If you prefer more performance and reliability than look, read below:
Everyone is looking for the smallest, most powerful and quiet fan. Unfortunately, it is not possible. To get a good suction and low noise, you will need to provide the following:
1 Powerful BIG blower, external or internal.
The bigger the blower, the more suction you will get out of it. In order to reduce the noise, the blower needs to rotate slow and/or be installed on the roof. The faster it goes, the more noise it creates. So.. slow rotating but big blower is ideal. External roof mount blower will reduce the noise, but is 2 times more expensive to install , because the roof or wall mount external blower needs to be rated for outdoor use and it is most of the time the same cost as the hood itself. We created hoods like PSV or Twister Max without blower inside for customers willing to install a roof mount blower. PSV requires 6” duct , Twister MAX - 8” duct. The cost of a small blower, rated for outdoor use is in the range of 500-600 dollars. Keep in mind, there is extra installation cost as well.
Noise: In order the small blower ½ size of the big one to produce the same CFM as the big one, it needs to rotate twice as fast. If the big blower rotated with 900RPM, the small needs to rotate with 1800RPM. Remember, more RPM, more noise. To be exact, more than 2 times more noise as the noise goes up faster that the RPMs. Avoid small blowers.
2.The size of the duct - the bigger, the better.
Regular size ducts for home kitchen ventilation used today are 6” diameter round or 8” diameter round. 4” is no longer used for kitchen ventilation. If you have 4” diameter duct and plan to use it for your kitchen ventilation, you will never doing to get a good suction and low noise levels. Just forget it.
Two things are important when it comes to suction except big blower pushing the air on one side of the system. Velocity of the air and the size of the duct. Reducing one of those factors, will reduce the suction. Many people under estimate the importance of the duct size. Even if you have the most powerful blower on the market, reducing the duct size will create additional friction, more noise, vibration and low suction.
Let’s face it, you can’t push a lot of air through a small duct. For your kitchen ventilation use the biggest possible duct, the bigger the duct , the better. Any reduction , transition from big duct to small will reduce the suction dramatically. DO NOT UNDER-SIZE THE DUCT SIZE . if you want suction and low noise levels. If you are serious about cooking you need min 8” diameter duct, 6” is not enough. If you want to have a blower that can produce real 900- 1000CFM , you will need min 8” round duct. Avoid bend , turns and long distances.
3. Big filtration surface exactly over the cooking space.
Don't forget how important the filtration size is. If you are serious about cooking avoid small and glass hoods. The glass hoods look good, but most of the time they have small single filter in the middle. Unfortunately this design is not the best for hood performance. You aren’t going to get a great suction if you have small size filter(s). The bigger the filtration space, the better. If you have a big blower but small filters size, you most likely will experience a whistling sound and reduction in the suction. The small filter will restrict the airflow, avoid it.
4. Hood shape and depth of the hood.
The deeper the hood, the better. For 24” deep stoves we recommend 24” deep hoods. Our models PS01, PS09, PS35, Twister MAX, are the deepest , they are 24” . The best hoods shape is the pyramid type hoods ( see our PSF, SV198F, PS29 hoods ) Also good shapes are the hoods PS09,PS35,PS09 ( bid boxed hoods) .. Avoid glass hoods or rotated T shape hoods . They look good, but are not the best for heavy cooking. They might have good suction, but only in the middle, the suction at the ends is close to ZERO.
What is the model shape that we recommend for good suction – Our favorite models are Victory Twister ,PSF and Victory Twister MAX
5. Distance from the cooking surface.
Many customers want to put their hood as high as possible. They want to avoid blocking their view if they have island type kitchen. That is great, but they need to know that ideally the hood needs to be 30” above the cooktop. Any inch up will require 70CFM more. Installing the hood 40” ( 10” above the recommended distance) above the stove will require 700CFM or more… Do not be surprised if you do not have suffusion suction, after you decided to raise the hood up a bit..
6. Hood reliability - avoid hoods with too many parts, plastic parts.
What can go wrong inside a hood’s body?
Remember that the hoods are made by humans and have rotating elements, even the best ones can break after few years of use. What to consider before purchasing your range hood? The answer is - buy a hood with LESS PARTS. The less parts the hood has, the smaller the chances are the hood to break. Avoid hood with too many extras if you are after the most reliable hood. The range hoods can be complicated electrical appliances. Some come with one or two circuit boards, more difficult to fix if something goes wrong. Choose the one with mechanical switches, n circuit board, LED lights with GU10 light sockets ( don’t buy hoods with 12v lighting . They have transformers that can break ) If you want performance forget about touch sensitive displays and timers. Go with the simplest big blower hood you could find on the market. For that reason we developed our Victory Twister Max model hood, the simplest and the most reliable hood we have ever built. There is no circuit board, no transformers. Just one solid 19 gauge steel body, 2 rotary mechanical switches and ones big 1000CFM bower. .
Buy hoods with real baffle filters and oil grease trap. Aluminum filters do not last long time.