I chose a VAH simply because my cabinet company uses them as liners for their hoods. (I also did research here and people seem to like them.) I can't say from a lot of experience because I am just starting to use it, but from having a small, extremely noisy and useless recirculation hood before, this has been a DREAM. I don't set off the fire alarm when grilling burgers anymore! It is SO quiet compared to the old one, but I don't think it's the quietest. From being on the boards for a while, you are looking in the right direction, VAH and Best are popular here. Zephyr has nice looks too. I don't think you will go wrong with any, just make sure you like the controls/cleaning method/looks and choose that way. (I have not cleaned mine yet). If you are going from nothing, it will change your life! (steaks, fish!, wok, saute... no residual smell!!!)

@mojavean: while your characterization might be agreed with by others, I want to take the time to better explain my thought process. I have been a huge GW fan for years. I've read a ton. learned a ton, and posted a fair amount. Some of that stuff might have even been useful to some. What I would point out is that GW thrives as a community that shares a conversation. The life blood of this process is a two-way interchange: one person needs information. He/she posts a question. Others with useful information respond, not for fame or money, but because they genuinely have an interest in helping. Moreover, most posters, and I am sure you'd agree, love to have others chime in with their thoughts. The best threads are the ones in which a lively, ongoing, multi-person interchange goes on for days and days. Opinions are offered, debated, disagreed with, and all involved learn something. The worst threads are ones in which the OP seems to lose interest. You'll see others respond to their post and attempt to help out but no response is forthcoming. Even if it's just to say "thanks," GW etiquette really asks that you at least respond with a "thanks." And since you're concerned that we didn't look at the dates of the posts, I'd suggest that perhaps you should do the same? The OP posted on 12/13. He/she got three responses within one day, including two detailed responses from two long-time GW posters who are some of (nah, kas IS) the most knowledgeable folks on this Forum regarding ventilation. The OP then proceeded to 1) not respond for TWO weeks 2) ignore the questions and advice given by pillog and kas and 3) reveal that he/she already bought a hood apparently based on the "extra cash I saved." In my occasionally humble opinion, if you are going to post a question, you are obliged to see if there is a response, and to indicate your appreciation. "It feel off the front page" is not an excuse. The reason it fell off the front page is because the OP ignored the thread for two weeks. And if you're going to ignore the advice anyway, why post in the first place? So, yes, I did look at the dates of the post, and if you were reading more carefully, you would have realized that.

I'd suggest posting in appliances for more input. There are a few experts who hang out there and not here. And I'd suggest taking a serious look at an induction range. I made the switch from gas a couple of years ago after researching on the appliances forum and would not willingly go back. Induction has all the power, faster adjustments and is easier to clean. And importantly in your situation the range itself isn't putting anything into the air to be vented. Most induction ranges have different electrical requirements from a standard electric radiant range so you would need to check whether you can swing that in your building.

You can strive for affordability, performance, and aesthetics, but you can have only two. Performance includes both hood capture and containment, and hood system noise level; affordability includes the costs of both the ventilation system and any other changes or systems that make-up air requirements impose. For background, I suggest you review the myriad hood and MUA topics on this forum. There are also some good papers on kitchen ventilation out there, mainly commercial cooking oriented, but one can extrapolate. Greenheck is one manufacturer with a good paper on the subject. Various air quality boards have also produced them. Combining the search terms "kitchen ventilation" and "schlieren" will be productive. I don't have time right now to go over all the requirements and desirements that affect performance, so I'll limit myself to noting what I have installed because it or something like it would work for you. The hood is a Wolf Pro Island hood, 66 inches wide. (See Wolf Design Guide.) It adequately overlaps a 36-inch induction cooktop and a nearby Cooktek induction wok hob. Ducting is 10-inch, with a Fantech silencer in the path. A Wolf roof-top blower (actually made by Broan) terminates the ducting. It is rated at 1500 cfm at zero static pressure (which you won't have, so derate all cfm claims). The internal aperture of this hood is about 10 square feet and I achieve on high blower setting probably 90 cfm/square foot as desired for full capture with baffles (and probably meshes). One can converse along or across this hood at full power mainly limited by wok cooking sizzle. My last comment for now is: Ventilation power cost is at or near the top of all commercial kitchen expenses. The industry has spent a lot of effort attempting to have good cooking plume capture and containment for the least operating cost. From this you might deduce that commercial hoods are going to be fairly optimal for their purpose. Commercial plume capture and containment is not that different from our residential cooking plume capture and containment. Hence, the more a residential hood diverges in configuration from a commercial counterpart, the closer one must investigate to decide whether the trade-offs that were made for aesthetics do not impair the hood function more than you will tolerate. Once installed and your nose and ears make the final decision, it is too late. kas