I looked at a few different models on amazon. I wanted something with stainless steel baffles that were dishwasher safe. LED lighting was a plus, and something that looked nice. From what I was able to research fan CFM was sort of subjective depending on how you have your vent piped. So I took fan CFM rating with a grain of salt.
Others I looked at:
Windster WS-38U30SS
BV-RH-01
Went with the Tatsumaki because of the shorter height. I had mixed feelings on the digital display preferring physical buttons (one less thing to break) but the size of the hood won out.
Mine came with halogen lamps. I ordered AmazonBasics 50 Watt Equivalent, Daylight, Dimmable, GU10 LED Light Bulb - 2 Pack to replace the lamps that came with the hood. The rest of our kitchen lighting is 5000k the halogen lamps seemed to be in the 3000k range. The photos below show the halogen lamps. I'll update later with the 5000k AmazonBasic lamps.
Fan noise is not to bad. Our old Samsung microwave vent was noisy as a jet engine and the Tatsumaki quieter even at full power.
We used the 6" round adapter. Screwed approximately 12" of sheet metal vent piping to the Tatsumaki adapter and then taped the connection up. Folded over the electrical wire and ran it through the vent hole piping hole in the cabinet.
We measured out the screw placements and got the screws started. We were pretty close on two of them, but the wall wasn't perfectly flat so that threw off the other two screws. With two screws in the correct position we were able to rescrew the others. On one of them we used a 1" washer with a small 1/4" opening... this gave the screw more holding power on the vent. If you make a mistake in lining up your screws this could be a possible fix.
A long Phillips screw driver is necessary for the back screws. My 6" screw driver wasn't very helpful, luckily my co-installer had a long 10" screwdriver that made the install so much easier.
This is definitely a 2 man job. We moved the stove out of the way to make things easier.
We tested the vent the first night on something that would normally smoke up the kitchen. The Tatsumaki handled it effectively. We purposely used the front burner and with the vent on high there was no smokey kitchen and no lingering smells afterwards. I would say this fan really sucks (in a good way).
Edit: added photo of AmazonBasic 5000k LED bulbs
Overall good vent fan, solid construction and heavy duty dual fan motors and blades. The hood does indeed move alot of air, and is relatively quiet considering the significantly increased air movement over a standard unit. Unit was extremely well packaged. Here are the considerations when choosing to purchase:
1. If you need to use the rear exhaust option, beware that the adapter piece requires a couple of inches to make the transition from a longer narrower rectangle to the standard rectangular size. In my installation i was not able to use the adapter and instead needed to change out the wall vent to a damper unit, and just direct couple the hood to the wall fitting.
2. The stainless steel is 400 series which is a lower grade that 300 series. This only becomes important if you are trying to match the hood to a high end stove that is made from 300 series non-magnetic stainless steel. 400 series tends to have a bluish tint while 300 is more of a yellowish tint.
3. The Tats is longer that the average home unit, about 4-5 inches. For me that was an advantage as it covers the stove better.
4. The unit I received was produced in July 2017 but had halogen lights. I swapped them for LED but i do get some flicker on the low setting, but fine on the high setting. The unit seemed to be advertised as containing LED lights.
5. There is a big sticky label on the side of the vent which takes significant effort to remove. I cant imagine why they chose to stick it there with hyper-aggressive adhesive but they did. Time for the Goof-Off.
For the money I consider this unit a good value, it does seem well made and solid, and I am happy with it.
This product came in high quality and sturdy packing. USPS delivered it on time! There were no defects or damages on the TA- S18 range hood. The build quality was impressive - brushed stainless steel of heavy gauge. The form and fit was excellent. Light was adequate. Suction on 3rd speed setting was quite impressive considering that the noise was acçeptable compared to our OTR GE microwave oven. I connected the unit through rear vent option directly out the drywall, insulation and the sidings. The vent slot is rectangular measuring 13.25 inch by 3.25 inch and tapering to 10 inch by 3.25 inch in the rear. It comes with the damper attached which is nice.☺️ Installation needed to be planned out since our existing vents from the OTR was not in sync with the vent size and location of the range. With a self made template the installation was easy.The screws provided were adequate to hold the range with our existing cabinet bottom surface. I used a "Fastcap" cabinet jack to install the range hood. So it was one person install with the cabinet jack. Overall, I am very happy with the purchase I made. So far so good. Highly recommend buying this range hood for Asian/Indian cooking. Thank you!
This is a really nice hood. It looks great and has good functionality, including 6 fan speeds, LED lights, clock and delay timer (so you can set the fan to turn off automatically). It is relatively quiet on the lower speed settings; the top 3 settings are louder, but also move a lot of air.
