Canopy range hood inserts and liners

Canopy style range hoods are still popular in kitchens. There is confusion amongst consumers and sometimes trades people as to the distinction between a liner and an insert.

• A range hood liner is a metal plate of box that covers the exposed surfaces on the underside of the range hood canopy - its purpose is to protect combustable material that is exposed because the insert(the functional range hood component) does not cover the underside of the hood wall to wall - this is nearly always required when using stock or out of the box range hood inserts - btw code generally dictates that there may not be combustable material(wood) closer that 30" to a gas stove burner.
• A range hood insert is just that - its the functional part that inserts into the underside of a range hood canopy. Now if you have an off the shelf insert you will also generally require a liner of some sorts - this liner will need to be cut to allow the insert to fit into the cavity.



The component in the center is an insert - the flat material around it is a liner



At Custom Range Hoods we supply inserts that can be fabricated wall to wall by our supplier Modern Aire Ventilating - this has a few benefits:

• The baffle or mesh range hood filters are extended over a wider area and therefore less cooking residue is collected on a liner
• Bigger filter capture area combined with the best range hood blowers available ensures excellent vapour collection and disposal
• Installation is simpler and less expensive  - 1 component instead of two

 
These come in different styles:

• Mantle style hoods are basically rectangular in stucture and typically anywhere from 14" to 18" in depth
• These do pose challenges for effective ventilation especially over pro style stoves or ranges because there is not full coverage over the burners and vapours bleed up over the front.
• A partial solution is ensuring that the range hood blower is stronger than required to create high suction/negative air pressure around the filters
• The downside of this is excessive airflow noise due to the volume of air passing through the filters

A 14" deep by 72" wide insert into a mantle hood

• Stone or wooden hoods with inserts
• These are becomming very popular and from a ventilation standpoint pose no problems provided there is full coverage over the burners and the insert used has appropriate filters - ideally baffle style filters and adequate cfm via the range hood blower 

Does your range hood perform as well as it should

Here are a few of the typical issues that consumes encounter with their range hoods and a brief look at why these issues may exist:

Problem = NOISY RANGE HOOD
Result = You don't use the range hood and the grease, vapors are spreading through your home

• The ducting is restricted
• This could be as a result of a back draft damper flap that is jammed in place creating back pressure on the blower - like all things in nature the blower responds and pushes back by increasing its effort
• The ducting is to small for the range hood blower
• Same situation as above - the rangehood blower works harder to get push the air out
• Filters are blocked - usually the case with mesh filters where the grease has congealed and the air cannot pass through easily
• Clean the venthood filters - if they are dishwasher safe - dishwasher otherwise by hand with a powerful detergent
• A cheap motor - as with most things in this world there are varying degrees of quality and a badly balanced and cheaply built range hood blower will make a great deal of mechanical noise

Problem =SMOKE AND COOKING FUMES ARE NOT BEING SUCKED IN BY THE RANGE HOOD
Result = Grease, vapors and odors spread through your home

• Blocked filters as above - this very rarely happens with baffle filters, it mostly happens with mesh filters
• Clean the filters
• The range hood blower system is under powered relative to the stove or range - in ventilation terms it is not drawing sufficient cfm(cubic feet per minute of air) to handle the volume of smoke or vapor being created by the range - very often happens over ranges with bbq's or griddles.
• Not much you can do except change the range hood blower - this has other implications - is the range hood ducting large enough to cope with the increased cfm - there is a correlation between cfm and range hood duct size - see other posts on this blog
• The capture area formed by the range hood does not cover the burners - when hot vapor rises it expands outwards like a funnel - if the range hood doesnt at least cover the burners you will have this problem
• Not much you can do again except a mjor reno and replace the range hood so that it covers the burners.
• A case in point - we were called to a consumers house who had a 48" wide by 27" deep wolf range with bbq - the client loved to bbq. However the hood above the range was only 14" deep - it was/is a beautiful 72" wide custom cabinet mantel hood. This was a big problem - not only are there no inserts on the market that are around 14" shallow by 48" wide there just is not the coverage - we came up with a solution for them - we bulit a custom 14" deep by 72" wide custom insert with baffle filters and only had baffle filters over the 48" space - we then added a 1000cfm external blower to the mix which creates a huge amount of negative air pressure through the filters - not a 100% solution but pretty close - most of the bbq work must be done at the back of the bbq. Picture doesn't show the whole story but there it is.

