I have a 24" hood pulled out 3" for a 27" depth. I'm 5'10" and wanted it installed 34" above the range for clearance from my forehead. Due to ducting limitations, it could only be installed 31" above the range. I worried about that until the day the range was installed. My range is 28.5" deep and when I cook, I rarely lean up against it. So it turned out to be a non-issue. I may lean on the plate ledge working on a pot on a back burner, but I'm bent over when I do that.

So is it necessary to have a 27" deep hood? I think it is for best capture, especially if you have a grill and/or a deep range. Practically speaking, head bumping is not an issue unless the cook is tall.

If you have a pro style range or cooktop I would get the 27" deep hood and keep it as close to the appliance as you can. Set it up for your cooking needs, if you do most of the cooking who cares what other people say or want. The only way most people hit their heads is if they are leaning over the cooking appliance and I would wonder why they feel the need to put their face and body right above all of the heat and grease from the cooking. Plus if someone does hit their head they usually only do it once or maybe twice, after they you learn not to do it. When you were young everyone touched the oven door once, and you learned not to do that again.

Yeah, so I have a 42"wx27"d. Thermador hood over a 36" Monogram dual fuel range.
The hood's basically massive. It's set so the bottom edge is 72" from the floor, which translates to more or less 35" above the cooking surface. I have the grill on the cooktop, so I do wish there had been some way to lower it 3" (let's say) but the matching SS filler strips for above come in 6" or 12" sizes, not 9" as I would have preferred, neither did I want to complicate the installation by trying to a) cut down a 12" filler or b) fabricate from raw material a 9" one.
So it looks great, does not bump my head (I'm 6 feet tall) but does not capture as much smoke from grilling that I believe it could were it a bit lower.
Casey

This is really useful -- I have to make the same choice in a few weeks.

For those of you who would lower the hood a little, is the ideal height right above your line of sight?

And how is that affected by the amount of bump-out?

I think the head-knocking thing is greatly exaggerated. In fact, I used to lean against my mom's VAH while simmering spaghetti sauce.

We have a 42"x27" on our 36" range. It's about 36" above the surface so I put in a 1200cfm blower. Works well & I'm glad we got the extra depth.

Have 42"X27" VH over 36" range and agree with all the above. Hood is 30" above range, about 67" above floor. I'm about 5'9" and never bump head (agree with above poster that head bumping is overrated). Most of us stand back from the range and lean forward which lowers our actual height aspect vis a vis hood height. No problems with line of sight. We have grill and do a lot of stirfry and if you watch the column of steam, smoke and grease rise you can clearly see the "air curtain" around the front of the hood loose its effectiveness with in 1-2" of the outside edge so the 27" depth may make a difference (can't prove it but I think it does). You can also see how quickly the column expands and how sensitive it is to any air currents in the room, which is what sombreuil reports above about less capture with higher hood.

We had our hood built to extend out from the wall 27 inches, and the cabinet maker did a beautiful job. It's built to hold a ModernAire PSL-040 hood insert, with a remotely-mounted (attic) Fantech 1266cfm fan pulling the exhaust through ten inch duct and one of Fantech's garbage-can size silencers. The hood fits snugly to the adjacent cabinets on either side, which of course don't extend as far forward as the front edge of the hood.

Unfortunately, the hood (which doesn't have the insert in yet) was set even lower than Capital recommends (the hood is wood, and only about 29 inches from what will be the cooking surface of the range.

ModernAire recommends a range of 30-36 inches between cooking surface and the hood insert, so our hood's going to get moved up about seven inches.

Headknocking may be "overrated" for some, but at 6'4", I'll crank up the gain on the fan (it's an infinitely variable switch) if and when I need to in order to avoid it. I do all my grilling outside, and most of our indoor cooking won't necessitate that kind of capability.

But it's nice to know it's there when we need it. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1481177}}

Thank you all for sharing your experience. Now, I feel better about getting the 27" depth hood. :)