This replaced a 42 year old GE hood that finally stopped working recently. I am glad I decided to go with this unit. As recommended, I plugged it in and checked that all the controls were working before installing. Installation took several hours. The instruction manual is pretty minimalistic, but if you know what you are doing you can install it yourself. I had to pick up a few items for the installation (a section of 3-¼ x 10 aluminum duct to connect the vertical outlet to my existing ductwork, aluminum duct tape, some hex head 2” #12 screws and a 6” driver extension for my drill). The rectangular vertical duct adapter supplied with the unit is too short in my opinion (the duct only extends about 1” above the top of the hood – so it does not stick out above the bottom of the upper cabinet when installed; the mounting screws are also about ¼” too short). I cut the power cord, removed the strain relief, and opened up the auxilliary electrical connection hole on the back of the unit to enable a direct connection to the existing wiring in my wall.
I used a car jack with several blocks of wood to raise the hood into place with a ~4” duct extension pre-attached (see photo). It was tricky to get the new duct extension to slide over the end of the existing duct. I trimmed the edges of the aluminum “flapper” on the rectangular duct adapter so they wouldn’t catch on the old duct ends after installation. I needed help from my wife to get the wood blocks and jack in place once I hoisted the unit into position. I’m afraid some bad words were said after I struggled several times to reach up under the hood with an electric screwdriver to drive the retaining screws in place. I ended up nixing the back two screws in favor of putting one through the back of the unit into a wall stud, which was much easier and totally solid. Once installed, it worked like a dream. A dimmer on the control panel would have been nice, as would dual brightness levels on the lights. The little ding they unit makes every time you touch a button on the control panel gets old pretty quickly. Also, the control panel surface is plastic, not glass (which would have been better).
I have been using this product for the past 3 weeks - satisfied with the overall look and efficiency. The noise level is higher than I had expected and it seemed like the left fan was blowing air out instead of sucking it in... but still overall, this is better in venting efficacy than the 200 CFM microwave vent we were previously using.
My disappointment has been in the digital display - a couple of weeks into use, the last digit seems to be missing it’s top half - so a nine would display as a five or an eight would look like 6. I did not expect that to give out so soon! Planning to reach out to the company to see what they can do about this. Will update rating based on that.
Follow up: Spoke with Calvin - very helpful and quick about sending a replacement display unit; something about the display unit I had on my vent hood possibly was missed in QA testing. I was not too happy about having to replace this after the fact because it is a little tedious. There is a you-tube video to assist and it is doable, but in general no one expects to have to do that post-installing a brand new appliance. It also takes some skill to get it aligned as perfectly as the company installed unit. It would be ideal if this piece was tested thoroughly before being installed on the unit.
For the vent issue, Clavin suggested that I remove the damper on the unit (the piece where the vent pipe attaches; the piece that swivels open or closed when you turn the hood on/off). This again, this is information you want BEFORE you've finished installing the vent and cabinetry around the hood/vent. This update cost me more money and some repair work to my cabinetry. This is information that should in my opinion, be included in the installation manual.
While I feel strongly about both of the issues I had, I am only taking off one-star because I feel like the vent hood is doing the job I expected - I can fry in my kitchen and not feel like we've fumigated the house with oil! Also, most cooking smells are eliminated - if you like to cook / stir fry with red onions, you will still smell them - I feel this has more to do with the onions than the vent though.
The other
Feature Product
- CONTEMPORARY MODERN DESIGN: Full stainless steel body with digital screen that integrates beautifully with your kitchen remodel.
- POWERFUL 860 CFM WITH DELAY SHUT-OFF: Customize your Chef range hood with the 6 speed setting to play with the suction and noise level.
- EASY TO CLEAN FILTERS: Chef's 36in range hood is designed with easy-to-remove stainless steel baffle filters. Just place in the dishwasher to clean!
- BRIGHT ENERGY SAVING LAMPS: LED lamps help save energy in your kitchen while emit enough lights to meet your cooking need.
- THREE-WAY VENTING: Vertical venting: 6" round adapter or 10" x 3-1/4" rectangular adapter; Rear venting: 10" x 3-1/4" rectangular adapter. Customer satisfaction is guaranteed! Click "Add to Cart" now!
Description
This ventilation hood's clean, sharp lines, industrial styling and flawless stainless steel body make it the perfect professional style extractor fan for discerning home chefs. The contemporary under cabinet range hood features the functionality you would expect from a premium kitchen ventilation appliance, all controlled by a smooth and understated digital screen. A powerful 860 CFM extractor captures grease, fumes and cooking smells with ease, using dishwasher safe baffle filters to minimize maintenance, and the touch screen panel displays the time and provides an easy way to control the hood functions, even when your hands are full. The versatile extractor fan's stainless steel surfaces can be wiped clean in seconds, and the under cabinet range hood has 3 way venting options for complete installation convenience.
this unit met all my expectations after 4months of usage. i replaced a broken micro/hood for safety as well. i dont have to reach hot food above my head. this hood is pretty powerful!!! it is noisy but who stands by the hood and listens to it...
the 2 light settings is great as well. easy to install as long as you measure if it will fit your cabinetry. the filters and grease trap are easy to clean.
good looking hood.
update:
after 5 months of use, both bulbs went out almost at the same time. maybe the heat caused it, i just bought replacement bulb thru amazon ($10 for nine bulbs). i store the replacement bulbs in the cabinet above the hood just in case the bulbs keeps going out.
