Agree with antss - dont believe there is much difference. Follow other posts on range hood topics on this forum for discussion on factors that cause noise or limit noise - ducting, filter type, quality of blower and external vs internal blowers - as determined by the need of the range - all to often people want external blowers because they think they are quiter - an example - mount a 1000cfm wall mount blower directly behind the hood and the noise level is about equal to that of an internal 1200cfm(a quality one that is) Here is a link that might be useful: More on range hood noise

I don't know where to get one with a black finish, but I know two sources for barrel hoods with copper finish. One is Independent Hoods, their "Bonanza" hood in the copper (it also comes in stainless). Independent makes very good quality hoods. I'll link to one below, but I didn't do any price shopping - it was the first one that came up, so you may be able to find it for less. On that site the 36" Bonanza hood is $4541, plus the Independent blower (sold separately) is about $500. Not cheap, but a lot less than the $8000 you mentioned. You could try calling Independent Hoods directly. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy direct from the source. There is also custom hoods by Handcrafted Metal. They can make anything you want, but on their website they show a barrel hood on their stainless hoods tab, and on their copper hoods tab, a hood, not a barrel (kinda the opposite cause it's a concave curve instead of a convex barrel), but with the straps and rivets. Like I said, they'll make you whatever you want. But just to get an idea of cost, you can click on the photos; the copper concave hood looks like it'll cost about $3500 in the 36" size (includes the blower), and the straps and rivets cost more - the website shows a 52" hood where the straps and rivets are an additional $3300, so I'm guessing a 36" size the straps and rivets would add, I dunno, $2400? Still less expensive than Modernaire. And BTW, I think that concave copper hood is AWESOME. 36-inch Independent Bonanza Hood Handcrafted Metal Copper BARREL Hoods without rivets/straps Handcrafted Metal Copper Front Curve Hood. Wow.

