Have purchased an Allure III but have not installed it. Our logic: if it's noisy, we won't use it. Sound is a major issue in our lives. I compared all the modestly priced self-contained fans at our local appliance store and found it to be very quiet on the lower two settings. High setting was very noticeable and "Boost mode" is downright loud but then it's 600 cfm.

Have not seen that review. Where did you find the review? Did it deal with external venting or internal? A Broan U102 (is it the Elite model?) is one of the better rated ones in the Consumer Reports Special Edition I just bought. But that puppy is listed as $850 and is stainless steel. OUr local library has a lot of old Consumer Reports, but the vent rating was in some kind of compendium that was not in the collection and apparently they relied on an old rating from before the collection for their info. Sounds like they've re-rated it?

I have read other online reviews which say it's tricky to install.

It's getting hard to find a higher-powered white self-contained range hood. Not stylish enough I guess. The white Vent-A-Hood mounted next to it at the store at similar price was quite quiet and the sales people pushed it over the Broan but when I brought up the sone rating, they pulled out the "literature" and were surprised to find I was correct. I cannot hear the Allure III low setting, but I'm deaf.

It BETTER be able to handle air--in the name of energy conservation we took the old auxiliary ceiling vent out of the kitchen and put it into the dumpster and closed over the hole. Crossing my fingers...

Have the Broan Allure QS3 series stainless hood. When we installed we used a charcoal filter as unable to do the outside vent work until this spring. My DH is in the process now of doing the vent work so it will be vented outside. While using it as a recirculating unit, it has been effective with smoke but not so much with grease. It is very quiet on first 2 settings but on the 3rd you can definitely hear the fan and in boost mode it's noticeable. The sones ratings are what prompted us to get this hood and the price-think it was around $400 or so. However, we don't do a lot of frying/stir frying or even heavy duty cooking-we're in our late 60s. Depending on your style of cooking this may not be powerful enough but it suits us just fine.

The Broan Allure III was originally installed by the GC who built my house, probably because it was cheap. It had great lights but the fan was worthless. You could actually see it blowing smoke and steam back down onto the stove. I took it apart to make sure someone hadn't installed the fan blades upside down, but no, this was the way it was designed. It didn't exhaust odors or smoke, let alone grease. Worst hood ever. And I have an electric stove and don't do a lot of stir-frying either.

Replaced it with the Broan Elite E661, about the same size, noisier on boost, around $500. Vast improvement.

Hey, I see the Allure review in the mag now. Looking harder at the reviews. Ah, crap. Bottom of the line in smoke control. AARGH

I've had the Allure III since 2003. It performs worse than the $75 1989 Kenmore hood I originally had. You can see the steam and smoke it misses even at the highest, incredibly noisy setting.

Also, with the Broan, I find a greasy film 'drifts' off to the left side countertop, as far as 3' away from the burners. I never had this problem with the previous hood.

This thing is crap, and I wouldn't recommend ANYONE buying it, for any reason whatsoever.

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Oh, this is just ducky. My Broan Allure 2, 42 inch SS, is being delivered and installed Tues! Guess it wasn't a good choice but this is to be temporary until I redo my kitchen (1-2 yrs.) I could not see spending $1000+ for a hood when I probably won't need a 42" with a remodel.
Does anyone have anything good to say about it?