Paging kitchen brewers with vent hoods

[popsicleian]

My wife and I are about to undertake a renovation of our kitchen, and we were planning to include the installation of an island vent hood over the peninsula where our stove is located. We don't currently have any form of ventilation in the kitchen, other than crappy old windows which are hard to open (and will also be replaced).

While the vent hood will be a benefit while cooking, the main reason we're putting it in is so I can brew inside more often. I have a nice outdoor burner, but I have one young kid and another on the way, and it's hard to actively parent when I'm running back and forth in and out of the house. I also don't really like brewing outdoors during MN winters. I know my stove is powerful enough to maintain a boil on its own even on 8 gallons, and if I use a heat stick to supplement the time to get up to a boil is reasonable.

I was hoping that those who brew in the kitchen with a vent hood could share their experiences. What kinds/designs do you have, and what CFM rating? Any regrets or things you wish you'd like to change or do differently?

We are limited to 300CFM, which significantly restricts our options, and part of me wonders if that's enough power to even bother. Also torn between a model with a glass hood/arch that would save us money vs an all-stainless design. I don't know how much condensation would collect on the glass, or how hard it would be to clean.

Any thoughts/experiences would be greatly appreciated!

 

[day_trippr]

Why are you limited to 300CFM? Is that the threshold that requires an automatic make-up air damper and that'd be a problem?

The Spousal Unit and I are trying to survive a total kitchen/DR reno and our local regs require the damper for anything above 300cfm, and our hood is rated at 600 at its highest speed. The issue of concern is "back-drafting" - whether furnaces, gas water heaters, fireplaces - apparently the authorities don't want taxpayers to die because of a range hood.

Turns out the "automatic" part is rather key, as the majority of hoods - for islands, peninsulas, or conventional wall mount - lack the dry terminals to control a remote damper. I ended up having to modify a rather pricey XO hood to create the circuit to control a damper located one floor below. We can get away with that because there aren't any doors in between.

I don't brew in the kitchen but I do brew indoors. Wrt condensation, I've found there's no substitute for airflow, the more the better. As for the choice between glass and stainless, the glass will be considerably thicker and will take longer to warm, so if there's going to be a condensation issue it'll be worse with a glass hood...

Cheers! (and good luck with the kitchen!)

 

[RM-MN]

Take the time to measure what 300 cubic feet really is inside your home. I think you will find that even 100CFM will be plenty. I'd also recommend an all steel hood unless you like to clean the inside every time you cook something. Steel will hide the mess until you have the time to clean it.

Measure the height of your boiling pot to make sure it will easily fit under the hood too. My bigger pot only has a couple inches of clearance which means that to remove it from the burner I have to slide it off sideways. My smaller pot I can just lift off.

 

[grampamark]

A gallon (a unit of volume) is 231 cu. in. There are 1728 cu. in. a cubic foot. Water expands by a factor of 1600 when it vaporizes.

Using your boil off rate, calculate how many cubic feet of water vapor you will have to evacuate over the course of a 1 hour boil. You will find that you really don't have all that much water to handle. The tricky part, it seems, is finding, or designing, a hood which will capture as much of the steam as possible.

Mark