First of all, let me say I pine for a 48" with 24" griddle...my dream range!

Now let me add my first hand three year experience; I have a 36RNB with griddle which gets three or more times a day use. I have a 36"x27" Prizer island hood mounted 36" over the grates. The blower is a 1000cfm remote roof mounted. I would honestly say my set up is adequate, but marginal. If I were to do it again, I would go for a wider (42") hood and perhaps the 1400 cfm blower. I really don't think you can have too much ventilation.

For your set up I would recommend a 54"x 27" with as much cfm as you can get, external blower if possible, and no I don't think you are going to get the hood you need for $2k maybe not even $4K, but in the long run it will be money well spent.

Enjoy that Bluestar, and happy cooking!

You really should post your layout on the Kitchen Forum. Island cooking is darn expensive, and there are more functional choices for most kitchens. Don't build in dysfunction and expense when you have the opportunity to build something better from the beginning. Kitchen work follows the 70/20/10 time split. Prep/Cleanup/Cooking. Make the most of your work space by designing it to take advantage of that division. Put your effort into creating the best prep zone that you can design.

If you keep to your original plan, yes budget an almost equal amount for a complete ventilation system as you do for your cooking system. Also, double check your space constraints. A 4' range is a giant space hog and would overwhelm most standard kitchen islands.

The other thing to think about (as some of us swelter in the 90 degree summer with the a/c cranking) is that the cavernous high-CFM hood that you will surely need (that high up over an island you should be minimum 3-6" beyond the range and that is overly conservative) will also be sucking your expensive heat and air conditioning out of the house. The harder it has to work to capture the free flowing smoke/steam/vapors, the more heat/a/c your system will need to pump out to compensate. So count me as one more vote for wall range placement and island prep. You can always add one of those serpentine prep sinks if you want to add a little something extra to the island.

There is a lot of hood design rule information posted in response to similar questions on this forum, and these ventilation topics should be reviewed for basic information and understanding. (This will take a while but is important in separating wheat from chaff.) Please feel free to ask specific questions, including questions about confusion resulting from our comments. Key search words that might be used in Advanced search on Google, using ths.gardenweb.com as the search site include:

• Capture and containment

• Pressure loss

• Fan curve

• Make-up air (MUA)

• Hood overlap

• Baffles

• Mesh filters

• Blowers (hood, in-line, roof)

• Silencers

Two essential concepts that drive the ventilation system solution are (a) the effluent rising from hot pan surfaces expands as it rises at significant velocity and has to be captured by the hood aperture and contained by the flow rate and filter/baffle system, and (b) all the air moved out of the house by the hood system has to be replaced somehow.

For a commercially-oriented presentation of the subject, see the Greenheck link below. The key to proper ventilation of "Pro" residential cooking equipment is to understand that it derives from commercial equipment, and ventilation requirements follow the same rules, if not the same scale.

http://www.greenheck.com/media/pdf/otherinfo/KVSApplDesign_catalog.pdf

kas

dueceluxe I'm not sure if you ever got an answer to your question, but I'm going to chime in because in 2008 I was in the same boat. We have a 48" BlueStar in a 12' island, with a prep sink located about 48" away, which is where I spend my prep time. Frankly I wish people would focus on answering the direct questions, vs. lecturing about what percentage of prep/cook/cleanup time people "should" be spending in their kitchens, or in which direction they should be facing when doing so. The OP stated they were looking for an island hood for their cooktop, not IF they should be putting the cooktop in the island. For us personally, my prepping and cooking is very intertwined, and we entertain a lot. Ergo, I want to be facing my guests while prepping AND cooking, and not facing my guests during cleanup (THAT sink is behind the prep area against a wall), so the cooktop in the island is what we did and we (and guests) LOVE it and wouldn't go back. It's not for everyone, but it's definitely right for me.

Having said all that, yeah, sadly the hood is going to be expensive. We went with a Best by Broan IEX222 51" with a 1500 CFM externally mounted blower. The pros are that the thing will suck up ANYTHING at full speed. The con is that we've had it for 7 years, and unfortunately have gone through 4 control modules or transformers on the thing (everything on it stops working). So nn my frustration I'm now researching replacement hoods, which is going to be $$. It's the price you pay for the style you want. Currently evaluating Cavaliere and Imperial 54" hoods....