We rarely go out to dinner so most of our meals are home cooked . From burgers, bacon, fish, fried chicken, steak, our stove is usually pretty active, leaving the house smelling like what was cook days after we finished. So far I've made fried chicken, a full breakfast, and pan seared salmon. Outside smells like a restaurant and the inside has a faint smell of food. When frying food or just making something small the number 2-3 setting is perfect. When searing food, I turned it up to the max, just to be sure the house didn't get smokey.
With that said...Here's the complaints...The only physical problem with this hood is the metallic smell, maybe because it's new. Other than that, this hood requires 6 inch duct. Working with the 6 inch duct was the hardest part because I went through the cabinet rather the ceiling or above the cabinet. You probably will have to do some improvising when installing your duct work. HVAC tape is your friend, and you'll need a good friend to help you fit the unit properly. After installing everything, I tested it out and it worked amazingly. It's not the most quiet hood, but I didn't think it would whisper pumping out that much air. Lets just say it does its job and for the price, it does it very well.
Gorgeous looking range hood that compeiments our new stove & refrigerator that we also replaced recently. Very streamlined looking and appears very robust & well-made. Much heavier than the old hood (20 years old) it replaced but that was expected since the Tatsumaki has at least 50% more CFM than the old range hood so I'm assuming larger motors in the Tatsumaki. The dual fans have 6 speed levels and are very quiet in the lower 2 settings but gets louder as you increase the speed (but not insanely loud like our old one) but it's to be expected. If you possess decent DYI skills & have the proper tools, self-installation is possible. I would classify the installation difficulty as moderate only because the weight (approx. 41 pounds) of the unit requires at least 3 people to situate it properly. Forty-one pounds is not overly heavy in a sense by itself but it's question of leverage and amount of room to work with. I also had to be a bit of a contortionist to reach the rear mounting holes in the back of the unit but it stands to reason that these issues are inherent to most exhaust hood installations.nThat being said, our new Tatsumaki range hood is mounted, looks gorgeous & works like a charm!
I just installed my new range hood with rigid duct extending about 5 feet vertically, and upon simple testing I feel it will live up to what is described in the specs. Very powerful on the highest setting, and still a good amount of suction on the lowest setting. I was looking for something more powerful than the options available at the big box stores, and this unit definitely fits the bill. In addition, the 22" depth is something I couldn't find at the stores. It doesn't make sense to me to have a range hood that covers only 1/2 of the stove top (especially units that have only 400 CFM of power or less). Most stove tops have their power burners in the front, so hoods that cover only the back two burners, combined with insufficient suction, are just a waste of money to me. The noise level on this unit is obviously loud on the highest setting, but nothing out of the ordinary on mid and lower settings. That being said, if you need to use the highest setting, you wouldn't need to for very long since at 850 CFM it would exhaust the air pretty quickly (depending on the size of your kitchen). I like the timer option, which ranges from 1-15 minutes. The lights provide more than ample visibility of on both low and high settings. The only knock I have at this time (and it is very minor) is that having to press the power button before controlling the fan and lights is an extra step that I find unnecessary. The unit displays only the time until the power button is pressed. Once pressed all the controls become available. I think it would be better if the controls were simply available at all times. I understand the minimalistic appearance with just the time displayed, but it's not like the other controls make the unit look ugly. Overall, I am well pleased with this unit. As mentioned in my review title, time will tell if it is durable and worthy of keeping my 5 star rating. I hope it is.
Overall it is an excellent range hood, a big step up from what I used to have. Decent CFM and modern design. It offers 3 venting options, vertical round, vertical square and horizontal square. And the horizontal square venting option is exactly why I choose this one because I want to utilize the 3 by 10 vent hole on my wall from the old range hood. However it took me some extra time to install since the horizontal vent adapter has a transition from the hood exhaust outlet (bigger than 3 by 10) to 3 by 10 vent so it couldn't be inserted into the vent hole on the wall with zero gap between the back of range hood and the wall, which made the range hood stick out a little bit more than expected. I guess the transition was there to improve the flow and I don't want to make adjustment on the exhaust hole I already had on the wall. So as a result, I drilled additional screw holes on the hood in order to hang it than using pre drilled screw holes on the range hood.
Another improvement that I made was adding a "hand-crafted" gasket between the horizontal vent adapter and the hood itself. As I noticed there was a rubber gasket on the vertical vent of the hood however there was no gasket if horizontal vent was chosen. So I made one gasket from rubber sheet and attached it. I'm not blaming the seller since not many people use the horizontal vent but it would be nice to include one for that option. Over all it is a decent range hood.
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