I raised trevorlawson's comment with my very experienced GC. He says it still will be quieter! So I guess that it is up to me to make the decision. Our house has 3 stories and no attic, so venting that way and mounting the EB on the roof is not an option. I will look at Windcrest and Imperial as well. Part of me still lusts after the Rangecraft Canterbury hood for looks. It has (and still is ) out of my budget, but as the price of these hoods and EB's and accessories add up, maybe the price difference is not so substantial. A sales person at Rangecraft said that if we are venting directly out the wall, I do not need 1200CFM's, and can get away with 600 CFM's, to reduce the cost. My range is a 6 burner Bertazzoni with combined BTU's of 40,050. I do sear my steaks or grill them indoors once a week. The Rangecraft hoods only have internal blowers. I do not know what to make of her suggestion, as 600 CFM's seems rather low. After all of my research on appliances, cabinets, flooring, cabinet hardware, lighting, tiles and paint colors, I seem to be getting nowhere with this range hood issue probably because it is so driven by specs and not aesthetics. Wouldn't it be great if both the spec needs and my aesthetics could be solved by a Rangecraft hood?

While we wait for Terrace1919 to respond, I can relate that I have a Wolf Pro Island Hood with their (Broan/Nutone) 1500 CFM (rated) blower on the roof. Duct length from hood to blower is in the 15 - 20 foot range (never measured it). A section of the 10-inch duct incorporates a Fantech silencer. At full power (with MUA path, baffle and other parts pressure losses) flow rate is likely to be around 900 CFM actual through the 10 sq. ft. of hood aperture. One can talk normally around and across the space under the hood. There is noise, mostly baffle hiss due to turbulence, but it is not annoyingly loud for cooking. My blower has some rumble that a re-balancing could help, I suspect. Some of my ducting wears automotive damping material to suppress any conduction of blower noise along the steel duct. This hood fully captures the cooking plume from my 3500W induction wok located under the far end of the hood. Hood height above the counter is about 35 inches. Blower control is via a conventional (at the time) triac/diac circuit above the middle baffle area on the controls side. If you replace the internal blower with an external blower, it would be safest, without evaluating the potential power capability of the existing motor control circuit, to use the same power rating external blower. Otherwise, uprating the embedded blower controller is another possibility, if Wolf is willing or you are an electronics experimentalist. kas

gemini16, As mentioned above, a "squirrel cage blower works fine for powerful and (relatively) quiet ventilation... a 600cfm internal blower with a squirrel cage and it kicks butt. You are always going to have noise from air movement, no matter where the blower is located... " Just to go back to basics : -- all hoods at a cost higher than the low-end of the market have centrifugal (squirrel cage) blowers. They do a better job than blade fans and are quieter too. -- all air moving makes some noise. Breathe in and out slowly making as little noise as possible and you can still hear "something". In the range of 250 to 400 CFM you may not find baffle filters are quieter than mesh. There are also Other advantages to mesh filters in this range of CFM. At high end of the CFM range, baffles are clearly best. "If i want to vent outside, do I need to purchase an external blower?" - NO, all blowers can send air outside. Some blowers are in-line, halfway between your hood and the outdoors. Most blowers are in the hood. Some blowers can be outdoors ("external") but this is not required in any way. HTH -David

We have a 42" Viking hood, 1200cfm external blower. It works great! It has a great capture area. We went with the 1200 due to the btus and the recommendation from Capital Range. It is so easy to clean the filters too, just pop them in the dishwasher. For some reason it makes me happy to see them greasy--I know it's working. (And during these last few days where our temps have been in the upper 80's and 90's, we open some windows and turn that baby on high--it's like a whole house fan for the first floor!)