Hi Jenny - I know this post is old so I wanted to ask you which you decided to go with and how you like it?

I just purchased a Zephyr Milano Island hood. Main reason, the sone is .5 on low and obviously higher as one increases the intensity. Still the lowest from the hoods i compared. The other thing I liked is the glass on the milano. I didn't want to take away from a gorgeous forrest view. It was definitely a great decision. Added note; the salesman I bought it from suggested putting the hood on 15 - 20 minutes ahead of cook time on low and leave it on low during cooking. He said if I leave it off and then place it on a higher number that it wouldn't be as effective as getting the airflow running ahead of time. It really does work and it is so quiet my son went to put it on for me and it was already on!

Thanks ApplianceSalesVet. If there are service issues, the Zephyr may be our best bet then since the store we are buying from is excellent at helping out the customer and dealing with the manufacturer, so the customer doesn't have to. With the Kobe, the store would be a 3 days drive from me so I'd have to deal with the manufacturer myself (assuming Kobe allows that). I had heard about the Vent-a-Hoods before and was very interested but they don't seem to have any under cabinet units? If they only have wall units, we'd have to rip out the upper cabinet which means losing that storage space as well as drywall patching/painting, maybe more tiling depend on look and I'm thinking I'd have holes to patch in the cabinets on either side then (which I'd prefer not to patch since these cabinets were rather pricey!).

I thought the Kobe hoods were great, too so we decided on it. We haven't installed it yet, so not much comment on that. Ours is a wall hood, the lowest 122 model 36" and was about half the price, but I don't know what model you are going for. p.