What is the CFM for the hood your wife likes? W/ Wolf gas, I would suggest at least 900 CFM. What I don't like about that hood is the MESH instead of BAFFLE filters. Baffles are so much easier to clean. --- Suggestion: get a 42" wide hood, so that gives an overhang of 3" on either side of the range top, which helps capture in a lot more steam (less damage to the side upper cabinets). My DH has been caught w/ the induction cooktop steaming away, when he's preparing his morning coffee, not remembering just how quickly water boils on induction. ----> can I persuade you to consider INDUCTION cooktop? I love my Miele 36". --- May not apply to ALL Broan, but my gf's Broan hood is wicked loud, so loud that she hardly turns it on. --- Remote blower = more expensive, when I was researching for one to go into my 42" copper hood. So I switched plans and went with a 42" Kobe 1100 CFM. good luck, Amanda

Actually MUA is not required by Code everywhere, only some areas. Regardless of Code requirements, the OP needs to do MUA with 1200 cfms because that much suckage carries with it the risk of sucking back CO into the house, i.e. backdraft. It's a serious risk because with that much cfms pulling air out of the house, other exhausts will be pulled in, like from the water-heater, furnace, chimney and dryer vent. That backdraft is bringing poisonous carbon monoxide into the home. You can get away with no MUA with an exhaust that is 400-600 cfms and if your house is drafty and not a newer super-insulated house. But not at 1200 cfms. At 1200 cfms, cracking a window will not be enough. You will need to install an MUA system. Either add that to the expense of your renovation, or choose a different cooking setup. People not willing to install MUA is a main reason why people forego the 60" ranges and their exhaust requirements, and opt instead for a 36" rangetop and separate ovens.

“ I posted all of the numbers on here a couple of years ago from IR measurements of two Wolf's and two BS's. You'd need to search back through my posts.” It is up to the person making a statement to supply supporting data. I would mostly be looking for the specs for the thermostat given by the company to determine how much swing they say it has at least as a starting place. IR measurements have some problems with inaccuracy. The cookware forum on chowhound has had quite a few discussions about this. This is one. https://www.chowhound.com/post/measuring-pan-surface-temp-ir-wrong-choice-1041669 “Sealed vs Open are commonly used terms that most people understand. I agree that Capped vs Uncapped might be much better terminology. I'll leave it to you to change the culture on these terms.” I would say most people misunderstand the generic term “open” because it used so nonspecifically. It has a meaning. There have been arguments here as to what that means. You only have to look at marketing from various manufacturers to see confusion and myth. I would never use bad terminology just because that is what most people do. People come here, to an appliance forum, to get information and we do them no favors if we don’t use the correct terminology to help them look at each specific aspect of the burner and see how it contributes to the way they cook. As the saying goes these days, “If you know better, do better.” “There is no single burner setting that will maintain an even temp over time. The primary cause is food. When food is added the temp drops considerably as the heat in the griddle or pan surface transfers to the food. Similarly, as the food cooks the amount of heat that it pulls from the griddle or pan surface changes. The heat produced by the underlying burner also changes, I believe based on gas pressure to the range but there may be other bits). “ So to me you have to ask the question, what is the variation and how is this significant in actual cooking. The burner provides a certain number of BTUs. The pan and food are other variables that affect how things cook. At least at my house, I don’t get any variation with the heat from the burner that is noticeable in cooking. I have read of some areas that lose gas pressure noticeably when everyone is using gas at the same time. My cousin has this issue but even a thermostat doesn’t help If they lose pressure. The oven temp goes down. There are varying ways to deal with that drop in temperature with dropping the food. With something like hamburgers, I actually preheat the griddle or pan a little bit hotter and then add the food and may turn it down and it generally comes to an equilibrium. I can quickly change it if need be, especially with aluminum but the temperature settles out. I leave stockpots simmering unattended overnight and it doesn’t change. I can hold starchy pastas in foil trays with no scorching. You might not be getting as even of a surface temperature as you think. After you add your food and the surface temperature drops, it can take a long time for the heat to fill in and eventually drop all the way back by the thermostat to trigger it. It also depends on the food, how much and the metal and thickness of the griddle. With only 15K for two burners, you may never get the heat you want. But again when is that significant in cooking? “You can turn a griddle or flat-top on very low and it makes a great place for keeping sauces the proper and constant temp. I and friends have tried this with removable but found it doesn't work. It should in theory based on what I wrote above about heat transfer but in reality it doesn't. Thermostatic does work though.” When you say it didn’t work, what do you mean? What type of overlay? What type of burners? I have kept some of my sauces and gravies in a thermos made for that purpose, in a closed container in the oven or even just on the burner. Lots of ways to do things. It depends on what else I have going so really need the flexibility of my six burners. “Crepes and Swedish pancakes do best when cooked over a very consistent temp. If they cook too slow they get dry and if too fast they frequently burn (e.g., the time from properly done to burned is just a couple of seconds). I know that if I set it to about 425°f about 30 minutes prior to making them that I can make them consistently one after another until I've made as many as needed. I cannot make them nearly as well with a pan or griddle over burners and the thermostatic is much easier since there is no need to constantly adjust the burners. “ I do my crepes in a pan, but I don’t have the problem of constantly having to change the burners. As I said above being able to turn your griddle on to a number to consistently get the same output is a benefit for some cooks. I understand that you have very specific requirements for the way you cook but there are many cooks that have posted here, me included that just do not have the issues with temperature variation on an overlay that you say will happen. We are not constantly changing the setting. I guess if one were doing that, you would end up chasing your tail. What do you do when using a big skillet over a burner? How do you control heat? There are benefits to both but for some the benefits of an overlay are greater than a fixed even thermostatically controlled griddle. Like you said, you could easily buy an electric griddle if you needed that particular type of heat occasionally. You need it all of the time so it is your main consideration in buying your range, for others there are other priorities.

I have addressed this type of system often enough to not want to do it again. You are welcome to search for comments. Instead, I suggest you imagine a meter per second rising cooking plume being deviated to the (tiny) entrance aperture of the downdraft, taking into account that the velocity of the hood air current a small aperture dimension away from a hood aperture is a fraction of the velocity at the hood produced by the hood blower. Somehow this pittance of transverse air flow at the plume is supposed to completely remove the vertical momentum of the plume and make it horizontal. Leave these devices to what they can accomplish -- collecting a part of a back burner's steam plume -- and embrace the fact that configuration deviations from standard commercial practice mean reductions in efficiency and/or performance. Even a real hood on its side attempting to do this would have to have a lot higher flow rate than when it is above and letting the natural momentum of the plume bring the plume to the hood. One of the smaller sized turbofan engines would probably work as a blower, but might be a tad noisy. And if the plume can be fully deviated to horizontal, so can the burner flames.