I have a 30" induction range and put a Kobe CH2730SQB hood over it. In my last house I had a Wolf 36" cooktop on an island and put a VAH hood over that. Neither one of these is "quiet" like a good dishwasher but the VAH was definitely worse (which, considering its larger size, is probably expected). What I didn't expect was the vibration experienced in the bedroom floor (on the second floor directly over the kitchen) when the VAH was on high. My current house is a ranch and so that issue doesn't exist here. The Kobe is pretty noisy on its highest speed but not what I'd classify as cover-your-ears level. The default (middle) speed is acceptable or better, IMHO. The two lowest speeds are quiet but of course do not move as much air. The Kobe has five speeds; I normally use it on #3 which is adequate for what I do. That said, I never fry. I did crank it up a couple of times to #5 when I accidentally let a pan of cookies burn (darn email, LOL) and filled the kitchen with smoke. I was impressed with the job it did clearing out the resulting fog and scorched smell very quickly. I am less impressed with the Kobe's lighting. There are two halogen bulbs and three light settings. The brightest setting is the only one I'd consider adequate and I have a well-lit kitchen. The VAH had four halogen bulbs with two light settings, low and high; the bulbs themselves were larger but again, so was the hood. The only quibble I have about the Kobe is that while it works great for items on the two back burners, it really does not come out far enough to effectively pull stuff up from the front-burner pans. And we are talking about just steam here, folks. My range does have the controls at the back, which means the front burners are more "forward" than a front-panel range's would be. I suspect that if I had one of those, the hood would be in a better operating position re: the burners. But I was determined on this induction range and so we gotta work with what we've got, LOL I paid $699 plus tax for the Kobe last year from a local appliance store. I see that Amazon has it now for $657. As for a microwave hood, the prior owners had one and the first thing I did was get rid of it. All they do is recirculate the same air through a not-very-efficient metal filter/screen. If I have a fan, I want it to REMOVE the odor/grease/etc-laden air from my house... not simply move it around and deposit it back into the same living space it was originally in. This post was edited by Helena2013 on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 13:27

Mine, over 30" induction cooktop, is a 36" Kobe in the CH191 series. It has max 720CFM, although the long run and multiple turns in my duct means the effective CFM is less. I usually run it on the second lowest setting anyway. It's quiet and easy to clean, and the corners are curved so no one can impale his head by accident. Mine has halogen bulbs, but I understand that they come with LED now. I thought ventingdirect.com had pretty good prices, although others have found even better deals on other sites. I think I read that there is a more affordable Kobe-made hood sold at Costco. Maybe the Brilla? Marcia's right - it's better to have 36" hood over 30" stove. But if you aren't changing the cabs and you're replacing a 30" MW, I don't know that you can avoid having 30" hood. Not the end of the world. Still much better than OTR MW. There are more discussions of hoods over on the Appliances forum. Try googling "gardenweb hood recommendation" or something similar.

MUA requirements, based on the IRC, start with blowers rated over 400 CFM. Blower ratings are in free air, and not in a hood system, so such systems will have only 200 -- 300 CFM actual flow rate. If the aromatic cooking involves pan temperatures causing peanut oil to vaporize or smoke, then the flow rate into the hood should be 90 CFM/square foot of hood aperture, perhaps a bit less with induction cooking. So it might be apparent that your hood aperture can only meet the flow rate by being no larger than a few square feet. This will be inadequate to overlap the rising and expanding cooking plumes possible from all burners on most ranges and cooktops. And we haven't even addressed reliability yet, although this tends to be an issue with inexpensive hoods with pretensions to electronic grandeur, where simple controls would be fine. Note that there is always make-up air, and it exactly equals the amount of air that flows out of the hood system. Even without safety considerations, or code considerations, if you want to operate the hood system at its best performance level, natural MUA due to house leakage should be supplemented, even if it requires only a duct and damper into some part of the house, unless the house is extremely leaky or your environment allows for normally open windows.

Renovating a small kitchen with width of 30 inches above the range for range hood. Told the hood can’t touch the cabinets. Any recommendations or thoughts on what brand or size I should buy? If I have at .25 inch each side contractor says ok. Cabinets ordered. Thank you!!