My existing range hood is just a fan with charcoal. It's good at removing odors from cooking, but it doesn't eliminate any moisture created from cooking or from the dishwasher. I'm in the planning stage for a kitchen remodel and I want to get a new ventilation system for the kitchen ducting it to the outside. But I just read an article on GBA that talked about how ineffective range hoods are. What do you guys like to use for ventilating the kitchen? Is it better to go with a simple ventilation fan or should I go for a range hood ducted to the outside?

Thank you.

But I just read an article on GBA that talked about how ineffective range hoods are.

Ineffective? You can get a range hood that moves any amount of air from small streams up to huge draughts. If your no exhaust charcoal filtered unit has served you well, you would be better off with a small hood that you can run while cooking and during dishwasher run times as opposed to a mighty hood that empties the kitchen.

What kind of stove will you be using?

It's just a simple electric range stove. Smooth top range.

There are some return venting hoods that are capable of bringing outside air in on the edges and elsewhere. When the hood is of a large enough volume of an air flow then you may find this is better than pulling outside air from through a house crack(s) and or the frames of doors and windows, etc.

hood manufacturers have so much to look at nowadays

He doesn't need much volume for an electric cooktop. Better to go small so it can run for a longer period, like during a dishwasher cycle as he has talked about moisture removal. There are hoods that vent easily through the wall so you don't have to have a roof penetration.

When you say small how many cfm's would you mean? Less than 600?

Whatever goes in needs to have a decent damper or backdraft preventer to limit the 24/365 infiltration factor. Side venting it is preferable to taking it up through the roof as well, since stack effect would drive a higher rate of infiltration in the latter.

Hoods that reach over the full cooktop are rare, but preferable. The one with the best coverage that actually fits may be a compromise, but as long as you use the back burners (especially for boiling stuff) it doesn't take an aircraft-testing wind tunnel of a draft to make a good reduction in indoor humidity.

but that wind tunnel looks so very way much more greater cooler

Posted By Dana1 on 08 May 2012 03:13 PM
Whatever goes in needs to have a decent damper or backdraft preventer to limit the 24/365 infiltration factor. Side venting it is preferable to taking it up through the roof as well, since stack effect would drive a higher rate of infiltration in the latter.

Hoods that reach over the full cooktop are rare, but preferable. The one with the best coverage that actually fits may be a compromise, but as long as you use the back burners (especially for boiling stuff) it doesn't take an aircraft-testing wind tunnel of a draft to make a good reduction in indoor humidity.

What should I keep in mind to make sure the backdraft preventer or damper is decent?

Less than 600?

Assuming you have a standard 30" electric range and don't do anything too wild on it (deep fat frying, giant double burner wok or grill, burn stuff all the time, etc,) you need less than half that amount. You will find a lot of 30 inch ducted hoods at 300 cfm. That might be the size to get as you could run it on low speed to remove moisture and on high speed to capture odors or smoke.

There are eStar rated ones out there. Make sure you look at the sone rating since the noisier they are the less likely you are to use it. A nice quiet low setting would serve you well for most needs, only using the higher and noisier settings for cooking something particularly smokey.

-Rosalinda