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How many inches above range is your hood?

13 years ago

Have read that the ideal is 31-36 inches. We want it low for good capture but 31 seems so low -- we are planning 32. Our ceiling is 100 inches: the hood will be 32 (canopy plus duct cover) and it will be 32 above the 36 high counter and rangetop. Hood is 24 inches deep.

I was wondering if this is still too low. (We are short --5'3" and 5'8") I think it will look fine but will it be too close for comfort?

Featured Answer

idrive65

13 years ago

My hood is 24" deep and mounted 32" above my countertops, which are 37" high. So the bottom of the hood is 5'9". At 5'8" I am the shortest person in my house, and nobody has a problem. Most ranges force you to stand several inches back from the front edge of the hood anyway.

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Comments (8)

chac_mool
13 years ago
I've been thinking of making a cut-out version of the hood from cardboard to put up over the range, just to see how it will work in practice. Not sure if you can do that (I'm replacing a crappy hood; my range is already in place). Its pretty subjective, and may depend on if or how you lean in over your cooktop while cooking on different hobs, etc.
francoise47
13 years ago
Our 24" deep range hood is 33" above the range top. I wanted it to be 36" (the max height recommended by Best by Broan). But the installer messed up and put it at 33". I'm 5' 8" and have good clearance and it works very well. I also did a full cardboard mock-up before buying the range. It was very helpful.
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i've often wondered why there is no discussion of the cabinet sides' flammability. Hoods are the same width as the cooktop. Flammable material touching the hood is essentially right above the cooktop. This doesn't make sense to me. For 20 years I used to see my oak veneer on the wall cabinets right above the cooking surface, right next to the hood. Steam from cooking caused the veneer to go ugly on me. Yuk. But, if there had ever been a stovetop fire, this veneer would have either been damaged or worse yet, fed the fire and helped it spread. (!) Anyone? Bueller? Anyone? i've often wondered why there is no discussion of the fact that hoods are usually not container-shaped. They LOOK very very container-shaped when seen from a distance, but the filter (baffles) are not recessed into an upside down cup that would contain a few gallons of fast-rising smoke. This is not helpful in a real fire, but it IS helpful in everyday operation = and that IS the main goal, to keep greasy smoke inside the canopy and the exhaust system (not allow it to spread throughout the house). Wok and grill cooking produces bursts of smoke. One can always overcompensate by having the blower suck more CFM's but then this forces the house to provide a lot more make-up air, which forces the AC or heating system to work harder... and then this forces people to spend a few thousand more for make-up air compensating systems.... (!) Anyone? Bueller? Anyone? Hth.
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To each his own. = ) I much prefer having my machines stacked, which is good because in my tiny laundry room, floor space is at a premium. If I didn't stack my machines, I wouldn't have room to move the freezer from the garage into the house. That's a must for me because I'm so tired of hiking out to the garage to get things out of the freezer. The water hook up will stay where it currently is, which will put it behind the freezer, or more precisely freezers. We bought 2 counter height freezers that we'll stack (using a thick sheet of plywood above the bottom freezer to support the top freezer). This was the most cost effective way to get 10 cu ft of freezer space in 24" of width. $900 vs $5K. Yeah, that was a no brainer. If we need to pull the washer or dryer out, we can do that since we have enough aisle room between the 2 sides of our walk-through laundry room. We haven't needed to do that yet, even when the machines were serviced. The serviceman went through the front access panel at the base of each machine. Thanks for sharing your experience and advice. Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I've been laid up with a really nasty virus.
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sayde
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the response. I have the hood drawn on the wall but perhaps should do the mock-up. But knowing that 33" works well with a height of 5'8" is very helpful -- thank you! We are going to have a duct cover so I have to specify it correctly before it is built -- cannot move it up or down when it gets here.
fiddleddd
13 years ago
I'm short (5'4"), and when we were in the appliance store the other day, we were checking out range hoods and their various heights. If you have the kind of really bright halogen bulbs, be careful about placing your hood too high. One hood we looked at was 32" above the countertop, and the lights were screaming at me!!! 2 inches lower and they would have been fine. So that's just something to consider.
fiddleddd
13 years ago
Oh! One more thing. Actually, I've been exploring this subject for awhile now, and almost every hood I've looked at says the hood should be placed between 24"-30" above the countertop. I'm looking at chimney wall mounted hoods though....perhaps you're looking at another kind that has different requirements.
amcook
13 years ago
Mine is 34" so that's at about 70" or 5'10". This height is probably good for people as tall as 6' or so. I'm 5'10" and my wife is 5'8" so it's about right. Mine is wall mounted 54" (24" depth) "pro" canopy style so it's got good capture volume. I would have mounted it at 38" above countertop if it were 28" depth. A lot depends on the hood in question. More powerful hood with deep capture usually specify higher range vs a flat panel or "stylish" models.
captsmethwick
13 years ago
I'm 6'2", my wife is 5'1", and the bottom of the 22" cabinet in which our vent is installed is a snick over 30" above the range (Wolf said that this was the minimum and that's what we went with - we needed more room for ducting connections.

We're happy with it.

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