Imajanine
Is it "absolutely necessary"? no..... people have been cooking in kitchens w/o ventilation or improper ventaliation for yrs. That said the down side to that is:
Cooking smells, grease, food stuffs will permeate your home - anything that has an ability to retain those after affects will - think fabrics - curtains, upolstery, towels, cushions etc.. walls, backsplashes etc will be doned w/the affects and need more frequent wipe downs etc..

So, no not an absolute but really, putting a pro range in a kitchen and no ventilation is really not advisable - likely the simplest approach would be to loose the cabs above the range & get a under cab type hood - even nicer if that wall is exterior - which means the duct could run direct outside

good luck

It might be debatable how strong the ventilation needs to be. But not using any at all is not a very smart move.

When we moved the location of our cooktop we had to change the location of the ventilation as well. Our hood is on an interior wall but we didn't loose any cabinet space other than the space right above the cooktop. And that was intentional as we do like the look of a chimney style hood. It was much less work than I had expected, especially since we had to remove the ceiling anyway for a variety of reasons and run the ventilation there.

Depending on where you live, it may indeed be *necessary*. Check with your building inspector.

Or course if you are just replacing a conventional range with the Viking and not doing any construction you may not need a building permit and may get away with it. But you might also get in trouble with your insurance if you ever have a fire.

Check what Viking says. They will probably say that some number of CFM is required. In my town I think the building inspector requires whatever the range vendor requires.

In any case, if you actually intend to *cook* on the stove you ought to have it.

I think an outdoor venting hood is necessary. I hate the aroma of fish or seared beef getting all in my house and fabrics. I don't have an especially sensitive nose and if I sear a ribeye I smell it in the house for at least a day.

Will you drop dead with it? probably not, other than that is it necessary? Yes it is.

Never had one, never will! I have a 30 inch Bluestar. Even when I fire up the hottest burner to sear a tuna steak before it goes under the broiler everything is just fine. There is no grease or smoke on my ceiling or elsewhere in my kitchen. I have lived here for 30 years and although I installed the Bluestar 6 months ago, my last stove was in the exact same location. I have very high (11 ft.) ceilings and an open plan and might feel differently in a tiny closed kitchen. I do have friends who have had a Viking or Wolf ( I always forget which one) in there closed galley style kitchen. They have a hood but never think of turning it on. I have asked them about it several times and the answer always boils down to, "its too much of a pan to clean that damn thing."

That's just the point: if the hood is getting gunky enough to be a pain to clean, that stuff is going to go all over the kitchen & house if it's not captured by a hood. I'd rather clean a hood filter than deal with all the surfaces in a kitchen & house.

Yup Mimsic you are fooling yourself if you think there just isn't any smoke and grease. it is in all your furnishings etc all over your house. I too would rather clean it off the fan. Heck I have expensive art work on my walls I don't need bacon fat on them.

As I said, I've lived here for 30 years. I think, no make that I'm sure I would know if there was 30 years worth of grease and gunk in my furniture, painted walls, floors, etc. I have a painted tin ceiling that has just been repainted after 15 + years. It was getting dingy, as paint will do, but it wasn't at all greasy. I do a very thorough cleaning every spring in preparation for Passover and have only dust to clean off the tops of the kitchen cabinets and the collection of old coffee pots, water kettles and wicker baskets that 'live' up there. They are easy to clean with a damp cloth because there's nothing on them but dust.

Could it be that the suction of the fan pulls all that cooking grease up into the hood where it becomes a concentrated gunky mess instead of staying in the cooking pan where it can be cleaned easily (in very small batches) each time you cook?

Nope because I have lived in houses without fans and vents and had the same layer of grime and grease collect on everything in the kitchen over a fairly short period of time. your home must exist in some sort of space warp where the laws of nature and physics don't apply is all I can say. LOL!

Well, mccall, that sounds pretty yucky but has not ever been my experience. I have lived in small New York apartments and large New England homes and have never experienced grease build-up anywhere in my kitchen. Maybe you need to lower the heat or use less oil.

to greenbergm06:

I'm new here and I hope you guys would help me decide what ventillation options I have. I can see that you love your range hood. I have a big kitchen attached to the living room, with a lot of windows, and my peninsula stove is in the middle of it. So to me, design is very important, as well as performance. I'm wondering what type of range hood you're using?

to flave364 - I have a Pro48 Sub-Zero (overpriced, I think), Futuro Futuro Crystal Moon range hood (piece of art), and Wolf 36 gas stove (a monster cooking machine).

Like lots of others I think a hood is necessary......... we use an exterior venting built-in microwave. Since we were concerned with the heat from the range we bought the Viking micro/convection oven (recommended by Viking to pair with the 30" range if you don't use a separate hood). The Viking micro was a more expensive than others but we thought it was worth it for the venting and safety (it is stainless). If someone tells me how to post a picture with this I have one of the range with the micro.

By now, you're probably convinced (reluctantly) that you need a hood. Let me add my 2 cents. If you've gone to the expense of something like a Viking range, it is in my opinion unthinkable not to get a PROPER range hood that works right and is, preferably, whisper quiet. For general info on this issue, to go consumerreports.com. You'll need to subscribe to get their specific recommendations. Or go the the Vent-a-hood website, which also has very useful general information, plus material promoting their product. I would strongly recommend an exhaust system that pulls air up and dumpts it to the outside. The systems that just filter and recirculate and the downdraft systems do not work very well. If your range is not an an outside wall, you may have a problem installing a vent to the outside. How powerful should the exhaust system be? As a rule of thumb, I would guess about 300 CFM (cubic feet per minute)for general home cooking purposes. But if you plan to do a lot of heavy sauteing and grilling, you might need a more powerful system. Do a Google search on "range hood" to get started on some of the options. Good luck.