What do you have now and is it adequate? Do you plan to change your cooking style after you remodel? And lastly, will you be able to cook anything majorly stinky or splattery in the middle of your new range so it'll be ventilated well enough?

I think we tend to go overboard here on GW for ventilation. Yeah, sure, more vents better. But less vents pretty good as well, so I wouldn't stress about it.

When we sold our house two years ago we bought a very small single wide to live in while we build our house. Thank goodness we're almost finished with the house because it's been awful to try to cook in here. Needless to say the vent hood in here is awful and pretty much useless. Before building our current house and looking into better quality ranges and hoods, we had let the builder put in the hood for our 30 inch range in our last house. Again, awful. We're building this house ourselves so no obnoxious builder to deal with. It's been a peaceful build. Resale is not a factor. It's our house and the way I want it. Could care less about what happens after I pass on.

I do mostly scratch cooking and it varies all over the place. I fry, I bake, I slow cook in the oven, I roast, I simmer pasta sauces all day long. I also can and freeze. My cooking style won't change. I've always been this way and my husband likes my cooking. The only thing different may be a try cooking with a wok, but I don't expect that to take over in any huge way.

While I don't feel any sales people have actually lied to me, I do wonder about selling me more than I actually need. If I need it fine, but if I don't, well it saves a few bucks and looks better. I doubt with a 48 inch range and 8 burners that all 8 would be going at one time. It's more for flexible pot and pan placement, and I don't want a griddle or grill. I grill outdoors, and I like my Lodge cast iron griddle. However, both ovens may be going at the same time.

I'm opting for 33 inches above the range versus 30 inches. It's in between the 30 to 36 "rule", and gets it away from being in my face so much. We are getting a Bluestar range. I don't know if this makes a difference.

Sandy

In my experience, depth is more important than width. Will you have cabinets flanking the hood? If so, then the extra 3" on each side is less necessary. On the other hand, 27" deep will definitely be better than 24" for capturing stuff from the front burners.

As far as Ventahood goes, some people love them and some find them a real pain to clean. I don't know if baffles will be noisier but they certainly work well and pop in the DW for cleaning. I think it's a matter of personal preference.

a vent that is 48 x 21 will certainly do the job, however, overtime, you will have more grease on the adjacent cabinets than if you had the hood a little wider. if you have the space i would go wider. the noise is definately an issue, when you have those powerful ones on, they are noisy and if you are open to your family room, that might be your first consideration.

It sounds as though a 54 by 27 is the best way to go. I won't be having any upper cabinets up against the hood. I'm having few uppers since I like looking out windows better and can't reach past the first or second shelf anyway. The only uppers will be to the left of the range and the cabinetry there will have appearance of a freestanding furniture piece (I have a large window that will be to the right). I never liked wood extremly close to my range because it gets hot and makes me nervous, and that's with a small underpowered range. I can only imagine a higher powered one...

Capturing grease is ultimately better than worrying about extra noise or a few hundred extra dollars. Thanks for your help. I should go the larger hood route.

Opinions on hood brand would be most helpful.

Sandy

I forgot to ask something about the Ventahood brand. When were in the dealers showroom, the Ventahood they showed us had quickly removeable parts (the part that captures the grease) and said they could go in the dishwasher. Perhaps they have changed their design for the better? From an engineering standpoint the Ventahood seems like a good overall design.

Sandy

I, too, liked the looks of the VAH housing that came off in a jiffy with buckle clasps and went into the DW. I got a different brand for other reasons, though. I was surprised when several other posters referred to the VAH as difficult to clean. Has something changed, as Sandy speculates? (FWIW, I am not buying the "effective CFM" argument, or at least don't count it as significant.)

"... we sold our house two years ago ..... while we build our house." Since it's new, it must be airtight or close to it. Or maybe not, if your climate doesn't require this.

In any case, you have a lot of experience now. You understand the factors. What climate, who is building it, what are you doing for HVAC? These are factors determining a lot of what you will be able to us effectively in terms of kitchen exhaust venting.

I second weissman's comments.

I would like to recommend that you set aside a couple hours and skip on over to the appliance forum and *read*, read a lot, about hoods. There is an awful lot of information and btdt experience and opinions over there. There is likely more than two hours' reading, but that will get you started.

Here is a link to finding ventilation threads on the appliances forum

I found folks extremely helpful with specific technical questions.

