Your post is consistent with your confusion. Hopefully we can figure this out! The main issue is that you say you are looking at a Prestige insert--but then say they don't make a liner. Issue is that often a liner and an insert are the same thing. In either case, these are typically metal "boxes" that are placed ("inserted") inside a decorative hood surround, like the wooden one you are contemplating. So, if you are going to use the wooden surround, you need the metal "guts" to go inside. That's typically referred to as a liner, but also can be called an insert. I'm sure Prestige makes a liner that would work for you. Perhaps the confusion comes in that some manufacturers sell the actual hood itself (the big stainless steel box) separately from the fans that blow the fumes away (the "blower"). Sometimes, they refer to the fan(s) and the metal frame that holds them as a "power pack" or similar term. I think that is what you're calling an insert. So in that case, you'd need the liner plus the power pack. I suspect there is just some confusion over nomenclature as I'm sure you can get what you want from Prestige. OK, here's the (unpaid) commercial pitch. I think you should consider the Modern Aire option very carefully. Why? Because 1) they make a fabulous product 2) they can custom build it to exactly match your size and specifications 3) they are often LESS expensive than the "big" companies 4) they will work with you on every possible detail to get it right. Here's why I think you're nuts to try and buy your hood liner from your appliance store: the fact that you've had such confusion over the purchase tells me that your appliance store sales guy is equally clueless. Any half competent "expert" could have explained this to you clearly. Why would you trust someone who obviously doesn't know his hood from a hole in the wall? Consider Modern Aire: cheaper, better, and much easier. So...if you want my two cents worth: I'd call Modern Aire. Ask to speak with Jeff Herman, my hood guru. Explain to Jeff that you got a recommendation to touch base with him on Garden Web, and then explain exactly what you want to do. He will give you great advice and help walk you through the whole process. my beloved Modern Aire hood liner

Dee also puts forward another contender that would be better than Faber or Broan. I would recommend an insert 34" Width x 22" depth with a 1200 cfm internal blower in your case, if you want to you can go 40" wide. what I tell my customers is. Imagine an upturned kitchen sink, I am selling you the plug hole and you are building the bowl. Whatever goes in that bowl will go into the plug hole for sure. By doing this you also crate a holding area for the times when you get a big pluff of smoke and grease. The holding area is created by fitting the insert 6" up into the wood frame, again imagine an upturned sink. MOST and not all but most cabinet makers make the cabinetry the same size as the insert resulting in a lack of depth and flush with the base of the wooden structure. As for height from the range top, first priority is comfort your husband, he must feel comfortable when he is cooking or its no fun for him. Second the higher the bottom of the wooden structure from the range top the wider the smoke and grease will be when it gets to the insert, so your husband does not need 6" clearance give him 2". Third check your local code for the distance they want a flammable structure from the range top.

What one wants is to have the hood aperture size overlap the rising and expanding effluent plume. Aperture in this case refers to the area at the bottom of the hood that can be expected to actually capture effluent. Generally this is the empty space within the interior sides, but in some cases might include some of the edge (with enough flow rate and/or steep enough angle). So, given an area at the cooktop that represents the contour of the bases of all pans that might be employed on the burners/hobs, draw an imaginary line upward from the contour edge expanding out at, say, 10 degrees, to the height of the hood aperture. (This is equivalent to multiplying the hood height by 0.176 or thereabouts, to find the edge of the preferred minimum overhang of the aperture.) Very high hoods need additional overlap beyond this to resist cross drafts from helping the effluent escape. If wood is exposed at the bottom of the insert enclosure, its distance from the cooking surface must comply with the range manufacturer's minimum allowable distance to combustible surfaces. If Rustic-R-Us is intended (cabinet-wise and flame-wise), then maybe cabinets made of woods that smoulder instead of burn might be considered, such as ipe or redwood. kas

I don't have any experience with the Bluestar insert, but we did have a Zephyr. Below is the text of my post from another thread describing our experience. In a nutshell, we got rid of it and put in a remote blower. If there's ANY way for you to get the fan out of the kitchen, do it. I can't comment on those specific models, but we had a Zephyr Monsoon II model AK9346AS installed about a year ago and it we found it to be impossibly loud. Their literature says the sone level on low is 3.5, which, based on this chart, is about 45 decibels. I downloaded a decibel meter to my phone and with the phone sitting on the stove 35 inches below, the noise registered 80-82 db. That's MUCH louder than advertised, and we found it very uncomfortable and annoying--couldn't hear the Sonos speaker 12 feet away or anyone talking in a normal voice, and there was a sigh of relief whenever we turned the fan off. We eventually decided to switch it out and install a Wolf liner (with variable speed knob), an inline silencer, and 1400 cfm Abbaka roof mounted blower. It's quieter on high than the Zephyr was on low. The three pieces are a more expensive proposition (even if we hadn't made the Zephyr mistake), but the result is so vastly more pleasant that I still smile when I turn on the fan. In a nutshell, if there's any way you can listen to the Zephyr and Best, preferably in a similar setting, do it. Don't trust the literature.