Buy the one which has the knobs that feel the best to you or looks better. Both pretty much the same for cleanup. Wolf has more cache FWIW.

If that picture really reflects what you have, then I would be worried too. If the cabs on either side of your hood drop down close to the countertop, as the picture suggests, then you may have under 24'' of clearance from rangetop to bottom of cabinet. With a high output range that would seem to be an invitation to at least scorching of the cabinets, if not an all-out fire hazard. If you've searched for hood vent discussions on this forum you've seen that there is a strong disapproval for hoods that are equal in width to the cooktop, let alone narrower than the cooktop! Even with a high cfm hood (and 680 cfm does not qualify in my mind as high), you may pull some of the hot convection current away from your side cabs, but there is direct radiant heat energy that is not affected at all by airstream which will heat your cabinets. That's independent of the smoke/grease/odor issues that an inadequately sized hood would cause, that you say don't worry you. Why the compulsion to go with a 36'' range in a space designed for a 30''? You lose a couple burners of course but if that's what you have to work with that's a sensible option. Not to mention that a six burner Wolf would really require more than 680 cfm for decent ventilation. Or, can you pull down your two flanking cabinets and replace them with narrower cabs? Or even just delete them altogether and mount a freestanding hood there?

I don't know where you live but I live in the south east so when I was doing research I called the Dacor showroom in Atlanta. The gal I spoke to was Amy (pretty sure) and she knew Everything. She helped me figure out exactly what I would need and how to get it in my budget (which I never thought would have been possible - still not cheap of course, but gave me $ saving tips) I highly recommend calling them (Amy specifically - i never had a good contact for Wolf so I ended up using Dacor.) I just googled the number I called and it's: Dacor Showroom Atlanta (404) 365-9876 she didn't try to sell me anything... but she told me that was because she couldn't sell me anything if she tried b/c they are just a showroom and don't sell anything. Trust me - go to the source for info! (but of course - I'm interested to hear GWers feedback, too!! My issue wasn't about a downdraft at all so I don't have the inside scoop on that but i guarantee you she will)

The necessary information may be found by searching this forum. To summarize: Obtain a hood that overlaps the cooktop by enough to capture the rising and expanding effluent. Assume for this discussion a hood with a 42-inch wide by 27-inch deep aperture area. This is shy of 8 square feet. Desirable velocity at the baffles is 3 ft/s, leading to a need for 24 cu ft/s or around 1400 cu. ft./min. Experience shows that only half this is needed due to baffle behavior in directing the effluent flow close to the baffles. (Or to look at it another way, only half the baffle space is aperture.) This consideration yields a value of 700 cfm. To actually flow 700 cfm, the blower needs to do so at some pressure drop determined by the baffle loss, transition loss, duct loss, and MUA replacement air flow pressure loss. For likely conditions, a 1200 cfm rated blower would be desirable. At best, a VAH hood's rated actual flow (600 in Homechef59's message) only avoids part of the pressure loss. It is not equivalent to a 900 CFM blower with a baffled hood except when each is hanging in air without a house and ducting. While a 1200 cfm rated system is recommended in this example, stepping down to 900 rated cfm may be adequate depending on what plume velocity your cooking effluent actually achieves, and what area of aperture you end up with. Some effluent escape (capture but missed containment) or effluent missing the aperture (missed capture) can be expected at some level of flow and/or hood shrinkage. Note that this basis for CFM estimation does not depend on the number of burners that may be in use at one time, but on the pan temperature(s). Every plume rises and has to be captured and contained, and the other hood areas not directly impacted by a particular plume do not help capture and contain it. kas