many many many makes out there. Go to an ecommerce site and use key words like blower, insert, power-pack, and liner (although i always thought liners were just the thin layer of steel lining a chimney, it is a useful term and it appears to mean the motor too.) Congratulations on getting a massive hood. I think it is a great find. I'll ask you a few questions, in reverse order. What dimensions is the opening at the top of the hood? Rectangular or round? Do you know what an adaptor or transition is in terms of ducting? What duct size would you think you want to install? Before that, the big question is the quantity of air (CFM) you expect to blow. Before that, the kind of cooking you do, and whether it's for one, for two, or for a whole restaurant size crowd (i.e. many burners on high, and often). Since you have complete access to your future duct, an inline motor is an option. A good option. There is no advantage to "inserting" the motor into the hood, compared to having the motor be positioned in the duct (inline) or even outdoors on the outside wall. J, you have a good sense of what is needed. First you got a "sump" (the collector / hood / canopy / umbrella) and now you want a blower. Makes sense to me. When I list a bunch of terms as if they were synonyms, it helps you search later. Don't take any term too seriously. Below is a link to another thread where I may have confused the woman who posted her query. Too many terms. HTH -david Here is a link that might be useful: Where to find the 'guts' to fit in custom stove hood

heartsurgeon and cpovey, Thanks for the info. In March, after reading hours (days?) of hood information on GardenWeb, I had decided to get a VAH 42", 600 cfm (VAH doesn't make anything higher than 600 cfm for a 42" hood and 48" was too big). I had made a cardboard hood of that size and mounted above the cooktop (no cooking allowed!) to get an idea of sightlines. 32" was best for viewing across the greatroom for me, but the cook in the house was fine with 30". The VAH rep insisted to never go above 30", so we were set to go with VAH at 30". But, since there was a delay in the BlueStar cooktop we wanted, we waited. The housing market got worse and a large appliance place folded and liquidated their inventory, and I got a deal on a Viking that I couldn't pass up. The hood didn't come with a blower, so that's why I have been asking the blower questions. Since higher CFM blowers were available on the Viking, I thought I could push the hood up to 32" with higher CFM and be OK. I figured the internal motor probably has twice the noise...the air noise through the baffles and then the air noise through the squirrel cage blower. So heartsurgeon, it wouldn't surprise me that it's noisy when on high at 600 cfm. Do you even hear the motor...or is it all air? The external probably does look like the best option, as I agree with cpovey that an in-line motor would be a hassle to maintain. Looking at the specs, I think the external would fit on the roof. Cpovey, I don't know if I could install the external upside down either...is there a damper that would be upside down? I had been only considering venting out of the bottom if I used the in-line. If I use external, it would go on the roof. Now today when I picked up my hood, I scrounged around the warehouse and found that they had a 600 cfm internal blower left for that hood, which I able to pick up for a good deal as well...so I couldn't pass that up either. So I"ll start with a 600 cfm internal, mounting the hood at 30". If it end's up too noisy, it's not that much of a loss and it would allow us to find out if we need more than 600 cfm. If we don't, but want to use an external for noise reasons, we will still come out ahead cost-wise. I think I'll still use 10" duct work in case I do want to go up in CFM if we go to an external...it's not that long of a run, so it shouldn't cost that much more. Also, I would think that a 10" elbow above the hood would make less noise than a 7" elbow. I plugged the 600 cfm fan in (not inside the hood) to an outlet to see how noisy it was. It does make some noise, but it seemed less noisy when I added some wind resistance, so I won't be able to tell much until it's fully installed. It sure could blow some air when unrestricted though! This got me a little concerned that if the vent exits on the top of the roof...it will be only about 8 feet away from the deck table, pointing right at it. Will this cause an unappealing breeze to the outside dinner guests? Maybe the baffles cause enough resistance that it really doesn't blow out that fast in the real application? I am still interested to hear if someone has put an external fan this close to an outdoor sitting area and what the noise level is like. I'm guessing that it may just be a white noise-type situation outside?

Good luck with your project - you'll need it ... just kidding. Many more decisions will be dropped in your lap as this begins to move forward. We have just completed (well almost) our kitchen renovation after about a 2 year contemplation and 3 + month construction phase. One item I was adamant about was an effective range hood. We suffered for years with the integrated vent on an Advantium. This thing is useless as a hood - see earlier posts by me in archives.?? Great appliance however and we would never be without it - 220 model. We just moved the thing to another area above our countertop and bought a real hood. Don't fret too much over the cost. You'll regret it later if you cheapen out. As my dear old dad always says - "It's only money, doesn't hurt you here or there, only in the back pocket for a while". The time you are spending coming up with ideas and making selections plus the labor cost or your time if DIYing it, is more than the added cost of getting the better appliance - IMHO. Plus once you finally get through this you will not want to do anything again to make changes. We did decide to go with a Best by broan Model UP27E (inline or external fan) since our range is only a 30" - we kept existing range since wife is happy with it and fairly new GE Electric Profile. 30" range has only 4 burners plus a bridge but not the btu of your 36" . We have the 600 cfm inline fan using 10" duct. It works marvelous and do not see the need for more as of yet. Summer may change that but I doubt it. We vent through a sidewall in attic space so no pentration in roof which I would advise against roof units. SLight vibrating noise from unit however and I will try using rubber isolation mounts on inline motor unit in attic which should help minimize that. Motor itself does hum somewhat also and I believe that is a function of the type of motor/speed control. Best should offer an option to upgrade fan motor to a better style of variable speed type control. HOod design is something I looked at before making decision since I belief these flat bottom screen types are not near as efficient as the baffle / capturing designs. IF using a less efficient hood design up the blower cfm. Also the greater the cfm the larger the ducting will need to be. These are low pressure blowers which need a large surface area in duct size to move enough air. And yes you should consult mfgr specifications for proper cfm to btu of range. Remember you can always turn the speed down but you can not make it flow more than it can handle. Regarding cost - remember that the biggest part may be installation not the price of the unit! So if a contractor is giving you a price for the unit and installation then of course it will be much higher than what you can purchase it for yourself. these remote blower units are much more work than an integrated hood. Electric must be run to 2 locations as well mechanical work on 2 locations. MAke sure HVAC guy does install properly - not too long a duct run and minimze turns. Also ask him to use rubber isolation mounts for you under blower :) I'll try posting elswhere on this forum some of our other experiences during KR. Here is a link that might be useful: Best hood UP27E

You are correct that air flow makes noise separate from the fan motor noise. But remote motor location still cuts down on noise. The way to minimize air flow noise is to make sure the size of your air intake vents is as large as possible. in some of the new rangehoods I've seen the whole under surface of the unit sucks in air. That should cut down on air noise, compared to ours, which is 15 years old and suck in air through a much smaller surface. With the configuration you described, I would make sure that the 90 degree turn in your duct is made GRADUALLY. Otherwise, it will reduce your exhaust capacity significantly. Do you really need >1000 CFM? That's a lot, maybe OK for an island installation, but probably excessive for against the wall, unless you intend to cook up a storm will all burners going very often. With that kind of exhaust capacity, you should take into account make-up air. Be prepared to open a nearby window.