We ended up with a Broan 'Power Pack' with an external blower. (see link below photo) We had the upper cabinet constructed with a center channel for the duct so we could still have shelves on each side, plus the duct is covered so it looks great. The results are mixed. On the plus side, the appearance is great. The Broan Power Pack (the part that installs in the cabinet) it only four inches high, so it eats very little cabinet space, and it uses just an eight-inch duct, so the channel width is reasonable. (Need a bit extra width in the channel so the installers can tape the duct connections.) With the cab doors closed, everything is covered up. With the doors open, it looks clean and we get the convenient shelf space. And with the 600cfm blower, cooking odors get sucked up nicely. But there are negatives. One is that the Power Pack is cheaply made, but what should you expect for a mere $400?!? (We would have spent more on something nicer, but neither Broan nor anyone else makes something similar with better quality.) Both the fan and lights are controlled by flimsy plastic sliding switches. The housing and the decorative cover bend out of shape easily. And it's difficult, if not impossible, to get the decorative cover to lay flat against the bottom of the cabinet. (Spent only an hour on that issue so far...hoping another 2-3 hours will get it to fit right.) The remote blower (another $400) is in the attic just above the cabinets. I think the installers had never installed a remote blower. They have it sitting right on the joists so some vibration transfers to the cabinets. In the upper cabinet just to the right of the vent hood cabinet, and right below the blower, are drinking glasses. If the glasses are touching each other, we hear the tinkling sound of the glasses vibrating against each other when the blower is on. Separating them fixes the problem. The blower is a bit noisy, but not excessive. But, in some parts of the kitchen you hear an annoying low frequency noise. It's weird. You don't hear it standing at the cooktop, but three feet away you do. The installation instructions include an option to hang the blower from chains attached to the roof supports, which might have addressed the issue. I'm thinking of putting some sort of rubber-like material between the blower and the joists to act as shock absorbers. The point is if you get an external blower, think thru where and how it's mounted. (Note on photo: Backsplash tile is, literally, on a slow boat from China...was on backorder for 2-1/2 months.) Here is a link that might be useful: Broan Power Pack

Hi, welcome! That is a very good hood, IMHO, good enough for permanent installation, unless you don't care for the design. My criteria for hood selection: 1. Style - this is up to you. 2. Maintenance - Stainless steel is easy to clean and will work with any color scheme now or in the future. Washable filter is good. 3. CFM - 600 CFM is good enough for normal cooking. Multi-speed fan saves heat and air conditioning if the hood is ducted. 4. Noise level - This hood has a quiet fan. 5. Hood light - this hood has two 50W halogen GU10 bulbs, they are very bright. Don't turn them on if you don't need them. They only last about 2,000 hours and expensive to replace. I don't like halogen bulbs over cooking, you may want to replace them with GU-10 LED bulbs. Halogen bulbs are pressurized and can shatter if grease collect on the bulb. 6. Durability - should not be an issue, if they use a non-ventilated induction motor, otherwise it will be a problem. Good luck and let us know what you end up doing. dcarch

After deciding on a style of hood, I then found 20 different ones made in that style with the curved glass and SS. After the list got narrowed down, I decided on Kobe based on reviews and price: http://www.koberangehoods.com/product/CX-183.html Haven't bought one yet and still searching for a good price. Wade

Before you order a hood you need to know if there are any beams behind exactly where you are intending to run the duct. So the beautiful hood that Donna Loomis linked to is fine so long as your duct will fit in the chimney for that hood if in fact yours requires a significant bend to the right or left you may need to install an entire cabinet to cover the ducting with the visible part of the hood just being below cabinet level. To determine the cfm you need add up the maximum BTU of all of the burners on your stove and divide by 100 that equals the CFM you need. Depending upon where you live will decide whether or not you need make up air. In general it seems like so long as you have less than 300 CFM there are no local make up air requirements. At over 300 (sometimes over 400) there may be local requirements. If you need more than 300 CFM there's actually a long involved calculation that is supposed to be done to determine whether or not your exact house needs make up air... People don't like to do the calculation... A lot of contractors just install hoods and never ever bother with make up air systems. The reason it's important is if your hood is pulling a significant amount of air, where is it getting the air from? So the biggest danger is if you have a fireplace in the same room and the hood begins to pull the embers from the fire across your floor... There are lots of smaller dangers too. It is important to look at this. A lot of times the entire make up air issue can be resolved by just opening a kitchen window-which is fine because it works but it is probably not to code.