I think you're referring to my comment in Kitchens. I have the Zephyr Europa Genova recirculating hood. It doesn't draw out all smells (I smelled bacon from breakfast when I came home yesterday afternoon), but it does draw out a ton of smoke and steam. The cabinets are not greasy, and there's no warping, peeling, etc. So, as I said, not perfect, but much better than nothing.

In a conventional externally vented system, the flow rate and hood size are established to ensure capture and containment, the baffles or mesh filters are used to capture the larger grease particles, and the rest are [intended to be] expelled to the outside without significantly coating the ducting. To approach this performance with a recirculating hood, it has to meet the size and flow requirements for external venting, along with having a filter stack suitable for capturing all grease particulate sizes and odor reduction.

Such a system would tend to be large, although total house volume used would be less than an external venting unit with an appropriate make-up air system. One wouldn't need MUA temperature conditioning either.

I think Best makes a unit of unknown-to-me collection efficiency. There are also commercial systems, which might be needed if bacon odor is to be detectable only upon eating it.

kas

I mostly want to keep moisture and such off my cabinets. I just moved into this place and the cabinets above the range are sticky though they look fine. I do have an external exhaust fan nearby in my laundry room that I've used successfully to remove odors but moisture concerns me along with the occasional searing. We don't do much greasy cooking such as frying bacon, etc. It sounds like recirculating might be a decent improvement.