Did you buy this hood new or was it already in place at a home you bought? Highly unlikely that's how it's meant to function. Appears the switch box that mounts beneath the canopy toward the front is missing. The wires you connect to run the blower would normally connect there to an on/off switch which may also have functioned as a speed control if it has multiple speeds. The lights to illuminate the cooktop would also be part of that assembly.

Just to say, Sears doesn't itself operate factories to manufacture the products it sells. All appliances (and other products) are sourced from the various manufacturers of other brands, relabeled to Kenmore or whatever is their trade name for the item. The first three digits of Kenmore appliance model numbers (syntax of xxx.xxxxxxxxx) is a code for the source manufacturer. Is the model/serial tag missing or unreadable?

It does look like you're missing some of the guts. (Very technical, right?) I have to point out that the outer canopy of that hood is really cool.

That Kenmore logo was used from around the early 70s to the mid 90s which probably won't help much...

Hasn't it been a very long time since Sears went to just "Kenmore" on appliance emblems? (Edit: Logopedia suggests that this 'Sears Kenmore' form was only used in 1966.)

The color may be from Kenmore Harmony House selections, 1940 - 1968.

Evidently from the splatter there has been a lot of cooking with the blower OFF, or else the unit's ability to function as a means of cooking plume capture and containment is insufficient.

@dadoes

I can't find any identifying numbers anywhere on it. Yes, it came this way with the house. Several fixtures (lights, ceiling fans, etc.) had been poached from the place when we got it. So I'm not sure if the insert (with switch and/or light) is missing, or was never there. Any advice on finding one?

@Fori

Right?! I'd like to keep it, but I need a light over my stove. When standing at the stove you cast a shadow over the cook surface because the light is behind you.

No one seems to sell an insert that this would plug in to.

I think it's a stand alone unit with pieces missing, not a hood that you put a separate insert into.

Probably time to start measuring and shopping for a hood (and maybe making the acquaintance of an electrician in your new neighborhood). Is it vented?

My mother’s mid-1970s Kenmore hood has a dual squirrel cage blower like that. It’s not a tall canopy model. Fluroscent light, fully-variable blower speed control. Replacement parts of course are NLA for a model of such age.

You can treat the shroud like a wood hood that needs the insert. But you’ll need a good electrician on board to make the wiring work.

You (OP) will need to determine how this device actually vents and to where, including the duct diameter. Somewhere up there is also an electrical box that the replacement would connect to that should be checked. Hence, I would suggest that your first step is to remove this assembly to examine its interfaces.

Then you might use AJ Madison as a prefilter to look for similar looking models, if such are what you want, that could go into the space and adapt to the duct. A replacement hood will be much less expensive than designing and fabricating a mating assembly to hold baffle frames, lights, and controls.

Among models that might adapt, a search here on brands may reveal those generally liked and those generally disliked. Of course, YMMV.

@Callie Chunestudy Did you just buy the house? They are not suppose to poach any fixtures! Anyway, I really like the design of your kitchen vent hood canopy. (It cost way over my budget to get one similar to yours.) Our new kitchen vent hood will be installed by our HVAC contractor.

You need to find out if your kitchen vent hood is ducted, how big the ducts are and the measurements of your kitchen vent hood canopy before you look for a suitable blower and liner/insert for it. It also depends on how much you want to spend.

P.S. Wolf has some "under cabinet hood inserts" intended to fit into standard 12-inch deep cabinets. They might fit into your shell. See page 143 of the Wolf Design Guide, Rev. 4/21.

@Eileen S - The house was a foreclosure and sat empty for 3 years before we bought it. Not sure if the old owners took stuff on their way out, or if it was outside thieves. We knew when we bought it that several fixtures were missing. While we were in escrow we caught some people try to 'liberate' the gas fireplace! It's in a very rural area, and I'm sure people thought it was an abandoned free for all.

We've owned the house quite a while, now. I took these photos years ago, on my first (unsuccessful) hunt for the parts. Put this project to the way side (been using the vent the way it is all these years) and have come back to it, after finishing some other projects in the house.

I really like the look of this one, and similar canopy hoods are $$$$!!!. The house was built in 1987, so I'm guessing this is an 80's model hood, but no searches bring anything up for it. I thought I'd give one last try at finding the factory or adaptable parts for it. Something that will 'plug and play' if you will, but alas, it doesn't seem as though that will be possible.

@dadoes @User @kaseki - Thanks for all the input. It vents out through the roof. The fan/blower is super powerful, we even use it sometimes as a supplement to the attic fan when the weather is nice and we open the house up.

My husband (carpenter/blacksmith) and I (artist, daughter and granddaughter to contractors and mechanics) are both pretty handy (we DIY most everything), my stepdad is an engineer, and we have a best friend electrician, so we may just go the fabrication route. I really just want a switch and a light, so my range is lit and I can stop reaching up in there to plug the thing in; shouldn't be the most complicated endeavor. And I bet I can even make it look fancy. Heck, when we're done maybe we'll specialize in custom inserts. (HA HA!!)

Thanks again, all of y'all, for your help here.

p.s. If anyone is just bored, and HAS to solve this mystery, I'm all ears!

A fire stop is essential for a cooking hood.* Mesh and baffle filter designs perform this function in addition to filtering grease particulates from the larger size of the spectrum. The structure you build for lights and blower control should be designed to fit purchased baffle assemblies, for example: "Flame Gard." www.flamegardusa.com

___

*Your insurance company might be able to exclude paying for a house fire if the fire started in a hood or duct that lacked a proper fire stop.

Be sure the ducting is all steel; no aluminum is allowed for cooking vent ducts.

You should have a damper at the hood and one at the exit cap, unless the distance between these points is very short.

I went to the Sears parts website and I think your hood’s innards may be similar to the family starting with the numbers of 23351. Your hood's numbers might be on the backside against the wall. Here is a link to the hood diagram of a similar style. You probably won’t be able to get the exact part, but at least you can see what it is. (Ignore the first picture of the slim undercabinet hood.)

https://www.searspartsdirect.com/model/yf4kbffhry-000582/kenmore-23351423200-range-hood-parts

Here is another configuration of a Kenmore Pro hood. The 1200 cfm blower looks similar to yours, but I think the first configuration I linked to is closer to your missing parts.

https://www.searspartsdirect.com/model/5f7gzcqvp7-003281/kenmore-pro-23351003600-range-hood-parts