• Maybe you have a microwavehood - these typically suck in the air and then blow it back into the room - these are called re-circulating hoods - not much to say about these that is positive.

If you have any questions or live with these problems feel free to contact us - we provide advice and suggestions free of charge.

Wooden Range Hood Canopy Insert

This wooden range hood canopy - otherwise known as a mantel hood - posed some challenges as it was only 14" deep and 72" wide and was over a 27" deep by 48" wide professional range with a griddle and the client BBQ's extensively indoors during the cold Ontario winters. The challenge comes in that ideally there should be full coverage over the burners otherwise any cooking that took place on the front of the stove would not be captured by the hood.

We therefore needed to maximize the suction over the immediate cooking surface and accomplished this by placing flat panels on either side of the range hood capture area where the baffle filters where placed. Suction was achieved with a variable speed 1000cm external range hood blower. Lighting is dimmable halogen range hood lighting.

For more pictures of range hoods please visit our photo gallery at:

http://photos.customrangehoods.ca/

Modern Aire Professional Series Wooden Hood Insert

The PSL Wall Mount Ventilator Power Pack manufactured by Modern Aire and distributed in Canada by Custom Range Hoods , adds elegance to any kitchen with a brushed satin stainless steel finish. Made with 300 series stainless steel, the universal wood hood insert features a polished stainless steel professional baffle filter system, infinite variable speed motor control, dimmer-controlled halogen lighting and double wall construction. The interior motors are available in 600 and 1200 cfm internally or together with 1000cfm or 1400cfm increment external roof or wall mount blower systems. The baffle filters permit the air to pass through unrestricted, resulting in a smoother and quieter transition which of course results in a quieter range hood. The power packs are also available for custom hood openings from 30" to 60" wide in industry stock sizes or made to any size required.

Wood Hood Inserts and Liners

It may not be common knowledge that whenever you have a wooden hood over a range, especially a gas range, code requires that there may not be any exposed surfaces that can catch on fire....so typically wood hood manufacturers and cabinet manufacturers have to find a liner made out of metal, or non combustible material that bridges the space between the range hood insert and the edges of the wooden canopy - that bridging piece is call a liner and can cost upwards of $120 each.

Professional Liner/Insert (above)

Mesh Insert/Liner (below)

All Custom Range Hoods, supplied by Modern Aire Ventilating, fit the exact space and therefore no liner is required. On occasions a non standard size wooden hood is made and we make the insert/liner to the exact dimensions required to fit the space. This has huge cost savings for the end user and of course the installer as well because they do not have to install two separate items. We offer a standard insert/liner with full stainless steel mesh filters, unlike the imports that are aluminium with a stainless steel frame. We also over stainless steel baffle filters in all of our professional series hoods, as shown for use over semi professional ranges - these typically handle air flows from 600cfm all the way up to 1400cfm.

As can be seen in the picture of the professional insert/liner a custom depth has been made to accommodate what has become very popular with kitchen designers ....... mantel hoods.

Wood Hood Liners

Did you know that we at Custom Range Hoods can supply canopy hood liners to accomodate the exact specs of YOUR wooden canopy - so for example if your standard wooden canopy opening on the underside is 12.25" by 34.38"(the space available for an insert) we can make a complete range hood liner for that custom space at the same price as our standard liners - this saves you the effort and added cost of having to source a liner as well as a powerpack - all of our units are complete and include include lights, blowers ranging from 400cfm up to 1400cfm, internal or external blowers, filters either stainless steel mesh or professional baffle style and variable speed controls. As you can see from the image this range hood liner is wall to wall - there is no open areas on any side(except the canopy hood body) that needs to be covered - why is this important you may ask:

1. There are code requirements for exposed combustable material above open flames such as those from gas ranges.
2. Exposed wooden surfaces very quickly accumulate grease and are difficult to clean.
3. Typically where there is exposed wooden surfaces therefore a seperate stainless steel liner is required to bridge this exposed wood between the ventilation unit and the wooden canopy body.