I am curious about how the actual flow rate was measured. Typically, a door opening is utilized as an instrumented flow path. At the door, one could measure by the pressure drop through a calibrated venturi, but in that case there would be a pressure drop and not only would that cut the actual flow rate of the hood, but there would be some house leakage not measured. Alternatively, if there were also a fan in the path keeping the house pressure at zero to the outside, while also measuring the flow through the fan (by whatever means), then the flow rate measured should be the static value for the entire hood system. Of course, without the test fan providing zero differential, the actual flow will be less depending on where the MUA is sourced. No magic is involved. kas Correction: In an early message above, I asserted: "A fan at the hood can more easily overcome flow resistance between the hood and the outdoors, but normally this resistance is small, a few tenths of an inch w.g., so attic and roof mount fans work fine when properly sized." I now doubt that it matters much whether the restriction is before or after the fan, as most fans have fan curves that are based on total pressure drop around the path and do not differentiate between pushing and pulling. Differences could result from turbulence interacting with structures on one side or the other of the fan, and in such cases the actual flow might differ slightly for the same fan. I don't know how VAH squirrel-cage blowers might behave in this respect.

I can tell you that Wolf has been excellent. I hesitate to post because my kitchen and I are problem magnets and I now have a third set (yes third) of double ovens. The first had a manufacturing defect and was repaired when we had an overheating smell and thought we were about to have a fire. Wolf didn't even send out a repairman -- they just sent the installers with a replacement. Second set was working great -- until it developed crackling and flaking enamel. It had a couple of problems or they would have just replaced the liners. The new ones better work -- they look great and are the quietest of the three. They heated to 500 degrees (for the burnoff to clean and prep them for use) in 20-25 minutes. I wasn't timing, but it seemed like about 10 minutes to 350 today. I told Wolf I had delayed in calling because I really didn't know if I wanted to try again, but the gal I talked to was so nice and so reassuring that they wanted me to be happy and it was no problem to have a repair tech come out and check it out. I hope to do a lot of baking this week to put them through the tests.

Dito what Phil says - why limit yourself to one brand ??? If you must - forget Dacor - they don't have a steam oven or dishwashe and they don't make fridge units in house and have no Fully Integrated options at all. Theramdor's rangetops aren't as robust as WOlf's and their ranges have had serious trouble over the last decade - a quick google will return you a month's reading if you fancy. I have had trouble with every single Tdor oven that I had to specify into a job for a client. Fixed under warranty but who needs the hassle ? Column fridges are very nice and no issues, steam oven is too new to get a real read on, but I suspect they borrowed heavily from their sister Gaggenau who has lead the steam oven market along with Miele for about a decade. Wolf/ Sub Zero has robust products and the network in place to service problems should they arise. Their steam oven is new and is made for them by an Italian outfit. Warming drawer is $$$ and a bit large so it doesn't blend well with Euro cabinets if that matters to you.

evans, the circuit boards are built not to last. The circuit board went out on our Magic Chef gas slide-in range 3 years after we bought it and it was going to cost $1,000 for the circuit so we opted to just put the stove on the curb for trash and buy another. We bought the new Magic Chef, but this time purchased the extended warranty which is a very minimal amount of money. Within a couple of years the board went out and they replaced it free of charge. That was 10 years ago and the stove has worked fine ever since. In case you're wondering why we purchased a second Magic Chef, the reason is the price was much cheaper than the other brands that we could find in a slide in gas range. When I buy my new range for the new house I'm going to make sure to purchase the extended warranty for that one also. It will be a Jenn Air.