I circled it in red. It's the square thing in the center. This is a Vent-a-Hood brand. Whatever it is, it seems like it would keep the hood from venting efficiently. Or does it have a purpose I can't see?

I've been looking for a hood liner that is more funnel shaped with the intake in the center, but can't find any. The best I can find are some like this Broan, that is an A shape, but I can't tell by the description what the shape is above the baffles. So I don't know if the smoke and steam are drawn up through all the baffles, or just a spot the size of the vent pipe.

I've been researching online all afternoon, and I now know that I want stainless steel baffles that are easy to take off and clean, an inline blower of 600+ cfm, lights on the front, and a liner with enough interior space to contain the smoke and steam until the blower can get it out. I just can't find it. :(

If anyone has such a liner, would you tell me where you bought it, or the assorted items that make up your system?

We stir fry and regularly use our built in Miele deep fat fryer. If ever there was a good test of a hood we are it. I just wiped down the painted open shelves in our kitchen the other day , they are adjacent to the cooking area. They had not been done in at least 6 months. There was nothing but some dust.

Our hood is 54 " wide and 1400cfm remote blower. Tradewinds has inline too. We are MORE than pleased with it. It meets all your criteria. PLease have a look at their website..linked below. If you have any questions please ask. c

That particular liner has a low cfm rating - like 250. They claim its equivalent to 375 cfm, but a lot of people like more - like 600 to 1000. The docs say you can add a second blower, but I was unable to find further details -and- I am certainly not a vent-a-hood person.

Marti8a - as Bmorepanic says, the air comes in through the sides (and the back) of that housing. You can see the clips on either side (like the clips of an attache case), so that you can undo the housing to clean it. If the housing is cleaned often, it should be easy clean in the dishwasher. If it hasn't been touched in years, it will be difficult to clean, as would any hood with baffle filters that hadn't been cleaned in years. BTW, the photo you showed is a hood with "baffle filters" so you know what to ask for. Also, the shape you are looking for is called a "canopy" shape.

Regarding cfms, if Bmorepanic is correct, and that liner has 250 cfms, it may be because the exhaust duct for the hood is quite narrow, and a 250 cfm hood is all that the duct could handle. If you want 600 cfms like you said, your duct should be 8" in diameter; you may be able to get away with 7". If your duct is smaller, and you have a 600 cfms liner, be prepared for a very noisy hood, as all those cfms get pulled through a duct that is too narrow for them. Also the 600 cfms won't exhaust the way 600 cfms should if the duct is too narrow. You might pay for a powerful liner, and never have that power if your duct is small. So, could be that the reason why that Ventahood is there is a small duct that wouldn't allow anything more that 250 cfms, and the buyer was hoping that the "equivalent to 365 cfms" was true.

sj: good ! I am so glad let me see pics when installed ! c

trailrunner, maybe Modern Aire has come down in price? Or I could be comparing different equipment for all I know.

For those interested in an apartment recirculating type vent, ventahood is it.

After waiting almost two months, our 30" Ventahood finally arrived last week and was installed today; took an hour. It is mounted 26" above a glass top electric stove top. The ARS filter weighs about 20 pounds. We cooked a pan-seared fatty sirloin steak which typically smoked up our Brooklyn apartment. The performance far exceeded our expectations. You can still smell the steak, (which is good) but no smoke or grease clouds. For a 300 cfm fan it drew drew most of the offending smoke.

I stood on a stool to smell the air coming out - no smell at all.

Will check back in a few months with more status.\

Today the steak, tomorrow the bacon!