Zephyr ZPIE30AG290 30" Undercabinet Range Hood

Motive: the previous vent hood in my kitchen was somewhat bulkier than average. I'm a little on the tall side and repeatedly bumped my head on it. It blocked light from the ceiling reaching the cooktop, and provided only a little light of its own.The search: I looked for replacements and few really solved the problem of the vent hood blocking light and taking up space. I saw the Zephyr Pisa and it looked to be exactly what I was looking for. Most of the time it remains tucked under the cabinet without projecting out over anything. When you want to vent cooking odors, you pull it out and even then the pull out part is mostly glass and lets significant light through.Purchase: Make no mistake, the pricing on this reflects the uniqueness of this product. I saved up for a few months before placing the order. It arrived within a few days and the box was suffiently stout to protect it.Installation: I have to be honest, this is not a "plug and play" replacement for most vent hoods. The case and innards of the unit reside mostly in the cabinet above and require an 11x20" hole in the bottom of the cabinet. This is larger than is present in most homes and I had to do quite a bit of custom cutting and fitting. I knew this going it, so it was not a surprise, but you should expect to use a drill, jig saw, oscillating saw, a tape measure, a square, and to remove a lot of material from the lower panel and rear structure of your cabinet. For some people, you would be doing this as part of a kitchen remodel and have contractors on hand who can take care of the messy stuff. I did it DIY and spent a good 6 hours making sure it was perfect. A pro might be able to take care of it in two hours and charge accordingly.Electrical: the supplied installation manual doesn't cover electrical so I had an electrician take care of this part. Depending on area this would be $100 or so. I wanted to make sure it was up to code so this was not optional.Outcome: This is an amazing product. Most of the time you see a thin, beautiful stainless steel bar running below your cabinet. Nothing to bump your head on. Overhead kitchen lights can now reach what used to be a dark cooktop. When in use the fans are quiet enough to carry on a conversation but can still remove smoke, odor, and heat from cooking.Recommend: Anyone who wants a stylish, minimalist vent hood, or who has a cramped or dark kitchen that is not served well by the usual steel intruding into the space should consider this one. It is not cheap to buy or install, but is an amazing product that transforms how a kitchen feels. I am absolutely delighted by it!

Beautiful! And super functional. My house is over 200 years old and things like headroom and cabinet heights matter. This gives us plenty of headroom, GREAT lighting and it really does its job as a vent. I couldn’t be more pleased. Yes the little cabinet above was forfeit but it was useless anyway and if you have regular height cabinets I’m sure there would still be room for an upper shelf. The only very slight negative I can think of is that this went into 12” depth cabinets and I’m sure if the front burners were going full tilt some steam might escape. Other than that thrilled.

Twice I purchased this product, twice it was missing the same parts.instruction manual does not seem to be complete or applicable.

I was attracted to this hood because of its design and low noise. It delivers on all of these and the construction seems solid. So why only three stars? The short story: Good hood, good support, so so manual, several installation problems. Strongly suggest downloading the manual and studying it closely before you buy.INSTALLATION PROBLEMS (mainly applies to a 12" cabinet. if yours is 13" or deeper then ignore)You would think a 12" x 30" range hood would fit a 12" x 30" cabinet. Not mine. For the front of the hood to be flush with the front of the cabinet, the range hood needs to be flush to the rear of the cabinet. But my cabinet had a 1" wood block at the back holding everything together. I called Zephyr customer support and they said the solution was to slide the hood forward an inch. This works but it means that the closed hood sticks out in front of the cabinet - so much for the sleek look! So I compromised, reinforced the back of the cabinet and trimmed part of the 1" block to 3/4". The second issue was the manual called for two wood screws (provided) but I could not see where they went. It turns out the screws and the manual were retreads from an older range hood model and they never changed the manual. The third issue was there was no room for the lower bracket they provided - so I used two pieces of steel instead. The fourth issue is the vinyl plastic cover for the back of the hood cracked apart when I trimmed it to size. To their credit, Zephyr promptly sent me a new one with no hassle.OPERATIONS: Works well, lowest speed is quiet. Highest speed is not as loud as my previous hood. Lighting is great - both low and high. The one thing I do not like is you have to pull out the hood a bit to get the lights to operate.PHOTOS: The first two show the lighting intensity. They look almost the same but bright is noticeably brighter. The third shows the finished installation and the last photo shows the metal I used instead of the second bracket, and also shows how much the hood sticks out in front of the cabinet. Fortunately, you do not see this unless you are standing on a ladder.

First, Amazon doesn't sell the subject model (that I purchased) - the rating and other questions do not apply to this comment. However, my comments should apply to range hoods in general. I wanted and purchased the subject model because the most important feature was the exhaust fan (power). My previous hood had great LED lighting but, an inadequate exhaust - one motor/fan in the center that was totally inadequate. I increase my ducting size from 4 inches to 7 inches diameter - must match hood with ducting size. My current exhaust fan has (6) six speeds (up to 850 CFM and my wife usually use 4-6 speeds). My only complaint is the very poor lighting design. The first thing I did after installing the range hood was to replace the halogen light bulbs with LED light bulbs. The LED bulbs are adequate but, not as good as my previous hood that was designed for LED lighting.

We were so thrilled to find a fan that does not become part of the kitchen decor. Instead it is like a stealth fan where you just pull it out if you need it. Also, had a light!