[ya_think] I did a search ... and it came up empty. Perhaps the thread has dropped off the archive. I did a search on clinresga, and another ventilation thread came up, but I didn't not see anything posted in that thread, either by clinresga or kaseki that contradicts any of my statements. That being said, the setup is comparing a VAH internal blower to a Fantech inline blower. Convoluted ducting or not, you can always use a significantly more powerful inline or external blower and get the same capacity as any internal blower, and it will (from a motor noise point of view) be significantly quieter as long as the blower is sufficiently far away. The key here is that the original poster is already on an external wall - so my assumption is that the external blower would not be that far away from the hood itself. You are absolutely right about a tonne of variables impacting the actual characteristics (efficiency and noise). I really wish HVI certification were required for all fans (with filters) - that would give everybody a true relative assessment between products. But unfortunately, we don't have that now. All we can say is what we have personally experienced, and how some aspects of physics plays into things. [antss] I am pretty sure all blower manufacturers provide CFM ratings at the inlet of the motor with zero ducting. In my research, I have not seen any indication otherwise. As far as I know, HVI testing doesn't using ducting either. Maybe my statement should be: "for the exact same blower, a longer duct will reduce the air moving capacity at the same effort level, or will increase the power required for the same air movement." And, actually, an SPL meter is NOT more accurate than my ear - perception is everything. The SPL, which gives you a single dB measurement, actually weighs all the various frequency components into one number (there are actually a number of different weightings that are defined, including a flat distribution, none of which match the frequency response of my ear). My point is that, the SPL could detect a peak in a frequency that nobody can hear. If nobody can hear it, why does it matter? Given that one has to live with their range hood in operation every time they cook, I would say perception is king. Put it this way: if blower X has a minimal SPL rating, but in my kitchen it drives me crazy vs. Y that has a higher SPL rating in identical test conditions, which blower does it make sense to buy? I will concede that I don't know whether grease really gets into VAH motors or not. VAH cleaning instructions include the housing (easily removable) and the blower wheel (clean in place, or remove with a hex wrench). The warranty is five years for the motor, so I assume that not enough grease gets in to mess up the motor within five years. Given that the motors are enclosed in a different housing, it shouldn't be that difficult to proof most of it against grease - the trickiest part would be the motor shaft enters the housing, but most of that ought to be protected by the blower wheel itself. Grease is sneaky though. I never claims that fan size / rpm / cfm follow a linear relationship, but you can make general claims about them with the proper assumptions. For example, for the same blade design and RPM, a bigger fan will move more air than a smaller fan. But the very fact that there are many complex variables and that they do not hold to a linear relationship means that you can very well have a smaller fan that is both quieter and moves more air than a bigger (poorly designed) fan. Just saying it's plausible, and shouldn't automagically be dismissed as 'smoke and mirrors'. (And I've never read or owned a fluid dynamics tome.) Once more, I reiterate that I only compared internal blowers to internal blowers in the show room (the exception being a Viking external blower I saw at the distributor - different location altogether) - which happens to be a reasonable simulation of my particular environment. The majority of them [external blowers] are... what? Easier or harder? Harder, if the blower is going somewhere other than the first floor (second floor, or roof application). But the original poster asked about 4' of ducting, so I assumed first floor - in which case, just mount the thing onto the brick veneer (more annoying) or siding (less annoying). Running the electricity 4' out isn't all that difficult either. I agree you can't compare against a 1500 CFM external powerpak (unless it was specifically installed in a similar config - pretty unlikely), but a would also say that 1500 CFM (or external blowers) are not typical installations. The original poster did not specify the capacity they were looking at, so I made an assumption that it would be in the 900-1200 CFM range. VAH maxes out at 1200 CFM (or 1800 "equivalent" CFM). Regarding the fire starting inside the hood, I don't have that concern, I didn't even say that, I was merely correcting the misinterpretation of a VAH claim. On the other hand, why say no to a bonus safety feature? I realize that all companies, including VAH, will stretch the truth, massage the message, spin the numbers, in their favour. No problem. But I have yet to hear anyone point out anything really wrong with VAH performance claims (grease in the motors notwithstanding). They've been in business for 75 years - if there was something really wrong with their claims, I'm sure they would have a much worse reputation at this point (or been sued all to hell). One thing I do like about some of the VAH models is that the halogen versions often have a heat sensor that automatically maxes out the fans when it gets too hot. The downsides is that the lights only have two settings (instead of being dimmable), and the fans have discrete settings (which is common, but I think I might like the flexibility of analog dials). Also, they don't have a delay timer stop feature. Anyway, I would agree with your (antss) first post - it does depend on the specifics. I am in a similar situation as the original poster, and I decided against the external blower in favour of an internal blower, based on the assumption that good quality motors and blade/wheel designs are a lesser noise component compared to air movement, and I specifically went with VAH because a filterless design is, in general, quieter than a filtered design (backed up by my "anecdotes". Sigh. I talk too much.

I just posted what will be the same advice to another post for hoods. Yosemite makes a pre cast hood that is pretty good looking that is somewhat similar to your picture without the corbels. They do not sell direct. My website will have it listed in a shopping cart for approx $900. A vent to go with it runs about $200 - 400 the larger fan unit costs more. If you click on the link at the end of the written text introducing Yosemite you can see pictures of it. On the 2nd page of hood pictures on Yosemite's site you will see they have extensions for different ceiling heights. Stanisci is a company that makes wood hoods with lots of curves in various heights and widths. They do not sell direct as their business model is to sell unfinished hoods to national sold cabinet companies that do not want to build them on site. Dealer costs when supplied by the cabinet company and finishded to match by them generally are $2,000 - $10,000 which is then marked up from there for profit of the local retailer. A few websites sell them to the public. You will have to finish them to match your cabinets if you go that route. I would think you could get a go painter to put a finish on it onsite that makes it look like cast stone. Here is a link that might be useful: Yosemite Hoods Link