No you are assuming wrong! There are companies that specialize in hoods and their products cost as much or more than appliance-branded ones. I used Modernaire and they will customize the size, style and finish of any hood. They are made in Los Angeles.
https://modernaire.com/

Another company I looked into was Raw Urth, out of Colorado.
http://rawurth.com/

I am in LA, so it made more sense for me to buy local and I got a really good price on the hood as I bought it through the same appliance store that ordered my Wolf, SZ, and Miele appliances. There was no discount on the appliances, but they came through with a nice discount on the hood.

Look at Ventahood. And start talking to your contractor about the Make Up Air system that is going to be required. That's a surprise to many people's budget.

chispa, I am in LA area as well, so I will look into your suggestions. If I were to go with one of the appliance branded hoods, I assume they are all pretty good?

The Cook's Kitchen, I have read about Make Up Air here in the forum. Does not seem like there is a requirement here in LA. Neither architect nor contractor have heard about it

I would look at the decibel level of the hoods and the fan speed settings. The old kitchen had a 48" Thermador hood and it was much louder than my new 48" Modernaire hood. The Thermador also only had 3 set speeds, but the Modernaire has an adjustable speed knob. I avoided using the old hood due to the noise.

No, not all appliance brand hoods are good. Some are going to be much louder than others, some will draw way better than others, and price versus specs will be an issue too.

What is the most important thing in a hood to you? I had two things that were weighted heavily when considering price, design/style, and drawing power: being able to mount the hood 34-36 inches above the counter (hate feeling like the hood is at my head), and noise level. I ended up with an Imperial hood based on my criteria; my width only needed to be 36 inches.

Actually anything over I believe 400 CFM needs make up air. It's code.

I thought noise would not be an issue since I am looking to install a remote blower mounted outside. Is that not a correct assumption? We do want a powerful hood, probably around 1000 CFM.

cpartist, I have read other threads about Make Up Air. Maybe I am missing something. It was not specified in the approved plans and no one at county has told us we need to get one

The air that flows through the hood to the outside is always matched by the air that flows into the kitchen from the outside via whatever "leaks" are present. If you provide a deliberate (maybe even filtered, heated, and/or cooled) "leak" -- otherwise known as make-up air -- you can get the hood blower to move a reasonable portion of its rated flow rate. Otherwise, you will gag the air flow and the hood becomes ineffective.

At 1000 CFM, or even half that, you would need to open a window if no deliberate MUA path is available, unless your house walls are the flow-through type styled after plank walls seen in ghost towns.

An external blower allows, where space is available, the use of an intermediate muffler-like device known as a silencer. See Fantech's web site for examples. These are very effective at removing the high frequency fan blade caused noise from making it back to the hood and thence to the cook's ears.

MUA is part of the building code everywhere. Just because your area doesn’t enforce and has enabled your contractors to be scofflaws doesn’t mean that the laws of physics are different in your microlocation.

To be pedantic here, building, plumbing, and electrical codes are wholly or partially adopted into laws at whatever political levels are given that power in particular locales. Further, the Code Enforcement Officer is often given significant latitude in enforcement policy. Hence, "scofflaw" might be a tiny bit premature without knowing just what policy applies in the OP's locale. Maybe "scoff-code" is better.

MUA incorporated into Samoan architecture:

kaseki, thanks for the description and explanation. I guess I will need to open a kitchen window. I am not sure how I would incorporate a makeup air system now.

Sophie Wheeler, I searched thru the entire 2013 CA Building Code document online (maybe I looked at the wrong one). The only times makeup air comes up are for nonresidential, high-rise residential and hotel applications

OK, then there is one alternative that I recommend that should not be difficult to include: If you have any combustion appliances (furnace, dryer, hot water heater) that are in a room that is connected, interior-air-wise, with the kitchen, then acquire carbon monoxide sensors and put them in various living spaces. If the open window is forgotten, the hood blower may back-draft such appliances as it will require very little negative household pressure relative to the outside to do so.

A better approach is to seal the combustion appliances off from the rest of the house and provide a reasonable amount of MUA to them via a wall cap and damper. A cap and damper for a 4-inch duct should be sufficient unless you have a particularly high-air-flow appliance. Consult with your HVAC person for an opinion on size.

I have been reading some of the other threads. In our case, the duct is going straight up to the roof where the remote blower will be located. It will be a distance about 4' from the top of the hood. Would it make any sense to try to put a silencer between the hood and the remote blower?

If it will fit in that space, it will reduce noise. I suspect that there won't be space as the silencer would have to occupy space in both the kitchen and any involved attic. But I think it may be worth checking to ensure that it is not practical.

I have about 6 feet of duct between my Prizer hood and my roof mounted 1000 cfm blower. Due to the short distance, I doubt it's much quieter than if the blowers were in the hood itself. I think if you can get that silencer in your 4 ft. section you should go for it.

It is actually closer to five feet or more to the top of the roof, under four feet to the ceiling, so I could probably fit a 10" silencer. Is fantech pretty much the only player? There is no attic. It is a single story house.

I have seen mention here of other sources, but I am unclear whether or not the other silencers are just re-badged Fantech units.

We replaced a new Zephyr Monsoon range hood with a Wolf liner, Fantech silencer, and Abbaka roof mounted blower solely because of noise. The new setup is VASTLY better--according to the decibel app on my phone, the Abbaka on high (1400 cfm) is quieter than the lowest Zephyr setting. Silencers are not very expensive in the greater scheme of things (we paid about $165 through Supply House), and I think it's money well spent.

Since my ceiling is sloped, do I get a custom duct cover ( same width as hood ) that goes all the way to the ceiling? I see the silencer could be wider than the depth at the top of the hood. Do I need to recess the silencer into the wall?

Should I put cabinets above the hood instead and have my contractor put in a soffit above the cabinet? The cabinet will be deeper than the top of the hood. Will that look strange? TIA!

I cannot advise on aesthetics, but will note that the Fantech 10-inch duct silencer is 14 inches in diameter, so the minimum cabinet or duct cover needs to be larger.

kaseki, I saw that. That was why I was asking about whether or not the silencer needs to or can be recessed. The top of the hoods I am looking at is only 12" deep. I think I am going to get the Thermador hood.

The silencer might be thought of as an automotive muffler on steroids. One can install it in myriad ways. I recommend the Fantech duct clamp fittings for use with it. A means of supporting it is also necessary, depending on layout.