I'm in your shoes as far as looking for a hood for my 30" Wolf R304, and we are looking to buy in the next few days. Our R304 has been installed since February (it replaced an older JennAir downdraft), and we haven't had any ventilation at all since then other than opening a window. We are not big into frying or woking and only occasionally do stinky food. In reality there have only been a couple of times we have even felt we needed a hood. Plus, for the most part, we only have two burners going at a time on top. Heat from the oven exhausting is an issue, and since it got hot out we have been using our electric wall oven rather than the gas Wolf so as not to heat up the kitchen too much. We live in a cold climate, so the extra heat output from the range is nice in the colder months. Our primary goal will be to have a hood to remove hot air expelled by the range in the summer heat. In the past four months there have only been max a half a dozen times when we needed to open the window specifically to deal with cooking fumes or output or smoke. And, the wall and cupboard area by the range are not showing any evidence of a lot of grease coating them. So for all of these reasons, and because we have a ton of constraints as far as hood size, we plan to go with something smaller than either option you are discussing. On our short list of hoods the largest hood we are considering is probably smaller than the smaller one you discuss. Having lived with this range already for months we are comfortable with this decision. We know it will work for us. What is best for you and your cooking style may be another story. I too have read everything here for ages now and have come to an understanding that what is recommended here as maximal is often for an unconstrained situation in a kitchen gut or in new construction where everything can be planned around the absolutely optimal hood that will take care of a range with all four burners and the oven blazing away at the same time. Many of us who are doing minor remodelings or just appliance upgrades do not have the luxury of following all of that advice. Good luck with your decision. Whether I gave you a compelling argument to go with the 10" I don't know.

weissman: we've batted this around before. It's obviously an issue of what each of us considers acceptable, but it was our experience at the lake house with a 600 cfm VAH hood over a 5 burner PGM365 Dacor cooktop that pushed me to spec a 1200 cfm Fantech remote blower and a 64'' Modern Aire hood liner over the new Lacanche in our home kitchen renovation. If I sear hard over the 15,000 BTU burner on the Dacor (i.e. preheat pan for 5 minutes over maximum heat and then dump in meat or fish) I get smoke that temporarily overwhelms the VAH blower and spills into the kitchen. Since that's kind of how I like to cook, it was an issue for me. So, for me 600 cfm (or, per the VAH hype, "equivalent to 900 cfm with a conventional blower"--which I don't buy) was inadequate for even one burner when doing this kind of cooking. I'm hoping the 1200 cfm will be more effective (though now I have fan envy, as there is someone who has recently posted about his 2500 cfm blower--now there's a reason for makeup air!). yoyoma: Re the continuously variable speed control--it's an option I'd consider a must if you're spending this kind of money on a vent hood. Again, this is based on my experience with our VAH, which also has a 3-speed control. The main thing a continuously variable control gives me is the option to run at a very low cfm setting, say if I'm just cooking one pot of rice. The VAH is just so darn loud even at low that I wish I could run it slower. The sound issue is also obviously why I went with a remote attic-mounted fan and the Fantech LD10 silencer. The silencer is a popular option as I know of several installations where the LD10 was used even when the blower was from a different manufacturer. For example, one appliance dealer quoted me a Wolf hood system but with the Fantech silencer. Do beware of the good point paddy 99 makes. I know that I'm going to get significantly less than 1200 cfm given a 20' duct run and the silencer, as well as one 90 degree turn. I did consider going even higher but at least with Fantech blowers it would have necessitated going to an even larger duct size which I did not have the room to use. BTW, I assume you're aware that it's important to use the largest ducting possible, typically 10'' size. And, as for yoyoma's choice of the Independent liner--it is by all reports a very high quality unit. My only issues with it revolves around the limited number of blower options. Their website makes it sound like you have to use their blowers. That makes sense with an in-hood unit, but I'm not sure that's really true if you're using a remote blower, which I think is the superior option. My guess is that you could use other remote blowers without problems, which would allow you to 1) use a fan with a continuously variable speed control and 2) choose an attic-mounted fan rather than a roof-mounted unit, which is what I think the Independent CFMR1400 that they sell appears to be. Issues with roof mounts are: 1) difficulty in installing (particularly with a multistory house and/or a steeply pitched roof) 2) Potential risk of roof leaks once you punch through it with the ductwork 3) Wear and tear to the fan due to 24/7 exposure to the elements on the roof versus in a protected attic. Well, that's all I know about hoods. Hope it helps.

