"Does style affect performance?" . . . Yes.

Consider these premises:

• The required functions of kitchen cooktop ventilation are capture and containment [of the cooking effluent plumes] while blocking grease fires.

• The most efficient hood designs for this purpose (at least for mounting at seven feet above the floor) are commercial hoods, because electrical power is one of the highest costs imposed on commercial cooking facilities.

So, when considering hoods, one has to consider the necessary cooking zone overlap to capture the rising and expanding cooking plumes, the filtering (baffles or meshes), the configuration between the hood entrance aperture and the filter (some volume is desirable, angles have to be biased toward vertical), and the air flow necessary to avoid plume reflection and escape (in my opinion around 90 CFM/square foot of filter area or hood entrance aperture, depending on design).

Suitable hoods are fabricated by a variety of sources, including hood fabricators who may source fans/blowers from others (e.g., Modern Aire), blower manufacturers who may source hoods internally or from others (e.g., Broan/Best), and system resellers who may source both blowers and hoods from others (e.g., Wolf in 2007).

My Pro-Island Wolf hood, for example, was built by Independent and the associated blower was sourced from Broan-NuTone (probably to Wolf specs, although it is very close to a Broan Model 336).

There are a lot of hoods out there, and for best results it helps to buy from someone who understands what characteristics are important rather than throwing together something that looks like a hood. Usually the closer one gets to ideal, given the parameter space of residential designs, the higher the cost will be. I have noted before that one can only have two out of the three: performance, aesthetics, and economy.

That said, another maxim -- perfect is the enemy of good enough -- also applies.

Canopy hoods have advantages in performance over chimney hoods with narrow volume between filter and hood top. In some cases, the "value" of a sight line may dominate the "value" of more effective plume collection, leading to a compromise in performance by using a narrow height hood style.

For least noise, use an exterior blower and an in-line silencer (e.g., Fantech).

Given sufficient air flow rate, baffles are superior to mesh filters in achieving grease capture at constant pressure loss due to the meshes becoming clogged.

Unbiased reviews on hoods are necessarily scarce because few will be able to try out different hoods under the same kitchen configuration. An occasional comparison may be found between hoods used in different houses (see noise comparison Clinresga did ca. 5 or so years ago on this forum for two different hood designs in two different houses). Plume capture and containment measurement really requires instrumentation and schlieren photography for believable conclusions, although user tests with peanut oil at the smoke point may be sufficient for go/no-go experiments.

For such testing one may be able to use a higher-end appliance dealer's setup of different hoods over different cooktops, if adequate air flow is provided for each. Wolf hoods can probably be tested at Wolf distributors' cooking demonstration centers. Modern Aire hood insights may be obtained from Trevor at EuroStoves in Beverly MA, a participant in this forum.

All these generalities are mere starting points; the buyer still has to determine various parameters such as necessary actual CFM, the blower CFM rating that will provide it, and the make-up air approach that will allow it. (Many homilies on these points have been provided on this forum by myself and others over the past decade.) There is also a lot of literature on these topics out there, and I suggest for a technical foundation starting with Greenheck's Kitchen Ventilation Systems -- Application and Design Guide (KVSApplDesign_catalog.pdf) available somewhere on their site.

kas

IMO.... If your trying to prevent cooking odors from drifting though your open plan house your fighting a losing battle (Deducted by your post "We saute a lot of onions and garlic and like to cook curry".

As noted above hoods are designed to remove Smoke & Grease. While some odors will be removed while actually cooking as soon as you move the food to the table and the pan to the sink the hood has been turned off and is useless.

For best results with any hood the larger the capture area and the higher the cfm ranting the blower has the better it works. As always just my opinion.....

Thank you for your replies. Re: fighting the losing battle with cooking smells...I guess that helps manage my expectations, but in my experience ventilation helps...

Kas, I really appreciate the time for your detailed (for my question and others that I've read in the archives). Point taken re: "perfect is the enemy of good enough"!

If I understand correctly, my wish list is:

1) professional hood

2) for a 42"x24" hood, look for >690 cfm

3) canopy style

4) exterior blower and in-line silencer

5) baffle filters

And to find a sales rep who knows hoods.

If anybody has any specific recommendations I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping to spend less than $2k.

Thank you!

I assume that you mean Pro-style residential hood. Otherwise, I understand many if not most commercial hoods are made from 400-series stainless steel, (more properly called corrosion-resisting steel) and don't stay bright without some cleaning (e.g., phosphoric acid wash wipe-down now and then). This won't matter if it is used for an insert, except the baffles would not be as presentable.

Also, commercial hoods normally have sprinkler heads and would typically be 48-inches from front to back by some length.

Kas,

I'm confused. When you say "commercial", you mean non-residential? I thought you meant the pro-style. 48 inches front to back would be too big for us, I think.

Thanks.

By "commercial" I mean hoods generally having to conform (at least in the USA) to NFPA 96 and sold to commercial kitchens, i.e., non-residential. I was only trying to clarify that your no.1 item, "professional hood," didn't mean to you commercial hood that professional chefs would be expected to be cooking under.

Pro style, such as Wolf names some of its hood line, has little to do with professional cooks and a lot to do with fitting into the look that Wolf ranges and SubZero refrigerators provide in simulating the generally stainless steel ambiance of a commercial kitchen.