Yep, I am 5'3'' and hit my head all the time. My new hood will be 72'' off the floor, with the countertop height 34''.

I'm 5'4" and with my current arched mantel hood is at 27 1/2 at the lowest point. It's definitely a head banger for DH at 5'8" and DS at 5'10". For us, if we could do it over 34" would be a much more acceptable height for the hood and the clearance would make cooking more enjoyable.

BTW, 34 inches is where the center point of the arch sits. We all feel comfortable with it at that height. Sorry, to be the bearer of bad news :-(. At your height I'd be afraid that you could poke your eyes. I sort of fear poking my eyes with the sharp corners on that hood. I don't know about the Best by Broan hood. Does it have sharp corners, too?

Its too low at that depth. (36+26=62) or 5'2"--Perfect head banging height for both of you.

Thats an awful deep hood...is your stove really that powerful? I think people have gone a little overboard in how much capture area and CFMs are needed for most cooking.

24" deep allows the hood to cover the front burners. 21" might work if the front burners are set far enough back. But, I don't thing anything less will be as effective for the front burners (definitely not 18" or less!)

Uhhh! You guys are giving me bad news! I was hoping that someone would say it's okay, because I really don't have the budget for either the cabinet modifications or the stupid restocking fee.

karena - no, luckily the Best hood we got has very smooth curves, no sharp corners at all. So even if we do bang, at least we shouldn't bleed like your poor DH!

palimpsest - our 36" induction probably isn't "that powerful", but I do lots of high-heat sauteing and stir-frying, so I wanted to make sure that the front burners are adequately covered. Based on my readings on this forum, 24"D is optimal to do that. My mom's is 21"D and she hates the grease that escapes and ends up on top of the hood.

IS THERE ANYONE THAT FEELS THE 26" DISTANCE IS OKAY? (For instance, if someone is 6" tall, do they end up bumping their head into most hoods that they come across? Because most 24"D hoods, mounted at 30" or even 36", will be "too low" for the 6" tall guy the way my hood is too low for me.)

Thanks for all of your replies. (I know it's up to me, but I really needed all the input to figure out if this is a fight that I really should take on!)

I don't recommend this to anyone who doesn't want this look and I make sure that people understand the potential shortcomings: but I have done Broan custom inserts in 13" deep upper cabinets and left it at that. I try to line the whole bank with a metal liner.

This has usually been for small or "stealth" kitchens, where an imposing hood is not wanted visually or would take up too much space.

Although these are people who do not want something that looks imposing, they are all also people who cook. None of them have complained about excessive grease on the front faces of the cabinets. We did this in our kitchen and I live with a chef. The caveat is we don't eat much fried or greasy food.

I know what all the rules are, but since they vary by locale (to my knowledge you are not even Allowed to vent externally in Manhattan--whats the use of a 900 CFM hood that recirculates somewhere) and since the specs are contradictory between range manufacturers and hood manufacturers---I find myself not feeling too guilty if I break them.

Here is an inexpensive kitchen remodel where I did this:

26" seems just too low to me - especially with the depth being 24". I'd feel more comfortable with it higher. I'm struggling with the same issue here. We currently have a microwave over the cooktop, but it doesn't stick out very much farther than the 12" depth wall cabinets that are on either side of it. I think it's going to be a rude awakening for me to have something 20+" out from the wall. I'm going to make sure it's up high enough to be effective, but also not too low as to be in our way.

Mine is at 36-1/2" above the counter and my son is telling me it is too low. I'd be okay with it a couple of inches higher, but I sure wouldn't want it 10 inches lower.

I think vision and stooping may be at least as much of an issue as head banging. If you have a 36" counter and mount that vent 26" above it, that's 62" -- four inches below your height without shoes and six inches for DH -- and an inch or two if wearing shoes. That would drive me nuts.

Are you planning on using that cabinet for storage or just to hide the duct? If you just need to hide the duct, you can put up a panel matching the cabinet doors and add some trim -- molding to frame it, a medallion or whatever. Hang something decorative -- platter, iron scroll work, plaque, tiles -- I've even seen framed art. You can also have a sheet metal shop make a panel to cover it and blend in with your vent. DH and I talked about putting a quote across that space. I even told my family I might just make it a big chalkboard and leave them messages, menus, and other doodles. You need a handy step stool if you want to try that last one.

Hope you get it worked out.

Posted by lascatx on Fri, Aug 7, 09 at 13:45
> Are you planning on using that cabinet for storage or just to hide the duct?
No, the cabinet is mainly for hiding the duct; very little room left over in there for storage.

Posted by lascatx on Fri, Aug 7, 09 at 13:45
> you can put up a panel matching the cabinet doors and add some trim -- molding to frame it, a medallion or whatever.
We've been playing w/ this idea for the past couple of days. The problem is that there is already this type of decorative panel over the window which is to the left of the hood. On the right of the hood, there is another similar panel over the built-in fridge. So I think it looks really good now with the 15-in tall cabinets that the builder installed over the hood. I'm very worried that putting another panel in place of the cabinets would look like overkill in moldings. So I don't know what to do!!! PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, LASCATX!

By the way, the hidden duct is in the upper 11" of the 15"-tall cabinets. So if there were a way to "shorten" those upper cabinets by shaving off the bottom 4 inches, then I'd end up w/ the hood at 30" high. However, DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW HARD THIS WOULD BE TO MODIFY? Is it worth the extra 3" or 3.5" that I would gain? Is there a way to fashion 11 or 12" cabinet fronts (even false fronts would be ok) for the shortened cabinetry, so that it would still look like cabinets over the hood (and not like decorative-panel overkill that I was afraid of)?