Hoods/Exhaust Fans

[ksan]

Thanks for any info and experience with vents in general, and in particular, the Zephr Typhoon, which claims to be self cleaning! Really? It is much more reasonably priced than a Ventahood, but claims to function similarly. But it has no baffles or screens to catch the grease.

Background: I have a 30" Bosch with one 15,000 BTU burner on which I stir fry at the highest temperature pretty often. How I know my Broan vent (300 Cfm) is not adequate: While I stir fried pasilla peppers, ppl in adjoining family room were coughing, choking on vapors. (Results were delicious, however.) Also, grease was accumulating on the edges and dripping on the stove!

So do I need a deeper hood? (Typhoon has a slim silhouette.) I don't want to pay for looks--am interested in true function, but not overkill.

[Culprit]

Your problem may not be the vent hood; it may be inadequacies in the vent system beyond the hood. When vent ducting gets dirty air doesn't flow as well as it once did. Any breaks in the vent ducting (the taped connections can fail over time) reduces the efficiency of the air movement through the ducts. I'd check the system from one end to the other before I started looking for a new hood.