Rangehood / kitchen extractor recommendation

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timmmay

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#314913 28-May-2024 19:36

Any experiences with these brands / types of rangehoods? We're Replacing our 15 year old that is full of oil and difficult to clean, to the point it drips oil onto the filters which occasionally then falls down onto the stove. It might be an F&P but the brand isn't written on it anywhere. Looking for a cheapy for now, we'll redo the kitchen at some point and get a better one. The current one is a basic white model that's so loud on high you can barely hear yourself yell. We have high ceilings so we'd need an extension for the cover bit that goes into the ceiling.

Looking for experiences / recommendations to avoid buying a lemon, even if we won't keep it forever.

Westinghouse - link
Midea @ Trade Depot - link
Robinhoood @ M10 - link
Parmco @ Nl - link

Updates: We will not be buying a fancy version with a motor in the ceiling. We know the cheap ones are loud, we've had one for 15 years.

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#3241958 28-May-2024 20:14

I can’t stand the noise. They are all noisy as hell and there’s only one way to mitigate: get one with an inline blower that can sit up in the attic, rather than a blower built into the rangehood itself. All the big brands including F&P have them.

All else is secondary.

Unfortunately they do cost quite a bit more.

Nice to have is a smart one paired to a smart cooktop so you can turn both on in one place.

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timmmay

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#3241960 28-May-2024 20:18

johno1234: I can’t stand the noise. They are all noisy as hell and there’s only one way to mitigate: get one with an inline blower that can sit up in the attic, rather than a blower built into the rangehood itself. All the big brands including F&P have them.

All else is secondary.

Unfortunately they do cost quite a bit more.

Nice to have is a smart one paired to a smart cooktop so you can turn both on in one place.

We might get one of those when we redo the kitchen, but for now we want a basic model. Our current one is coated with oil inside and out, I wonder how the ones in the ceiling deal with that.

sudo

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#3241968 28-May-2024 20:25

We got a Midea, replacing a F&P. It does the job, but its pretty meh (the stainless mesh holds very little grease and it's maybe louder than the F&P)

tweake

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#3241975 28-May-2024 20:43

this is something that grinds my gears. the better the house, the worse the range hood is. often only fitted for compliance reasons.

a big part of the noise is also pipe sizes and route/length. using a higher speed fan to make up for small long ducts to make it easier to install.

i can't comment on brands but try to get one that wider than the hob/stove, and one that sticks out enough. quite often see hobs brought forward past the edge of the rangehood (and the hood is usually buried right back at the wall).

MikeFly

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#3242063 29-May-2024 04:01

As Johno1234 says, they all sound like you are having a sausage sizzle behind an F16 on afterburners. How far away is the kitchen reno, seems a bit of a shame to blow even $250 short term.

I built 5 years ago and went for Sirius with a ducted outside wall mounted motor, the low, usual speed we use it on produces bugger all noise, so much so we quite often forget its on. Full speed sounds similar to the integrated units on low though. Other feature I like is the commercial grade stainless filters, just chuck them in the dishwasher.

Goosey

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#3242070 29-May-2024 06:37

The cheapies will be noisy.

you need to calculate the area of the kitchen and compare it to the volume the extractor can move

an external motor is quieter but obviously more expensive.

just remember the ducting is key….a straight no bends is best and not all external motors can be mounted on a wall or eve.

have you considered contacting a commercial cleaner that specialises in range hood cleaning….plenty of them that service the hospo industry as range hood fires void insurance if it’s found they never had regular cleaning.

timmmay

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#3242073 29-May-2024 07:06

We have a 15 year old simple extractor, that's what was available when we purchased. We're used to the noise. We're not buying an expensive one now, we just need to stop the dripping oil. The kitchen reno might be done in a year, it might be done in five years.

@Goosey I didn't know there were commercial cleaners who might be able to simply clean the motor for us. Even if it cost as much as a new unit it would end up much cheaper and cleaner as we don't need to get a builder in to replace the current one. Great idea!

BlargHonk

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#3242079 29-May-2024 08:15

We have the Robinhood WCAN60X which is the Stainless version. It is noisy, but seems to extract well. Filters go in the Dishwasher. I seem to remember it being a bit cheaper than $349 when we bought it though!

myopinion

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#3242157 29-May-2024 09:43

We recently upgraded the kitchen and replaced an old but very good range hood with a Falmec. It's reasonably quiet, really good at sucking evetyghin outside and has an easy clean hinged door, with the filters behind that for cleaning in the dishwasher. https://www.kitchenthings.co.nz/falmec-f5la90b1-90cm-canopy-rangehood?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgdayBhBQEiwAXhMxtiGvGEaRs1oc8I0QmdcbnsptMGZxbcRqxbrZLOP5D6BC4atCxGlekBoCX8QQAvD_BwE

billgates

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#3242166 29-May-2024 10:06

My recommendations are Sirius, Schweigen or Falmec but they will mostly have an external motor option. The best thing you can do is at the very least for both noise and performance is go with a rangehood that has ideally a 200mm native duct connection from rangehood/motor to the external grill without using any stepdown or stepup duct adaptors. As others have mentioned an external motor helps immensley with the noise as well. Also get a rangehood with baffle filters as it will make cleaning the filters so much easier and keeps the cost down and performance is even better.

Have a look at Sirius and the other brands website for AU or NZ. Harvey Norman can do a manual order a lot of the models shown on the Sirius website for example which they do not show on there own HN website.

Do whatever you want to do man.

timmmay

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#3242167 29-May-2024 10:07

For $3K plus it had better be pretty awesome!

We have a speciality cleaning firm coming to have a look and quote on Friday. Even if it's expensive it would be a lot less hassle than pulling the old rangehood out and putting a new one in, given it will be a different size and require changes.

johno1234

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#3242168 29-May-2024 10:15

Interested to know if/how they will clean the elephant trunk flexible ducting, the squirrel cage etc. Or perhaps they will just remove and clean the filters and wipe out inside the hood on the filter side of the blower.

As others mentioned, you can take out the filters of most range hoods and put them through the dishwasher - a very good idea.

Most people never clean the filters in their range hoods (grease), dish washers (food scraps, broken glass) and laundry machines (lint) in the lifetime of ownership, which probably does shorten the appliance life.

Bung

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#3242172 29-May-2024 10:41

With our cheap Robinhood most of the noise seemed to come from airflow in the duct. I filled the outer cover with sound damping and usually run it on full. The remaining problem seems to be after about 20 minutes it stops and starts while the lights are unaffected.

CrazyM

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#3242232 29-May-2024 11:17

I did a DIY job on my F&P. The hood and filters were fine but the motor dripped as well as being loud and gutless.

Removed the motor and ran new semi-rigid duct up to an inline centrifugal fan in the roof space. I thought about wiring the fan into the existing rangehood button but instead got it with a wireless remote. Adjustable 3 speeds and works perfectly. Much quieter (mostly airflow noise) and MUCH more powerful

https://www.mingfans.co.nz/index.php/product/index/id/50.html

https://www.mingfans.co.nz/index.php/product/index/id/120.html

tweake

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#3242234 29-May-2024 11:31

Goosey:

you need to calculate the area of the kitchen and compare it to the volume the extractor can move

why does that matter ? i doubt these homes will be air tight enough to run into decompression issues.

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