houses14, my Imperial range hood is not an insert, rather an under cabinet ss hood. However, the materials used, and the quality of construction, the fan motors, are the same with minor variances to allow for space restrictions within the smaller size of my hood. Construction wise, it is all that I had hoped for, was easy to install, and has functioned beautifully. Packaging and shipping were excellent. The ss is marine grade. This means that the amount of chromium in the ss will prevent rust from forming in the interior of the hood over time. The electrician informed me that their fan motors and switches appeared to be top quality. The warranty for my hood is 7 years, which is almost unheard of in the industry. Their specifications and installation instructions are right on to allow for optimal operation. For example, my duct is 8" from hood to roof jack and had to have a certain rise in height from the hood before the first angle in the duct work. Baffles remove and reinstall easily for cleaning. It was a joy to call Imperial direct with technical questions at their manufacturing headquarters in California. Someone was always immediately available to answer my questions regarding their vent hoods or recommended installation. My installer was promptly referred to their engineer for technical assistance as I requested that the wiring that would automatically turn on my hood once a certain temperature below the hood was reached be disconnected as I did not want that feature. To me, having that level of service available when answers are needed means a great deal. I found that the folks at headquarters were always honest even if it wasn't the answer I wanted and that they knew their stuff. Their light and fan switches are continuously variable which is rare on vent hoods. This means that they both function like a rheostat with a continuous increase, or decrease, rather than clicking up or down discreet notches, such as level 1 to 4. Also, I liked having the option of installing the switches wherever I wanted remotely, rather than being mounted to the underside of the hood. The hood easily handles removal of odors, steam or grease beneath it's surface. I've found that if the hood is allowed to run for about 10 minutes prior to cooking that it can be operated at a lower level and do a good job. The hood on low is fairly quiet but is noisier than I had anticipated at higher levels with having dual fans and baffles. Also, highest cfm level is 1000 which is a factor. However, I used a different size led bulb than Imperial recommended. I now have a gap around the bulb that needs to be filled with a rubber gasket. Also, the temporary roof jack is too large, and the correct one is waiting to be installed so the jury is still out on the noise issue. Noise level was quite an issue for me, but even if it remains unchanged, I would still buy the same hood given how pleased I am with the overall operation and that I can easily live with the noise that I now have. I'll have to look up the name of the online vendor I used and will add that information tonight.

Thank you, shead! I will be posting more photos of the kitchen now that it seems I can successfully load photos again. We still have a few things to do before I do that, though. I, too, wanted a taller hood, and wanted to do exactly what you are planning! I just could not find one I could justify paying for since we only wanted 400 cfm or less. If I could have installed a more powerful hood, I might very well have gotten a different one. I will be looking forward to seeing what you choose and how it looks! We used cut down cover panels for the bottom light rail, but the top is the Forbattra deco strip, turned so the shallow profile is showing. I decided I liked the little bit of curve on the top molding, but I think cover panels all around would look good, too. FWIW, our hood is set a little higher than the specs recommended; it is about 33 or 34" above the gas cooktop. The hood seems to work well enough for us at this height.

@Beverly I'll save @opaone part of his potential response by noting that either a proper* hood is used over an island or peninsula, or the cooking zone is moved to a wall location. If the hood base has to be higher than 6 feet from the floor, then a larger hood opening will be required than those available from, e.g, Wolf Pro Island hoods. This generally requires a custom hood or a commercial hood, and the ceiling will probably need to be higher than 8 feet for proper hood reservoir sizing, unless the hood can be partly buried in the ceiling with an attic above. @opaone went the custom commercial route and his rationale is published here: https://bamasotan.us/range-exhaust-hood-faq/ -- a link that should have been noticed by anyone actually researching this topic on this forum. The island hood installation will have architectural effects on the ceiling and above. This implies that joist layout, decorative ceiling design, and ceiling lighting design have to have taken the hood system, and possibly the MUA system, into account before construction. _____ *"Proper" is exhaustively described in this forum in numerous hood threads, and presumes that the required flow rate (CFM) is achieved. For most installations, this requires matching MUA from a dedicated system.

It is actually desirable that the hood capture area be extend some distance from the wall, preferably more than 20 inches, such that it overlaps plumes generated from front burners as well as from back burners. Front-to-back limits due to sight lines to back burner pots need to be considered. An example is the Wolf Pro Low-profile hood that is 22-inches front-to-back, probably 20 inches of effective capture area. It is 10 inches high, so one might want to jack the cabinet over it a bit higher to get 30 to 36 inches of clearance. Spaced out 3 inches for a smooth transition to the cabinet doors one would have very good overlap in the forward direction.