IÂll share what I am doing about makeup air. I need to qualify this with the fact that we have not closed the house yet so performance is still to be determined. I researched commercial installations. If you are obsessive I recommend http://energy.ca.gov/reports/2003-06-13_500-03-034F.PDF. A recommended setup is to replace about 80% of the exhaust air with makeup air at the cooktop. Pulling the rest of the makeup air from the room seems to improve capture. We have a sealed combustion oil fired boiler and no fireplace so I am not too worried a slight negative pressure. Even with new construction there is still some infiltration. For example, the baths and laundry are vented to outside. Another thing to consider is the temperature of the makeup air. In cold climates it may be desirable to temper it. I am going to try it with no tempering, but I have made prevision to add a duct heater if it is required. My plan was to pull the makeup air from the outside; however, my builder suggested we pull it from the unheated attic. He thinks that increasing the air exchanges in that space would be a good thing, IÂm not sure. There are lots of ways to deliver the makeup air. One of the better ones is to deliver the air under the cooktop. My cooktop will be mounted in such a way to create a 6" x 40" channel under it. The end of channel is covered with a decorative grate. The air flows under and to some extent through the cook top, around the front, then up and out the hood. This pattern creates very effective containment of the plume.

Unfortunately, most wall ovens do not have their own vent interfaces. What I did was put a pair of registers in the ceiling over the ovens, with their connecting ducts joined in a Y-adapter, and the output duct connected to a roof blower. The blower was a re-purposed NuTone down-blast roof blower purchased many years earlier to provide a boost to the vent of a Litton "kitchen center." The register boxes take (IIRC) 12 x 14 furnace filters to help keep grease particles from the ducts. Note that not even a commercial "eye-brow" hood will capture the smoke escaping a broiling oven when the door is opened. What these registers do is help pull effluent from the ceiling area and slowly clear the kitchen in concert with the main hood. The only way to successfully deal with opened ovens is a large hood right over them, or a commercial porous ceiling ventilation system, such as illustrated here: http://www.kitchen-ventilation.co.uk/heydal Yes, the MUA now becomes more complex because the control has to be "closed-loop" instead of "open-loop" and thus needs a servo control system to control an even larger MUA blower. My kitchen blowers' combined output is 2500 CFM (zero static pressure rating), and likely pull a total of 1500 CFM when there is sufficient MUA. With both blowers having variable control, the actual CFM can be anything, windows can be open or not, bathroom fans can run or not, etc., so the scheme is to control on differential pressure between my kitchen and the vented attic. Not all parts of this system have been purchased and integrated. My excuse is that my honey-do list is very long and keeps expanding. Items in place: Roof down-blast housing on pedestal for air intake interface with attic Hydronic heat exchanger in attic with its separate control loop to my furnace (functioning) 3-ft square diffuser in hallway facing kitchen Sensing system installed Control system components mounted in basement; Fuji computer purchased but not yet incorporated Key elements yet to be obtained (mostly from Fantech, I expect) Big axial blower sufficient to flow around 1500 CFM through the pressure losses of the ducting, air filter, and heat exchanger. It also has to fit through the attic access stairway. Current-loop control fan motor driver Pleated air filter box Damper Various sheet metal interface sections I should add that my only combustion appliance is a blown oil burner that has its own sealed MUA supply, so delay in completing this kitchen MUA system is an annoyance, but not a hazard. In your case, a carbon monoxide warning sensor is suggested. kas