I have a Broan E6430SS with an 1100 CFM inline blower. Our cooktop is flanked by 2 cabinets, so there was no option to make it wider. I agree with Weissman that in such a situation depth is more important than width. I looked at VAH, but was put of by the looks and comments on GW about problems with the "squirrel cage". The Broan has baffles, which I love and are easy to clean. The inline blower results in much less noise. The hood projects just to the edge of the front of the cooktop. I think I would have preferred if it was just a few more inches longer. But the hood works great. We do a lot of stir frying at high temp, and the ventilation is excellent. Agree with Aliris. Check out the threads on the appliance forum. Kaseki in particular has a lot of great technical advice. I know the hood decision is stressful, but believe me it's important. Second to our cooktop, the next most important thing we did was get a high CFM hood.

Thanks so much for the ventilation link. I agree it will take a while to sort through it all.

I was told Ventahood is "the best" from the sales people where I'm going to purchase my Bluestar. I'd like to believe them, but they are salespeople after all. They may truly believe it's the best, who knows. My husband has no complaints about what he saw when he looked at it. I'm the one with the hangup on the hood.

The one thing I didn't like is being able to see up into the underside of it. It's just not that attractive. However, if it was indeed "the best" I would try to get past that part. It did look easy enough to take apart to clean.

We don't have any issues or restrictions with ducting or systems that we want to have in the house so no problem there.

This is very stressful for me because it is such an important purchase. I never expected buying a hood would be any big deal, but it is. Not only do I want something to work well, but I want some sort of "pretty" factor as well. DH could care less about the pretty as long as something functions the way it's supposed to.

I'll hold off on the purchase a few days so I can sort through some information. Thanks!

Sandy, one thing to consider is the placement of the light bulbs in the hood design. I gave no thought to this whatsoever when I first bought a hood and wound up with one that had the lights set along the back wall. This turned out to be insufficient for illuminating the entire stovetop -- plus it gave my tiled backsplash quite the Victor Price effect, highlighting every grout flaw. Just something to consider.

I've got a Sirius insert now, and consider it the prettiest, quietest hood I've ever had. Me, I adore the sleekness and super easy dishwasher cleaning of the stainless baffles and from now on, will definitely prioritize them over mesh.

VAH isn't the "best". As far as I know it's a quality product, but hoods are pretty simple, and many do extremely well. VAH is the one that flings the grease around a drum, right? If so, I can see that some people are charmed by the different technology, but I remember a lot of complaints about that format.

Baffles are really easy to remove and clean, and most go in the dishwasher. The fit and finish through the underside and up into the blower chamber will give you some idea of how hard or easy it will be to clean the housing.

If you look at the capture area under a hood and look at your stovetop, then consider that steam and particulates rise in an expanding cone shape, and you'll see why the recommendations are for an extra few inches to each side.

I learned from Trailrunner, who did the research, but it seems to be true, that a more powerful hood on a lower setting does a better job than a less powerful hood on the highest setting.

For pretty you can go all the way from simple and clean lined to curvy and retro to fine art with a blower inside.

I have a VAH and find it easy to clean...and a lot quieter than our old builder-grade hood.

Interestingly, I think a hood wider than a range looks better than one the same width. Same-width hoods look wimpy over the larger ranges, IMHO. (Same-width don't seem as "wimpy" over cooktops though, particularly electric/induction ones.)

Check out the vent hoods FAQ on the Appliances Form.

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ: Overview of vent hoods

I agonized over and studied hoods for many months. It's funny how something I never gave much thought to ever in my life became such a focus for me. I agree with many points made already. VAH isn't the best. My appliance sales person tried to sell me that line too. Most basically spew what they're told in their monthly meeting or whathaveyou and have not really studied hoods in depth like many of us here. Read a few of Kaseki's post over on the appliance forum. There's someone who KNOWS about venting. I know you visit the appliance forum. Now that you've chosen your range, start reading hood threads.

I also agree with Buehl that with large ranges, the 6" wider hood does look better.

When I was the most overwhelmed trying to choose a hood, I made a list of must-haves. For me, it was 42" wide and at least 24" over my 36" rangetop; baffle filters; at least an 8" duct but preferably a 10"; with high cfms. That helped me pare down my choices.

Basically, a ventilation system is a simple system and not complex in a technical sense. It's supposed to suck and blow air. Anyone with an engineering degree (or just being very talented and knowledgable) could build one from scratch easily from all the parts. My husband could do that. He offered. The reason I don't have him do that is because he cares more about how something functions than pretty, and I need the pretty as well. That said, there are a great deal of poor quality ventilation hoods out there with poor quality parts. I know because I've suffered from them.

The more I try to find information the more I get confused. Bluestar makes a hood and said today that they don't feel a 27 inch depth is necessary so they don't make one. They make 24 inch. They also said that a same width hood as the stove is just fine as well. From a technical standpoint I'm sure they have found this to be true.

