Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back here. Thanks for all your responses....some very helpful info here. Angie_DIY......Here is a link to the GE hood we're considering. After reading the manual I realize that the charcoal filter is only needed if you're using it as a recirculating fan. We won't be. There is also a grease filter that is washable. http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=PV970NSS michoumonster.......that makes sense, and I certainly would not be using the fan on high all of the time. But some other comments have mentioned that code often has a limit on how many CFM's are allowed. We're moving to a small little community where they are sticklers about code (we've had fits with them on several other issues), so we'd better check to see what is allowed first. GWlolo.....Yes, I've read that the hood should be slightly wider than the cooktop. Ours won't be unfortunately. We have a 30" cooktop and a 30" hood, but I guess the range hood will extend beyond the actual burner area, so I think we'll be okay. I have to confess that until recently I didn't know that range hoods removed odors from cooking. For years I had a Thermador down-draft cooktop, and the fan was so loud that it honestly sounded like a jet engine taking off, so I didn't use it except on rare occasions. It's nice to know that in my new kitchen I'll be able to get rid of smells like brussels sprouts! A2gemini.....I agree...that's the only way I'll make bacon anymore, and I just learned this method about a year ago. BTW, we do live in a cold climate, and we do have building codes to contend with. But I didn't realize the hood CFMs would have to be considered. See above where I talk about this. I guess I have some checking to do. WileyBob.....I agree about Thermador....I never liked my down-draft, and I had it for about 20 years. I finally replaced it with a GE Monogram cooktop. I like it much better, but I still rarely use the down-draft. I'm looking forward to having a normal hood above the cooktop. I won't need anything as powerful as you need with your Wolf though. I've heard great things about the Wolf cooktops. Detroit burb.....I wish I had read your information before I started my research on range hoods. Good info there! The thing I've had the most trouble with is finding a 'not-too-high' CFM rated range hood with a low sone rating. We need something not too bulky looking, yet we still want a decent performance. So I think we're just going to go with the GE curved profile style in the link I've posted above. It's noisier than I wanted (7 sones on high), but I'm sure we won't have it on high for long periods of time. My husband and I did your calculations on CFM vs. room size, and I think we'll be okay with that one. Thanks for your help! artemis 78.....I also like the Kobe's, and we were considering going to Cincinnati to look at them (they don't sell them where we live), but I fear the building inspector (they really do inspect here) would think the CFM rating is too high. But I'll check on this.....glad to know you like yours. We're moving to a modest little home (we plan to spend most of the year in our RV), and I'm sure we already have the best kitchen in the neighborhood. We plan to stay in the house forever, so we're making it as nice as we can within reason for the type of house it is. Thanks again, everyone!

Hi, I may be able to answer the wood hood question since we went through the same thing recently. It sounds like he's suggesting a wider hood than range width, which is recommended/common although from what I've learned on this site the same width as the range can also work depending on the blower and how the range is used. If you do decide to stick to a 30" wide hood, have you checked the specific dimensions of the hood insert you are wanting to use? They should be slightly smaller than the actual hood width to allow for them to go up inside of the wood hood. While we are going with a 6inch wider hood than our rangetop, we're going to be using a bluestar rangetop and plan on lots of wok cooking. We did have to go back to our cabinetmaker requesting the wider hood and did have to give up some upper cabinet space to achieve what we wanted. Depending on how your parents use their stove, a 30inch hood could work. I'm not sure about the space needed for a stainless hood- I've seen them both butted right up against cabinets and with space in between. Hopefully someone with more expertise will pipe in on that-

With all due respect, we *did* call Kobe (as noted above), and the tech representative they directed us to confirmed what our electrician told us. Possibly he was wrong, or they've since changed it. However, Kobe also provides a very detailed list of parts and packages in their manual, all of which were present and accounted for---and when we talked to the tech guy, he didn't mention any extra parts they'd forgotten to list in the manual, so I highly doubt the issue was that we threw away an unlisted part that would have resolved the problem. We knew that the hood cable was coming out of the internal wiring box on our model (as noted above!), since it's clearly listed and illustrated in the hood technical diagrams, but per Kobe the internal wiring box on our hood was not designed to serve as a junction box between the two cables nor was it designed to be accessed by the consumer. So if that's the box and clamp you're talking about, it is a wiring box that is there to bring the hood wiring together, not a junction box to connect this wiring to a house line. I'm curious to hear how you ended up installing it, though, if you did end up connecting the two cables inside of the internal wiring box. (We did not go that route because Kobe was clear that it would void the warranty on the hood if we opened the wiring box to thread an additional cable into it.) At any rate, our problem has long since been resolved to everyone's satisfaction, the project has been finaled, and we like the hood (and its electricity) very much!

My daughter recently changed out her OTR microwave for a under cabinet hood. She had a similar dilemma but the cabinet over cooktop was 17" deep. She only had 32 inches from cook top to bottom of the cabinet so she needed a low profile vent hood with a height of about 6" or the hood would be too low and in her face. She did not want to remove the cabinet because she needs every inch of storage she has in her small kitchen. Pulling a hood out that was 12" deep at the top but 20 or more inches at the bottom would have brought the hood out almost to the edge of her counter. She opted to just mount the hood all the way back and let the cabinet overhang the hood. She had looked at a couple different Zephyr models because they are deeper at the top but decided if her cabinet was going to overhang the hood it didn't matter if it was 2" or 5", she'd just have to get used to it. I thought it was going to look terrible but it isn't all that bad. Before: After: Hope you can get yours figured out to your satisfaction.