Ideal height is 30-36" between top of cooktop and bottom of hood. Why does your contractor say it can't go higher? Just going from the photo, all you'd have to do is cut the chimney piece by 6" to raise the hood by 6". What is the shadow directly above the chimney piece? That looks odd. I am not seeing whatever the contractor is seeing, so please explain.

P.S. I am not sure I would run the cabinets' bottom trim the way you have it on the inner sides of the cabinet over the cooktop. That's a combustible directly over a cooktop. I would cut those inner trim pieces off, and just have the bottom trim at the front and outer sides of the cabinets.

Where is the vent hole relative to objects in your image?

Is this apparent 30-inch hood for a 30-inch induction cooktop?

Is the duct cover circular in section, or semicircular?

Did you make a side-view stick-figure sketch with the cooktop and hood drawn in to enable determination of sight lines and head clearance?

Your husband's not going to go for that height. If I were designing that segment I'd delete the cabinets. That would allow for a wider hood. Drawers instead of doors under the cooktop area.

The cooktop is a 36” Samsung induction and the hood is also a 36” Samsung that interfaces with the cooktop and turns itself on and off. The space above the cooktop is 39” between the cabinets not including the light rail. Induction generates considerably less heat than electric or gas. It’s been hard to find recommendations on the height. I read somewhere 27-30” I believe. I think 3” would make a big difference. And I believe our contractor does not want to trim the chimney. The vent hole is circular. The shadow is actually an opening - there is a hanging bracket behind it there is an inner liner that will raise up - this is just how the electrician left it after completing the wiring yesterday.

Our contractor does not want to trim the chimney.

Well why not? Your post is frustrating as you don't explain why a seemingly simple raising the hood is causing such a problem with your contractor. Aren't you paying him to do your kitchen? Why won't he do this.

And I don't think "3" would make a big difference", and it will be the same amount of work whether it's 3" or 6".

I think 24" will at least pass inspection. My range hood is about 28" from the cooktop of an induction range, because there are 2 6" drain pipes in that area, the contractor can't install it any higher. I am 6'1, and bumped my head into the hood a few times while doing the tile backsplash, I was afraid I might bump my head while cooking, but that haven't happened yet. So I think 28" is OK for me. You husband being 6'3", so 24" might be a bit low for him.

So with some grumbling our contractor did raise the hood as much as he could without cutting the chimney or altering the trimwork that had already been completed. The extra 2 1/2" actually makes a huge difference in how it feels when standing at the cooktop area. The specs called for there to be a minimum of 24" from cooktop to hood and it would have been less than that once the counters went in. It sits at 26" now.

Kas - thank you very much for that explanation regarding the cooking plume and induction cooking! The cooktop is a Samsung 36" induction and the hood is linked to the cooktop so it will turn on and off as the cooktop is turned on and off. Knowing my family's lack of awareness as to the importance of venting steam and such when cooking, this feature seemed worth going for the smaller hood. Otherwise I would have made the hood cabinet above around 4-6" bigger. Instead there is a 2" air gap on either side of the hood. Given our space and how the 4 people who cook in the kitchen tend to do things, I think it worked out. I appreciate the input I received as it encouraged me to stick to my gut feeling that it needed to be raised. We'll work with it for awhile and if we start to feel it's too low or that the hood isn't working at it's optimum, then we'll have to look at the alternatives.

Thanks everyone!

Regarding the fan turning on and off with the cooktop, that's an interesting feature, but, I've often read here that one should (optimally) turn the fan on well before cooking so the airflow is moving in the direction you want when cooking starts (i.e. up and out) and also that it's a good idea to leave the fan running for a bit after cooking to help clear the air. Our former range hood had a timer button for this latter feature.

That is a popular idea, Walt, but I don't think it completely survives close scrutiny. If a blower could be turned on so that it changes from zero to full blade RPM in zero time (infinite torque applied), there would be a period of lower air flow rising to the steady-state value while the inertia of the household air was overcome by the pressure change at the hood and the pressure losses along the make-up air path reached their static value. This doesn't take very long. Because real blowers speed up over a period of a several seconds for the larger sizes, the flow pretty much keeps up with the static flow that would result at each blower RPM as the blower accelerates to its final RPM.

When a burner or hob is turned on, the energy input to the pan raises the pan temperature similarly due to pan base (and perhaps food contents) thermal inertia. The pan only wins if the thermal time constant of the pan is shorter than the time constant to get the air moving in the make-up air path. I think you will find for most cooking examples that the air flow is stabilized before you can smoke the pan, even if it only contains a little butter, if the pan base is at all substantial, and one attempts to set the flame/hob power at a level appropriate for the cooking to be done.

Conversely, one may see that really thin pan bases and/or long MUA paths can allow the pan smoke to get ahead of the airflow.

Also, my argument above assumes that the hood blower is auto turned on to a level that the pan conditions will require. If the hood is turned on as a function of plume temperature read at the hood, air flow might well lag keeping up with the pan conditions.

I fully agree with keeping the fan on for a while after cooking; not all of the plume will be captured during cooking unless the hood is very large and the cross drafts are negligible.

So, for the alert cook, this auto blower operation is a frill. Conversely, for those who forget about turning the hood on until it is too late, it is a great help.

kas