Thanks everyone! Fenworth...thanks...I'll probably still try for a 42" though, as our design has that size and I think a smaller one would look lost...there's already 6" on either side of the hood before the upper cabinets start. Heimert...the quote came from the Contractor who is subcontracting the plumbing. He says he has to take a wall out in our upstairs bathroom and then will have to patch it, etc. and leave it paint-ready. We have a plumber coming out tomorrow...we'll see what he says. I have a possible lead on an HVAC guy who I'm going to call tomorrow as well. Weissman...I did search, I'm in the process of wading through them, but time is of the essence right now as my KD wants a decision tomorrow (or Friday AM at the latest). So far I haven't found one that comes right out and says "XXX is one of the best around" (Other than jim1936 who appears to have spammed us w/his "Berbel" extractor hood!) Dlspellman...the photo is very small (tiny even!) so I cannot see much of the picture. Livvysmom...thanks for the recommendation, but I don't like OTR MWs, so if I'm forced to, I'll go with a recirculating vent. My MW is a Sharp MW drawer (the 25MS). Bob...When my DH measured for the vent going up through the roof, he forgot to account for the 2' our MBR extends beyond the downstairs. So, when he re-measured, it turns out the vent would have to go up the middle or our closet, right in front of the door! So, no go on that after all. Yes Sarah, we have a lot of windows on that wall...the 7' bay window, 2-30" in the DR (left of the kitchen) and 9' of windows & sliding door in the FR (right of the kitchen). The other thing is that our house is dry most of the year since we it's so hot in the summer the A/C is running and then in the winter the oil heat (& occasional fire). A little moisture probably will be beneficial! BTW...Is recirculating better than ductless? The Faber site says: ...ductless meaning absolutely no ductwork is required, recirculating meaning ductwork must be installed, but it does not have to go outside of the house.

A "sanitary tee" is a specific kind of pipe fitting used where waste is involved (hence "sanitary") that allows one pipe to join in with a main run (a "T" shape). It is different than a "straight tee" in that the way it is shaped, flow down the main branch doesn't have as much of a tendency to flow into the branch.

>>> would a recirculating hood such as a Broan cbd330 make much of a difference in grease and odors vs no hood at all?<<< >>>I also know what CO is and why I should care about it.<<< >>>Our house is old and far from airtight.Is my hunch that this recirculating hood won't do much good right? Would it mitigate eau de cabbage stew any better than cracking a few windows?<<< My initial reactions to using that Broan without venting to the outside are these: that your Broan may help a bit with some aerosolized cooking grease (although the hood design means that a lot will not be captured); that the Broan may serve as a surface for condensing vapor but will be otherwise ineffective in dealing with vaporous combustion byproducts and steam, much less the odor/stench of boiled cabbage; and that it will do nothing about CO which you should not need to worry about, anyway. For removing odors when boiling cabbage etc., you might have better luck with the windows, particularly if you can toss-in a box fan or window fan for those occasions. CO emissions from modern gas ranges should be barely detectable with sophisticated equipment -- far below hazard levels --- unless somebody has really screwed with your burner adjustments The combustion byproducts from the burners are rather more smoglike with the principal components being CO2 and NO2. The Dept. of Energy in conjunction with the EPA published a study on air quality in kitchens with "unvented" gas ranges and the effectiveness of realtively affordable venting a couple of years ago. The result was some overblown media attention. It also got some interesting commentary here which you can find at this link if you are interested: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2304651/ny-times-the-kitchen-as-a-pollution-hazard The idea of getting a convertible hood and later installing outside venting is not a bad one. I'm guessing that you are not currently venting because your stove currently sits on an interior wall and you all have been stumped on how to get outside venting without a full kitchen remodel to relocate the stove. Is that correct? That's a problem I had with my old-house kitchen and I discovered numbers of relatively easy ways to go up from a vent and run ducting over to the nearest exterior wall through a cabinet. This was easy for me because the interior wall behind my stove butted into an exterior wall and because I didn't mind the somewhat industrial look of the ducting. Might or might not be that easy for your old house-kitchen and the look might or might not work for you. Having said that, the 30" Broan cbd330 may not be the best choice. It seems to be a low-rise hood which does not project very far out from the wall, and it has a flat base rather than a canopy. As kas has often pointed out, an actual canopy gives better coverage and capture and can be a significant part of the effectiveness of a range hood. Even better when the hood extends a bit wider than the stove. (Better still when the hood also has enough depth to extend as far out as the front of the stove, too.) Basically, the flat base on the Broan means that the unit depends entirely on fan-power to collect vapors, grease, and etc., The Broan has relatively low fan capacity. (250 CFM?) You might want to consider taking that unit back and swapping it for something with a canopy and, if it will fit, something 36" wide. Again, that may or may not work in your kitchen. My old-house kitchen was such that I also had to resort to a low-rise hood with a flat bottom rather than a canopy. We work with the kitchens we have.

I think the key word above is "appear" because to me these OTR microwave ovens look like they are not flush by two or three inches. From an earlier post: "If I can use the top vent [to] go up through the cabinet and resolve the ductwork above that cabinet, that vent will care for the stove venting and the magnatron venting, and I would not need a MW with a front-facing louver." In my view, neither this nor any other microwave oven venting scheme I'm even vaguely aware of will "care for the stove venting" because they move far too little air per unit time and the units do not overhang the burners sufficiently. Perhaps if a supplementary blower designed for higher pressure loss is used in the path taken by the this so-called ventilation to augment the flow rate, barely adequate air flow will be possible. But even then, capture area will be too small to have much effect on front burner plume capture. You can design for style and give up on having adequate ventilation, or design for adequate ventilation and give up on OTR microwave ovens. Your statement "For what it's worth, most of the cooking on our stove is boiling water or soup, scrambling eggs, or simmering an occasional kettle of sauce." suggests that you can get away with doing the former. In that case, provide manufacturer specified cooling paths for the magnetron, and ignore limitations of the mediocre or worse ventilation. And don't sear steaks on the cooktop before baking them in the oven.