I went round and round on this one. I bought a Kobe, because it had positive reviews here, was a very simple stainless steel design and was fairly powerful (600 cfm and supposedly quieter than most but still pretty loud on high in my opinion), it could vent out the back (but they make many chimney styles I think) and was not crazy expensive (defintely NOT cheap though.) I am sure there is a "better" one out there, but I just pooped out on researching it. I think it was more than 500, less than 1000 but I didn't get the chimney. I purchased it through Eurostoves with my stove, after checking out the stove in person and having several phone calls about the hood (never saw it in person.) I think you can order from them via phone or online.

We are pretty happy with it - it is fairly powerful and has a Q, quiet setting, but all the others you can hear. People complain about the interface (a little counter intuitive, but fine once you figure it out) and the light is not outstanding but it is fine. I would buy it again though it is louder than I would like.

If you don't cook things that stink or are smoky then you may be alright without buying on specs, but we wanted to keep the stink down (even sauteing onions can smell) and not sound like a jet engine (mildly successful on that one :) Good luck.

We're getting a Kobe too, though one with a chimney (just decided tonight, after getting the estimate to "build" a chimney of sheetrock...ah well). It's just under $1,000 for the 36" and less for a 30". Our max was $1K. (Sparklekitty, glad to hear you like yours!)

After researching WAY too much, here's what I learned:
- Ducted, always, if you are able. Recirculating hoods do not work as well, but are the only option in some kitchens.

- Baffle filters are nice though not critical. We opted to go with them; they are typically on more expensive hoods, though.

- CFMs: 100 CFM per 10K BTU seems to be the formula.

- Sones: Fewer are better. If you have a dishwasher or other appliance rated by noise, you can look up what its sones are to find out what a sone really sounds like. We spent a while turning hoods on in the store (not a perfect measure since they aren't vented there, but gives you a relative sense of noise). I wanted one with a quiet setting that we could leave on for a while after cooking---not all hoods have this.

- Blowers sold separately: We avoided this since basically any hood that did not come with a blower was out of our price range. :)

- Makeup air: Old house, not well sealed, vintage stove---escaped that one too! Check local code, though, as you might have requirements to meet.

- I really don't think mixing brands matters much, but it's up to you as far as if it bothers you. Steel might be slightly different. We're mixing chrome with stainless, for whatever it's worth.

I really benefited from looking at lots of hoods in lots of places. By the end of the search, I could talk intelligently about hood specs and know whether the salesperson had a clue or not, which helped. Good luck!

I went crazy researching vent fans for the bathroom and went to HD to hear a display on sones. That helped put the sound issue in perspective.
I was about to go through the craziness for my vent hood, but then spied one in the local scratch n dent Sears and snatched it up a few days later. It has been 3 years in storage in our garage and I can't even remember what brand it is, lol. It was just at $1k with tax and I know it is a $2k+ model. I am so glad I knew from reading the appliance forum that it was a "good" one and a quick check back at home confirmed that. We went back a few days later when the price was scheduled to be dropped again and bought it (took a gamble). It was stashed up high in a corner and I bet most shoppers did not even notice it way up there ;)

I know some people get driven crazy by a vent hood, but the way I look at it is we don't use our lousy one often because it is ineffective and loud, so the new one will be better for sure. The worst case scenario is we have a better one than now and not the greatest one. So be it. At least we did not spend another $1k + on the same one we bought for the new kitchen!

BTW - I think it is nice when dh walks in the front door and loves what he can smell cooking for dinner. :)

we have a 30" electrolux, too :) and we ended up getting a 36" stainless steel chimney hood for $400 off of overstock, especially after i found that the installation was going to cost $500 (our duct has to be reconnected in the attic in a different place). i thought the GW forum vent hood faq was pretty helpful (posted below).

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ about vent hoods

I am looking strongly at Kobe, Electrolux, and also some others such as Zephyr, Faber, and Windster. The Windster is quite affordable. The Faber and Zephyr brands have some ones that have some 'rounded' design elements on the pipe area and front of the vent that look sort of nice. Gives a bit of personality to the hood, but not too much. Lots of my hem hawing has to to with what 'style' but the spec thing adds to the confusion. I look at them and try to imagine them over my stove and in conjunction with the other elements in the kitchen and after a while I am so addled that I shrink away from them all!

I think that when you are in a remodel, all the decisions that you have to make begin to wiegh on you after a while and even little things can make you 'tilt'. I love my E-lux gas range - it was a find - a small scratch made it very affordable. Love my micro - an LG that looks like it was made to go with the range. Fridge is 'panel ready" - a challenge in my design where stainless would have made it easy. We will probably do something over the top like making leather or cowhide panels for it. We train horses for a living and as the saying goes, if you dont know what to do with it, cover it with cowhide. :) That is a challenge for another post and another day. Using rough slate on the floors - a natural and easy choice for us since we have a slate porch and lots of leftover tiles. Very interesting stuff and very tough.

For now, however, the decision is about the range hood. It is gonna be focal, so has to be pretty. Cirone - you mentioned here that a 36 inch hood was put over a 30 inch range. How does that look? I have heard that it is recommended that the hood extend three inches out to give better capture area, but am not sure I would need to worry about that since I am not a major cook. I have ordered from Overstock and they were easy to deal with - made it right when my sink came dented. Ironically, Dianalo, I just talked to a sales rep at a Sears outlet yesterday and they have one chimney style Kenmore there with a scratch that makes it affordable. Long drive for me to check it out since I am in the middle of the woods but may have to go look. Would like to order online to make it quick and easy. Sparklekitty - Havent heard of Eurostoves so will have to look at them. Sounds as if they were good to work with. Artemis - which Kobe did you get? When it comes in, you will have to post about how you like it! Happy that you got your decision on that behind you as I know how hard the choosing can be!

I am glad to see that I am not the only one that has gone round and round over this - thanks for all the feedback. Makes it 'feel all better'! :)

For me ventilation was one of the harder items to figure out. Not a lot of informed people out there. What artemis wrote pretty much sums it up. Even though you don't do a lot of cooking a good vent is needed for items like bacon, stir fry, that cooking disaster, etc. so that the house does not smell. Having a larger capture area (larger hood than stove top) is a big plus too. IMO a 6" wider hood does not look out of place. I used Trevor at Eurostove for my appliances and he's great. They tend to have higher priced hoods but he may be able to help you out.

Just to clarify, our vent hood is for an island, so we had to go with the higher price tag. You can get one for the wall much cheaper....
Also, we have a 36" stove and got a 36" vent hood. Going bigger to 42" would seem like a major blockage in our open plan. If it were 38", it probably would be ideal.

The vast majority of people barely give a second thought to venting, so we have to be careful that we don't over-GW it and make it a bigger deal than necessary. This was one area I did not want to complicate as there are so many other things that need to be chosen. People make do with OTR micro hoods out of necessity, so I am sure our big chimney kind will be plenty. Besides, I don't do deep frying or a lot of high temp wok cooking (we have menus for that, lol).

Another very pleased Kobe owner. The 179 with baffles.

Got a Kobe. Thanks for the help!

We got a 36" Faber (Stilo) over the 30" AG Wolf. We love it. Having never had a vent hood before I don't have anything to compare it to. But it looks great, seems to be sucking the smells/grease/heat out of the kitchen, and is only really loud on 3 which we probably won't ever really need to use anyway. You can go stand in the driveway under the duct (or whatever you call the hole the air comes out of???) and practically blow dry your hair, that's how powerful the thing is. I hope my next door neighbs are enjoying all the smells of the food I am cooking.