I do agree that having a hood slightly wider than a large range will look much better, and I don't have a problem with that, but it also depends on how the kitchen is designed in relation to the layout of cabinetry, etc. I've seen pictures of kitchens with 48 inch ranges with the same width ModernAire hoods that were stunning.

If I don't actually need 27 inches in depth as opposed to 24 I'd rather have something a little less hulking when I cook. Is 27 inch more effective? Perhaps, but maybe not enough to actually matter.I've seen no actual proof either way. The proof would be if an ordinary person that cooks says gee, I noticed that the 24 inch sucks up the steam from my kettles just fine, or if they say part of it escapes and they wish they had a 27 inch.

It will matter if I always feel like an obstruction is hovering abve me waiting to smack me one. Doesn't matter if it's above my head, it could possibly have that effct psychologically. Guess what happens. One starts to cook less and hasn't figured out why they don't want to. But I don't know...I've never had a 27 inch hood.

All I need is for the guts to move the cooking vapors out the way it should, minimize the grease coating in all the ductwork on its journey out my roof, and also be easy to clean. Ventahood may have easy to clean innards, but all the exposed angles and what not underneath quite possibly would not be. This is what I'm trying to determine. In my experience with builder grade ventilation systems with exposed angles and what not is they are not fun to clean. Baffles make for a nice clean look, and can go in the dishwasher, but do they have a large trade off in effectiveness or fire prevention. Ventahood claims to have had no chimney fires. Well, greatly diminishing a fire hazzard is more important than looks or easy clean. I'd rather not have my log home burn down.

I want what will work properly, be the safest to use, and be as easy to clean as possible while still being attractive. Nothing more and nothing less. Perhaps it's a tall order, but it seems that's what most people want. Sales people always want someone to buy the more.

Lest anyone think there is never any flu fire danger, well, there always is.

Some sales people claim that baffles cut the effectiveness of the system way down. My husband agrees they cut the effectiveness down, but without a lab for testing we have no way of knowing exactly how much per design. ModenAire will not divulge any technical specifics, but Ventahood will. I always find it fishy when a company expects someone to accept their word blindly.

I'm hoping I can find honest user feedback, and if I can find honest manufacturer or dealer feedback as well that's a bonus. In other words, sorting the reality from the hype.

Sandy

Sandy - again, wrong place. Go check out the appliances forum. There's a ton of info over there, addressing just exactly this.

I'd take dh up on the offer if I were you. I essentially did, only I had to hire out "dh". I bought a 27"x42" Wolf undercabinet hood with no guts. Then bought the correct sucker and silencer (fantech) for a remote inline blower: the further away that big engine is from your ears, the happier you'll be. Depending on your situation, sending a pipe up and away from the kitchen, then out, is a good plan, generally. As you say, you can design and build this yourself. Cheaper, better.

I removed the "Wolf" nameplate! ;)

There's more on what I, and many others, did in appliances.

BTW, anything that cuts air speed diminishes efficiency by definition. That includes baffles, constrictions, turns, etc. It's all a matter of trading off cost:benefit wisely.

BTW (2): if you need a variable switch for whatever hood you wind up getting, let me know... I can help you out there! (I have an extra).

Re Bluestar, it may be true that they feel they don't need a deeper hood, but it may also be that they felt they could market them better at 24".

Which specs do you want? MA had a lot of specs available when I bought mine. I don't know if they've changed inserts again, though. They did in the middle of my process.

It's interesting that people are saying that baffles cut the effectiveness down. I don't know in comparison to the VAH approach, but the consensus has been that baffles were very effective for capturing grease, moreso, certainly, than filters, though filters work well. Either will interrupt the flow of air. That's precisely what they're there for.

If you go scrounging in old threads in the Appliances forum, you should find more info which I've forgotten about who makes what for whom. It should say who makes the motors that MA uses, for instance. Also, Trailrunner did a lot of research and ended up with a Tradewind liner. They've been making hoods for at least fifty years.

You might get the best combination of function and pretty if you do a custom housing over the insert you deem best. Most makers do make "liners" or "inserts" that you can put in your custom hood.

While the appliance forum has lots of info...and I did use them for some things. There is NOTHING that beats the actual practical experience of a seasoned user of an appliance. You need to get that info where ever you can find it.

When all is said and done I looked for the comments of long time users of the appliances I purchased. Experience is worth a lot...and as far as I am concerned " a picture is worth a 1000 words". Good Luck and please ask for any details you need. c

I'd advise you to have a plan for make up air. Every single cubic feet of air removed by your hood has to be replaced.

If there is a window open, the air will come through there. During the winter, that will be cold air. Will the path followed by the air be as short as possible, or will it travel through places that you are spending money heating?

If there are no windows or other convenient ways for makeup air to come in, your vent will be like a clogged floor vacuum.