Initially, the most interesting and attention-grabbing thing about the Zephyr AK2100AS range hood was its looks. Apparently, the Zephyr company works with some very well-known artistic designers in creating their range hoods, and this really showed in the style of this model. Compared to a lot of other stainless steel hoods, even the high-end ones, this one is much more stylistic and modern. The curved top is very attractive and really makes a stainless steel kitchen pop. I’ve looked at models that were less expensive than this one and ones that were far more expensive, but none was as attractive.
Once you get past the looks, however, there’s a lot more to this range hood than just style. First of all, the whole purpose of a range hood is to pull smoke and odors out of your kitchen when cooking. To do this well, the engineering has to be right on and the blower motor has to be powerful. The Zephyr AK2100AS has an 850cfm (850 cubic-feet per minute) blower, which is a great deal more powerful than other range hoods in this price range. I was a restaurant manager and chef for over twenty years and I do an awful lot of cooking, a good deal of it stir-fry, pan-frying and sauté dishes on very high heat.
This range hood’s blower is more than up to the task of handling anything I cook on my range. Fried fish, cabbage and even really spicy, aromatic dishes like curry leave no telltale odor in the kitchen. One of the really great features of the blower is that it’s adjustable, too. Most range hoods only offer high and low settings, but the Zephyr AK2100AS allows you to select settings from 1-6, with 1 being the lowest speed. This is a really terrific feature, as you can set it based on what you’re cooking (or even whether you’ve burned it or not!). At the lower settings, it’s virtually silent, so you can carry on a conversation with family or guests without having to raise your voice. That’s a really nice feature, and hard to find. You can also set the blower so that it automatically turns off in either five or ten minutes. This is great, because you can sit down to eat or go do other things without having to go back and turn it off. That’s not a huge deal, but it comes in very handy.
The other really important feature of this range hood, for me, is the cleaning. The Zephyr AK2100AS is a self-cleaning range hood. With other range hoods, this is kind of a meaningless term, as they seem to need just as much cleaning as those that aren’t advertised as self-cleaning. This range hood truly is self-cleaning, which is a bit of a surprise at this price point. You just spray the filter with some degreaser or diluted grease-cutting dish detergent. I prefer to use Dawn, which works great. The self-cleaning is achieved by just turning the blower on low for five minutes, which is probably best done about once a week, maybe more if you generate a lot of greasy steam and smoke when you cook, such as with pan-frying fish..
Other than that, you just need to clean out the collection cup once a month or so. Cleaning the cup is pretty quick and easy. You just need to remove the safety filters with a Phillips-head screwdriver, pop the cup out, wipe out any debris and then pop it in the dishwasher.
One of the other nice things about this range hood is the lighting. I like to use my range hood light as a night light and usually run through bulbs pretty quickly. Most hoods only have an “on/off” switch, but the Zephyr has a regular setting and a night light setting. This is a really nice additional feature that may seem small to some, but I really like it. I can have excellent light for prep and cooking on the regular setting and a nice, dim night light otherwise.
The Zephyr AK2100AS has two options for the vents, allowing you to use either rear or top venting. When you’re upgrading from an existing kitchen, as I did, this is a real plus, as you don’t have to change the venting to accommodate the hood. On the subject of installation, it can be a bit cumbersome for one person to install. It’s pretty much a necessity to have one person holding the hood in place to line up the mounting holes while the other installs the screws. If you’re not having the hood installed by a professional, you’d do well to save yourself some stress and aggravation by getting a friend to help.
All in all, the Zephyr AK2100AS is an awesome appliance at any price, but at this low price, I think it’s even better.
Dawn McKenna left a twenty-year career in restaurant management to study nutrition and anatomy in college. She is now a freelance writer specializing in the topics of health, nutrition and cooking.
