As part of our kitchen renovation, we'll be having a Wolf 36" rangetop with grill installed. The only type of hood that my wife and I could agree on though, was a liner covered by cabinetry. Our KD/GC uses Candlelight Cabinetry and they make covers to go over Modernaire liners. Although I'd prefer a different style of hood, I was actually quite happy with this choice, as our KD doesn't sell Modernaire, and MA only seems to be available through KDs and architects. The liner will be coupled with either a 1,200 or 1,500 cfm roof blower and 10" ducting (we have a one story house).

I just received semi-final plans last week, and noticed that the hood cabinet is only 22" deep. I had assumed (bad thing to do) that the hood liner would be 24" deep, so I was a bit surprised to see this. After looking at the Modernaire website, I saw that their liners come in standard depths of 19 1/4" and 22 1/2". There wasn't much there in the way of specs though, so I don't know if this was capture area or the total depth.

I spoke with our KD this morning and he's pretty sure that the standard Candlelight enclosure accommodates the 19 1/4" liner. He's going to check on using the 22 1/2" liner, but noted that the enclosure would stick out 25" and he thinks it would look a bit odd. I personally think that a pro-style range hood would look fine in a 24-27" depth (particularly if mounted a bit high), but am not sure how a cabinet enclosure would look.

In terms of usage, my wife does most of the cooking and tends to use the back burners most of the time. My biggest concern is grilling, as I believe someone told me that the hottest part of the Wolf grill is in the front. I'll be using the grill mostly during the winter and in inclement weather (also occasionally when I find that I forgot to buy propane for the outdoor grill). Most of our grilling is either chicken breasts (without the skin) or low-fat cuts of meat (like tenderloin), so we don't usually generate large amounts of smoke. We do occasionally (maybe once every 2-3 weeks) cook some sausages on the grill though, and they do generate a lot of smoke.

So I'm trying to balance form vs. function. I tend to suspect that our KD is right that the 22" cabinet would look more traditional, and we'll probably only be cooking greasy foods on the grill 5-10 times/year. Our KD also points out that a 1,200-1,500 fan will be pulling in a lot more grease than our current 400 cfm Sears model.

I'd appreciate any suggestions that others might have. We need to get the cabinet order in this week in order to meet our construction deadlines.

Thanks for your help.