Amazing Deal
Customer Rating: 
i purchased this thing a couple of weeks ago in combinations with LB30 - 30inch hood liner, and i have to say that i'm very satisfied. I'm renovating my home, and and knocked out a wall that my old hood was on which left me with two options for venting a downdraft vent, or an island mount vent. Since i'm on a budget the downdraft vent was not economical because i had purchased a slide in oven and the downdraft vent only worked with countertop stoves. That left me with my only option an island mount hood.
Island mount hoods can be found as cheap as $600 bucks which i'm more than willing to pay, but living in Alaska those economical range hoods were not available to me. Even through big chains like home depot, and lowes. The cheapest range i found was $1000.
So with my limited budget i happened across this insert. I built a box, and a chimney flute for venting, and what do you know i have a vent hood. After all the supplies, and product costs, i spent just under $400, and i'm digging it more than a stainless hood vent because it's made from my hands. Looks cool too in a semi gloss black.
Also, this was an Amazon product, so when i purchased it I was offered free shipping. YEAH!!! all the way to Alaska. Amazon rocks, and I can't bring myself to purchase items from another vendor. Keep up the good service, and you'll have my buisness guaranteed.
Good
Customer Rating: I am happy with this fan. Uses two 40W candelabra bulbs. Light has only On or Off setting. I wish the lights were brighter or maybe it's that they are not a focused beam, or maybe the unit sits higher than my old under-cabinet unit. The lights seem to be situated more to the back of the stove than they would be with an under-cabinet unit.
Fan has 3 settings. Low is pretty quiet, high is somewhat noisy but not bad. The controls are sliders. The fan has 3 distinct settings: low, medium, and high. This unit plugs in; it is not designed to be hard-wired.
I bought this to go with the Broan LB30 30-Inch Hood Liner. I bought an older home that had an empty-inside wood hood (no over stove cabinet) and thought the liner would slip right in there, we pop the fan in, and that's it. I downloaded all the instructions, spec sheets, etc., I could find online ahead of time.
The instructions (both from the web and from the box) when utilizing the liner are confusing. My contractor had to call the 800# for advice and that person told him that the liner is not designed to hold up the fan. He said you have to either have a cabinet or build a box. In effect, the liner is just to cover up the wood, protect it, and give a stream-lined look.
After some discussion we decided to just use the liner to hold up the fan and it seems very solid. The liner installs with the opening pointing down (concave), so the bottom of the fan unit ends up 4" above the bottom of the hood and is hidden. I posted some photos.
It's slightly awkward reaching under and/or looking under to locate and move the switches which are on the bottom of the fan unit. I'm sure it will become automatic with use.
For my situation, this unit combined with the liner were perfect. The finished project looks very professional and was way less costly than a custom hood. It was not possible to find a matching cabinet in order to install a ready-made under-cabinet fan unit. The cost for this fan unit, the liner, and labor was less than or equal to what it would have cost for an off-the-shelf fan unit, non-matching over-stove cabinet, and labor.
