Kobe IN-027 400 cfm 56 db, Prestige UIB28S1 600 cfm baffle filter 52 db and the Elica Stratus 600 cfm baffle filter 49 db

Kobe makes plenty of 600-900 "CFM" hoods and you really want 36" wide on a 30" range, if you can. I'd recommend one of their hoods with baffles.

http://www.koberangehoods.com/product/wall_mount.html

They are probably totally fine for a GE Cafe, as long as you don't do a lot of frying, searing, or wok cooking. They will probably be OK, even if you do.

Personally, I think that Vent-A-Hood products are over-hyped, over-priced, and disappointing performers on many fronts. If you are in that price range, I think that Independent and Prestige make significantly better products.

Don't trust any mass-market manufacturer's dB, sone, or CFM numbers to compare with any other manufacturer's products. Even some resort to "effective CFM" which is pure marketing. Listen to the hoods if you can. I found the Kobe hoods to sound quieter than the comparable Broan, Best by Broan, Elica, and Zephyr hoods I tried. None were as quiet as the Independent or Prestige hoods. (All compared on high settings, as all get reasonably quiet when on a low setting.)

thank you!!! I will investigate all and let you know what we go with!

I'd think twice about the baffles. They look all "professional" and such, but when I was buying our hood I became convinced that baffles are the wrong choice for most residential cooking. Baffles work by causing turbulent flow in the air so that grease droplets are thrown out and onto the baffle surface. With the fan on low the flow is too slow to generate the necessary turbulence. We use our hood with the fan on low most of the time.

I ended up saving money by sticking with the mesh filters on our Broan hood and I've been very happy with the degree to which they catch grease (as evidenced by the clean interior of the hood above the filters) and with the ease of cleaning them in the dishwasher.

Hi edlg:

Thanks for your comments on mesh filters vs baffles. Here I thought I was finally all set on buying a vent hood with baffles (probably a Prestige pyramid-style hood). Now I'm reading your opinion that mesh is better if one is running the vent on low and I'm undecided on what to buy all over again. I'd love to hear more opinions on mesh vs. baffles.

As the previous poster points out, the mesh filter generates more turbulence at a given flow rate to capture the grease. As a result, for a given airflow, a mesh filter will be generally louder than a baffle hood.

I believe that any time you have a significant amount of grease, you will be running your hood at a speed that is sufficient to capture the grease in a baffle system. If you don't have sufficient airflow to pull the effluent into the hood, you're going to have grease settling out of the air all over the kitchen.

As baffles are generally quieter than mesh, do not degrade in flow performance as they collect grease, and are effectively a lifetime part, I find them vastly superior to mesh filters. In my opinion, mesh filters exists in ventilation hoods primarily as a manufacturing cost reducer.

Finally, baffle filters, such as those that are found in the Prestige and other high-end hoods, just go into the dishwasher as well. If anything, the lack of nooks and crannies make baffles easier to clean than mesh.