under 60,000 btu then you want 100 cfm per linear foot of cooktop width, if it's over then you want 1 cfm per 100 Btu of cooktop output, then if you have a grill/griddle you should add 200 cfm to the total cfm requirements. My ductwork is 10" (most are 8") which allows incredible ventilation with very very low noise.