I'm in the Portland Oregon area and we had ordered a VentaHood under-cabinet model NPH9 with a chrome pot rail from our local dealer, Standard TV and Appliance. Because of the pot rail, it was considered a custom order. The initial shipment arrived on time to Standard's warehouse. I went to pick up the hood, only to find - no pot rail. The shipping box was properly labeled with our custom order number including a description of the hood with attached pot rail. After four (4) days of discussing with Standard on how to reconcile this mistake, we were told a new unit had to be re-ordered and would arrive within 4 - 6 weeks. It's been 2 months since then. We finally probed deep enough into the problem (called the Seattle distributor, Luwa, as our Standard sales rep and manager were of no help) only to find another hood had been shipped, but was lost somehow in the delivery. We are now on our second (2nd) re-order. Moral of the story, if you're looking for one of their standard models - it shouldn't be a problem. Be careful if you want something custom. SIDENOTE: This is the second VentaHood I've installed. One of the first that I installed had a very minor manufacturing flaw (sheet metal didn't line up and created malformed corner). We didn't catch it until after we had installed the hood and stood back to admire our work. So look very close at your hood when it arrives. In the future, I will most likely go with an alternate product.

As thr former owner (and slow learner) of two Vent-a-hood installations in two previous homes I can say from experience I found them to be very noisy at all three speeds. Thoroughly cleaning grease deposits was a difficult if not impossible chore. In our present home we recently installed a 36RNB Bluestar range with a Best #WP29M427SB hood and a 1,266 CFM Fantech FKD 10XL in line blower. Results - PERFECT ! No smoke or cooking odors, quiet operation at all speeds and the dishwasher does the cleaning.We couldn't be happier with the results.

@sarina: I have had the Kobe RA02 for about 8 months now. Being an engineer, I did the install myself, although the chimney cover is still not in place, as I need to redo the crown molding behind it (procrastination is the name of this game). Overall I like it, but that doesn't say much, as my previous ventilation was just a fan-in-a-ceiling-hole. The quiet setting is quiet, but the other two are noisy; without previous experience, the "sones" numbers don't translate well into actual noise levels. Otherwise, on High, the hood is pulling out all the smoke and airborne grease steaks in a cast-iron skillet produce. You will have to open a window or install a MUA to help it pull all that air volume. The baffles need scrubbing every month or so, but that's a very small price to pay for not having cabinetry and walls smeared in grease. The model you're looking at is a little more elaborate, as it has some sort of electronic control. The RA02 is bare-bones, just two rotary switches.

There are more alternatives than one would have time to describe from scratch, but which might be ascertained by reviewing hood threads here. Requirements should be developed first, and candidate hoods selected second. As for these examples, neither of which I have owned and hence won't comment on specifically, and which may or may not meet requirements, a comparison would have to start with the respective devices' blowers' fan curves to see which has the most flow rate under the pressure loss conditions of the specific installation. In any case, if you want quiet, you want a silencer in the path between the hood and the blower.