Francy - I am linking below to a Gardenweb FAQ on vent hoods, which should help you. Regarding the width of the hood, a 42" hood would be ideal for your 36" range, because it is most ideal to have 3" on each side of the range for capture area, to capture all the smoke/grease. I did not have the space for those extra inches, so I have a 30" wide hood over a 30" wide range, and it's OK, but I do wish I had the space for a 36" wide hood. Please make sure you check your duct diameter. Ventahood has specific requirements for duct diameter depending on the cfm's you get. If your duct is smaller than what's specified, you will get more noise, as you are constraining the air flow out of the blower. I chose the VAH Excalibur, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! However, the Excalibur was a special order, and took about 10 weeks to arrive, but I was not in a hurry, so it was OK. Unlike you, I was not going for a vintage look; I just loved that curved design. I chose it in a stainless steel finish, with the bands in stainless steel also, which was an upcharge (the bands come standard in black). Also, I chose rivets on the bands, another upcharge, but so worth it IMHO. The rivets are small, but they are the cherry on the sundae! From a functional point of view, I have found the VAH Excalibur to be efficient, quiet (but I have only a 6' run which helps keep it quiet), and a cinch to clean (don't believe any threads you might see that the VAH is trouble to take apart and clean--if you can open the latches on a briefcase, you can open the VAH's latches and take it apart to clean.) Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenweb's Vent Hood FAQ

Thanks! I noticed that the grille was greasy and when I removed it, the top filter obviously had been filtering. The fact that the holes on either side of the top filter had airflow and were completely open (there were no filters on them) made me think that something was wrong.

Adam with that much CFM on the blower, if you stand to close you might get sucked out hahaha, only joking.One question did they use the right size ducting material that the manufacture recommend if undersized this could be the source of your problem.

My original issue with VaH (a decade ago) was their specious CFM claims that did not provide any "fan curve" information that would allow one to calculate actual CFM given some duct losses and MUA losses. More recently, I have seen some appropriate data published for their ducted units. However, checking just now, I see that they provide "n/a" for CFM for a representative ARS model. This is unconscionable. The ARS, being a closed system, has a volumetric airflow rate unaffected by exterior effects. They need supply only one easily measured number. How would one know if the flow rate is suitable for a particular cooktop / cooking style without knowing the specific (CFM/sq. ft.) flow rate of the hood? Given time and budget and no access to a residence exterior, I would probably research commercial solutions to this problem and adapt a filter to a conventional hood and blower. Sheet metal shops can easily build the needed "duct/filter" structure. On the plus side, recirculating systems do not need heated MUA and thus are more energy efficient. They avoid having a lot of house, basement, or attic space taken up with a powerful MUA system. On the negative side, for a given hood entry aperture flow rate, they will be noisier than an external blower with intermediate silencer.