He's not exaggerating. You will need an extra large, extra deep, and extra CFM to deal with the smoke. And probably makeup air to make up for all of the air that will need to be sucked out by the extra strong hood. You're better off doing hamburgers outside on the grill.

Thanks. (I never can spell exaggerate right). Can we grill veggies and such indoors or is that similar in the smoke generating? How do people use the charbroiler? Does everyone get the giant hoods?

We are wondering if one can even use the charbroil inside or if it's sort of an impractical choice for a range top. We may just choose the double griddle instead if the charbroil function is this much trouble.

We have a grill and I LOVE it. Grilling veggies or non-greasy fish like shrimp or scallops generate no or almost-no smoke. Greasy meats like a ribeye or burgers do generate smoke but not super-crazy amounts like you might think.

We have a 1200 CFM hood, not extra deep. I thought about having our cabinet maker build the hood out for extra depth but ultimately decided against it. Our liner would have been the same size anyway so building out the hood would just have moved the capture area up. So we kept the capture area to the rear of the range where I thought it would be most useful and it's been the right decision for us. If we have something super-greasy we just do put it to the back of the grill and not the front.

I believe there are some manufacturers like Modernaire that will custom-make an extra depth hood. In my experience it's unnecessary though. Perhaps if you are doing a ton of front-burner wok cooking ... but not for day-to-day grilling.

Where I actually use the hood most is for cleaning the grill, not even for cooking on it. I don't take the grill apart to clean it, rather I just turn it on high and scrape it with a wire bbq brush. If it's got lots of burnt-on gunk then I hit it with a wet brush and that's when it really gives of the smoke and when I finally get my money's worth from the 1200 cfm grill. :)

Bottom line, and speaking from my experience only: go for the grill, get the standard Wolf 1200 cfm hood, and enjoy!

Taggie,

Thank you so much! I appreciate your input! Excited to hear that it can be done without too much fuss. I guess it's a matter of experimenting too. If the burgers are crazy smoky, I suppose we could just use our outside grill to make those. But I want to be sure there are some basic things we can make without worrying about setting the house on fire (or at least filling it with smoke).

Note that with 1200CFM, you WILL need make-up air (MUA).

Oh boy! I just read this article. I thought it was very well written and talked about MUA and the lack of info on it from manufacturers of powerful hoods (and units).

This sounds like a nightmare!!

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/makeup-air-range-hoods