As to the statement re: hood loudness: Would I agree that a single measure of an 8db difference would be "louder," from two different sound sources in two different kitchens? No. Wrong measure and flawed methodology. First, decibels don't measure loudness and second no conclusions could be drawn from a single person's report comparing the loudness of two different sound sources in two different settings. Perceived loudness is measured by multiple subjects under highly controlled conditions and is highly variable across individuals. Decibels are a physical measure of sound pressure; loudness is a psychological/perceptual measure of individual judgments. Decibels don't measure loudness for the same reason temperature doesn't measure warmth and weight doesn't measure heaviness. 85F in NOLA and 85F in Phoenix will not be perceived as equally warm because you already know that humidity, wind, clothing and your own individual body's response to these factors will vary. If we were to put a group of people in a controlled room and vary humidity, air circulation and type of clothing while varying temperature and ask them when they perceived a noticeable difference we would find that we would get the same report of perceived warmth at very different temperatures. In this case a decibel is a very similar measure to temperature and loudness is similar to perceived warmth. Depending on different sound pressures (decibels) your perception of loudness will vary significantly by the sound's frequency, if that frequency modulates, if the db level modulates, your proximity to the sound source, how reflective surfaces shape the sound, your individual hearing capability and sensitivities and (unfortunately) your age. If you look at a graph of where subjects perceive different sounds as pretty much equal in loudness while frequency and db levels are varied you'll find that sounds that at least half the group find equal in loudness can vary as much as 10 db or more. Human ears are very frequency sensitive. So, if a single observer's reported that 2 different sound sources were 8 db off in two different environments I don't see how any relative judgments could be made (and most kitchens with tile, polished wood surfaces, relative hard floors and glass windows can be expected to reflect sound in very different ways.) I won't speculate on all the methodological issues present to make a valid comparison of two different hoods' loudness levels in two different kitchens but a decibel meter would be largely irrelevant to the experimental design (you don't care about decibels, you care about perceived loudness). And to add insult to injury, you might well find out that even when you hit the standard that over half of the subjects agreed on the loudness findings you would still find other judges insisting some hoods were louder than others. That's pretty much how perceptual judgments tend to go. . .

I got the PSL19-234. Here's a photo without the baffles. Dh didn't put any screws through this part. The track that you see there is attached by rivets and came that way. I looked at so many hoods that day that I can't remember if the Modern Aire came with a removable grease trap or if that was another. The next time I have a spare 3 hours, I guess I can drive back there. The good news is that our doors and the hood cover were delivered Friday. Here's the front of the hood cover.

Your situation regarding a vent hood mirrors exactly what we had to deal with. Load bearing wall, finished upstairs bathroom, all the plumbing for the bathroom was exactly where we thought we could run the duct work for the vent hood and 8' ceilings. What we did was run 3X10 duct work above the 36" cabinets, vented horizontally to the outside and then covered up the duct work with moldings. We did have to drop the vent hood from 30" above the stove to 27". I was worried about having the vent hood 27" above the stove, but we were in the parameters of what the installation instructions required. The only thing I would have changed was to have a 9" vent hood instead of an 18" vent hood, then I could have had the vent hood 30" above the range, but you know what, it works like a champ. My vent hood is extremely quiet on low and medium low, but does get louder on med high and high. Whatever you choose to do, good luck. I always tell my DH, if they can put a man on the moon, then something is always doable, with some thought, and a woman!!!! Here is a picture of our install. Here is a picture of the finished product.

Story of my life! Ugh! And I have a "so called" range hood with a bunch of cfm's or WHATEVA! Thanks Jillius for that "Furminator" link. I am getting that. I have two Jack Russells, therefore, a little white hair issue. I too could vacuum up an entire dog every day. I have a huge sky light in my kitchen near the stove. When I cook bacon on special occasion, the ray of sun captures the massive amount of grease flying into the air. It's disgusting! My hood is on high, but I see exactly what your photo captured in the air.... Yes, a powerful hood is not to be poo-poo'd.