Ours is 29" above cooktop and no issues for both the tall and shorter cooks in the family.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Mon, Feb 24, 14 at 15:02

Mine is 6ft off the floor, or 35" above the grates.
Casey

The bottom of our chimney style hood is 69 1/2 inches off the floor and 32 1/2 inches above the grates of our stove. This height works well for all the cooks in our family, who range in height from 5 feet, eight inches to 6 feet, 1 inch.

Ours is 33" above the stove top, works for people 6' and 5'4"

I have a Faber chimney style hood that is 62" off the floor and 24" above the grates of a 30" gas cooktop. The cook is 5'6". :D

good question!

I just went through a mock up of my wood hood (will have a zephyr liner)....decided that I wouldn't bump my head when it is at 69 off the ground, which is 33" from the wolf range top. I hope the functionality of the hood doesn't suffer too much....I'm still debating lowering it one inch. But the hood is 25" deep and the range top is 28" deep.

My husband and I are both 5'10" without shoes.

I put most of my clients range hood vents at 70" from the floor. Taller people don't bump their heads as easily. To compensate for this, I get the wider hood. So on a 30" range I'd spec a 36" hood. For a 60" range I use a 64". The wider capture area allows the hood to be mounted a bit higher.

Mine is about 70" from the floor, 31.25" from the top of the grates. I carried a little paper tape measure in my wallet (Ikea) so that it was always with me and measured a gazillion hoods in friends' homes, model homes, big box stores, and kitchen showrooms over a period of a week or two. My cabinet surround is 48" wide (though the baffles are really only 40" wide) over a 36" cooktop and I'm really happy with the sizing.
You are right to notice that what people do for aesthetic reasons is several inches different than what manufacturers recommend for effectiveness. Venting efficacy is influenced by hood height but also by capture area, cfms, and whether or not you turn on the hood before you start cooking.

Mine is 36 inchesâ¦But i have 42 inches hood above 36" rangetop

Thank you all for your feedback. It seems that most are mounted around the same 28 - 31 inch recommendation so I am assuming it's just my perception that they look higher than that. I am short, 5'2" so I guess everything looks high to me!!! My DH wants to mount it at 28" and I want 31" so I guess we'll compromise at 29 1/2. We cook from scratch just about every single day. We have not had any type of venting except opening the kitchen windows since we moved here 14 years ago so I'm so excited to have a vented-to-the-outside range hood and look forward to not having to clean grease off the ceiling several times a year!!

Due to a miscommunication between our contractor and us, our brand new Imperial hood is 22" above our stovetop. It was supposed to be 30". My wife and are are both short, but 22" feels awkwardly low even for us.

I would recommend at least 26",and 30" would feel about right for this fairly large hood. Imperial actually recommends 36", but that seems too high, especially if you have 8' or lower ceilings.