What we fix
A Wolf hood that has changed pitch or stopped clearing the cooktop
Wall and island hoods, downdrafts, internal and remote blowers. Noise that has changed pitch, extraction that no longer clears steam, lights and switches that fail.
What it usually looks like
- The blower has developed a rumble or a whine it did not have
- Steam and smoke hang over the cooktop instead of clearing
- Only the highest speed does anything useful
- The lights flicker or one bank has stopped working
- The touch controls respond late or not at all
- The hood runs on its own or will not switch off
- There is a draught back down the duct on a windy day
- The blower rattles hardest on the lowest speed
Ventilation is the part of a kitchen nobody thinks about until it changes pitch. A hood does one job — capture what rises off the burners and move it outside — and it does it through a chain of parts that are individually simple: a capture area, a filter, a blower, a duct run and a termination.
Noise usually names the fault
A blower that has always been loud is a design and duct question. A blower that became loud is a mechanical one, and the character of the sound narrows it quickly.
A rumble that rises and falls with speed is generally imbalance: debris on the wheel, grease loaded unevenly on one side of the squirrel cage, or a wheel that has shifted on its shaft. A whine that stays at one pitch is a bearing. A rattle that is worst on the lowest speed is often not the blower at all but a panel, a filter or a damper flapping in an airstream that is no longer strong enough to hold it steady.
Backdraught noise on a windy day points at the termination outside. A damper that no longer closes cleanly lets the weather in, and on the exposed lots along the river that is a regular finding.
Extraction that has quietly fallen off
Most hoods that “stopped working” still work. What has changed is the resistance of everything downstream. Baffle filters loaded with grease, a duct run with a long horizontal leg, an elbow too close to the blower outlet, or a damper held half open by hardened grease will each cost airflow, and together they can halve it without any part failing.
The first step is always the filters, and the second is the termination. Only then does the blower itself become a suspect. Replacing a blower to solve a duct problem is an expensive way to keep the same result.
Makeup air, which is a real constraint
A powerful hood does not extract into a sealed house. In most Florida jurisdictions the residential mechanical code requires a makeup-air provision once a kitchen exhaust exceeds 400 cubic feet per minute, and the reason is practical rather than bureaucratic: pull that much air out of a tightly built house and something has to replace it. In a home with gas appliances, the path of least resistance can be a flue, and that is worth taking seriously. Your county building department is the authority on what applies at your address.
The symptom homeowners describe is a hood that “works fine with a window open” and poorly without. That is not a broken appliance. It is a house telling you where the air is coming from.
Downdrafts and remote blowers
A downdraft has to fight the direction heat naturally travels, so it is more sensitive to every loss in the system than an overhead hood is. Its lift mechanism adds a second class of fault — a motor, a drive and a limit switch that can jam with grease.
Remote and in-line blowers move the noise out of the kitchen and the service access into the attic or onto the roof. That is a good trade for daily life and a consideration on a repair visit, so we establish where the blower actually lives before quoting the work.
The terms
The flat diagnostic covers the trip and the airflow and electrical checks, and it is credited toward the repair. Written estimate before any part is ordered. Labour carries 90 days, genuine OEM parts 365.
The duct above the cooktop, and the one that is not ours
The hood, its blower, its damper and the duct run that carries cooking air out of the house are kitchen appliance work, and that is the work on this page. The other ductwork in a Clay County attic is not ours. The air handler, the supply and return runs feeding it, the thermostat and the condenser outside belong to an air-conditioning trade this shop does not work in, and we say so on the telephone rather than send a van. Heating, air conditioning and duct systems are not services offered here, at any address on the route.
We service Wolf cooking appliances only.
Before the estimate
What does hood and blower work usually come to?
Flat $80 diagnostic covering the visit and the full diagnostic sequence, credited toward the repair once you approve the work. Everything below it is what that class of repair has actually run here, parts and labour together — a range rather than a single number, because the firm figure is only honest once the fault has been measured.
| What was wrong | Usual total |
|---|---|
| $80 diagnostic visit | $80 |
| Control board or touch panel | $430–$1,070 |
Ranges, not quotes. Which band a job lands in depends on the part and on how much has to come apart to reach it, and that is settled by the diagnostic rather than by the telephone. The written estimate carries one figure and a lead time, and nothing is ordered until you have agreed to it.
Asked on the telephone
Is a weak hood the blower or the duct?
The duct, more often than owners expect. Around here the run was frequently routed the way the framing allowed rather than the shortest way, and every extra elbow costs airflow. A blower is tested for what it can actually pull before anybody suggests replacing it with a bigger one.
What is makeup air, and why does it matter?
Air has to come into a kitchen before a hood can take any out of it. In a tight house a powerful hood with nowhere to draw from simply stalls, and you notice that as noise without capture. The answer is as often a supply path as it is a part.
Does this cover the ductwork for the air conditioning?
No. A hood duct carries cooking air out of the house and is part of the appliance we came for. The supply and return runs feeding an air handler condition the rooms, and they belong to a heating and air-conditioning trade. This shop works on kitchen appliances, and we say so before a visit is booked.
Why does the hood only rattle on high?
Something in the airstream is loose or out of balance and it only shows when the blower loads up. A wheel out of true, a filter not seated, a damper flapping, a duct joint working at its fastener. It is found by running the thing and listening, not by ordering a blower.
The terms, unchanged
$80 flat diagnostic, credited toward the repair. You get a written estimate before any part is ordered or any labour is billed. Genuine OEM parts, with 90 days on labour, 365 days on parts.
Blower assemblies, control boards and lamp modules are ordinary lead-time items. Remote and in-line blowers may need roof or attic access, and we agree that first.