I am also looking for a hood and I live in Victoria. Thank you so much for that link - I know nothing about the company but as I have found it hard to find hoods to look at here, I'll definitely look into them. Do they have a showroom? I will try to do some searches tomorrow and let you know if I find out anything worthwhile.
Carol

You are welcome.

2) The fridge. This one is easy. Get the JA floor model. Good price,good technology,energy efficient. The 700 series is the runt of the SubZero litter. This is the power of the suppy and demand overtaking UMRP. You can find those discounted in many stores.

The harder one.

1) The hood. The generic one you linked is pretty standard for the better Chinese made hoods. Even though it says quiet motor it is kinda loud. It is made of 19 gauge SS vs 14 gauge in the Modern Aire.It says seamless construction but you can see the seems in the duct cover in the pics and diagram.

Both are market price for what you get.You will probably not miss the performance of the MA if you get the generic one. But if you get the MA you will definetly notice the better quality and performance.

I went by the Spagna Vetro 'show room'; not terribly impressed. The vents are definitely generic and not really quiet. They are likely comparable to others in the same pricepoint but I would expect the Modern Aire to be vastly superior. They might be perfectly good products but I did not get a great vibe despite wanting to support a local company.
Caspian

Again, thanks for the feedback!!
@carolml...the showroom is in Burnaby. They had a booth at the BC Home and Garden Show this year which is how my general contractor found out about them.
@deeageaux....your advice is always so helpful. We'll take advantange of the floor model Jenn-air.
@Caspian101...thanks for your local take on the Spagno Vetro line.
I know the hood fan is very important and I have a feeling that I may just have to bite the bullet and go with the Moderne Aire. It's hopefully the home we'll be in for a while and I think in the long run, the higher initial price will pay off with greater satisfaction.

I did some searches this morning. There was nothing really negative but nothing positive either. Most of the websites I found were clearly sponsored by the company. I agree with Caspian about 'not a good vibe' though I can't say why.

So, we just bought the floor model Jenn-Air 42" fridge (thanks again Deeageaux!!)
I've eliminated the Spagna Vetro pro series vent hood as we went back to the showroom to see it. On high, it is too loud while the remote blower is not integrated so the controls would be somewhere on a wall away from the hood.
So now I'm back to the Moderne aire system. One other choice I've found is the Wolf Pro Island hood with remote 1200 CFM blower. Model No. PI423418 http://www.subzero-wolf.com/oven/range-hood/stove-hoods
The prices for the two is roughly the same except the Wolf can be ordered locally and there is local support for it. The Wolf is made in Madison, Wisconsin I believe. I'm not sure what brand of external blower they use.

Thoughts? Anyone have any other suggestions?

I thought the Wolf hoods were made by Broan.

I looked at the Best by Broan website:
http://bestrangehoods.com/store/products/productdetail.aspx?id=3d6d1b15-6c6c-4e15-9428-1985503a7c3f
This one looks similar to the Wolf. Does anyone know if they are basically the same? And if so, how do they compare to the Moderne Aire one?
Thanks so much!!

Wolf I believe makes their own hood in WI and buys blowers from Broan/Best. They use 16 guage 304 SS vs thicker 14 gauge SS in MA. MA uses arguably best external blowers in Abbaka. Their inline blowers are kinda loud. I think their internal blowers are from Best/Broan.MA made in Southern CA. MA has better design baffles for bigger area and smooth edges for lower noise.

For the same money I would get MA. Wolf customer service is nice and all else being equal I would buy Wolf but they are far from equal in this case.

The Best hood says they use 304SS OR EQUIVALENT. They don't guarantee 304 or 300 series SS. They don't specify gauge thickness. They don't say where hoods are made. The hood linked uses 4 speed blower vs infinate variable speed in Wolf and MA.

I don't like Best waffling on specifications. I would cross them off my list for that reason alone.

Deeageaux, once again you have helped sway me in the right direction. If I could ask one more piece of advice....
When I spoke with the rep from Moderne Aire, they told me it doesn't matter which shape of their island hoods that I choose. They all function equally as well. From my reading and speaking to appliance sales people here, it would seems that a pyramidal shape would function better. I like the style of the PSI-16 as it looks a little more slimline but maybe the PS-18 would function better?
http://www.modernaire.com/Island_Hoods.html
What do you think?

goagirl - hi again. I am still looking for an island hood and have followed this carefully. I like the Modernaire one you chose. Is it available in Canada or do you plan on buying it in the US?
Thanks.

Carolml - There is only one Canadian distributor who handles all of Canada. They are located in Oakville, Ontario. http://www.customrangehoods.ca/Custom_Range_Hoods_Homepage.html
I spoke with Allen Lombard from there and he was very helpful explaining that he handles everything right up to the product being shipped directly to me. His quote was very comprehensive. I spoke with Moderne Aire directly also. I was told that I couldn't order directly from them and there are no distributors in the Seattle area either.
I will likely be ordering through Allen but I just need to find out if he can also recommend a local installer as my general contractor is a bit hesitant as he is unfamiliar with the product.

Thanks Goagirl. I'll make some calls tomorrow.

PS-18 allows the baffles to be recessed and gives you some mechanical capture.

PSI-16 has the baffles straight across and has no mechanical capture.

Mechanical capture is more important if you are getting a 600 cfm blower and less important if you are getting a 1400 cfm blower.

What percentage difference does it make?

I don't know.

If you really want a good answer to that question you can give a shout out to Kas, our forum ventilation expert.

If you want he even shows you the math :(

Thanks Deeageaux....I've just sent an email off to Kas to ask his advice. This morning, I spoke with Allen, the Canadian distributor, and also emailed Moderne Aire directly...they both reassured me that the PS-18 and PSI-16 would work equally as well.

I wouldn't think MA or its Canadian distributor would concede one of their high dollar rangehoods is less than excellent:)

I suspect that also but there's only so much a girl can do at this point. I asked about the price difference between the two and it wasn't insignificant. I've already upgraded the blower to the 1400CFM one which is about $200-300 more so I'm kinda at my max right now in terms of how much I want to pay for a hood. I'll be getting the final price quote tomorrow. I haven't heard back yet from Kas yet but I'm really hoping the difference is not significant.

Hi there, i came across this page when i was researching island range hoods. can you let me know how much the range hood ended up costing you? I will be using it over a slide-in wolfe gas range. And, more importantly, have you been happy with the hood?