The edge of my hood is at 33" and the edge of my cooktop is at 36". The flanking countertops are at 31". I am 5'3" and DH is shy of 6'. I have a big hood and even larger sump. No smells EVER of bacon or -better test- after latke night with 20 guests and 6 burners going. (Big vote to not reduce hood). Bottom of sump is at 74". I'm pretty sure Sophie Wheeler had a comment about my hood being too low (high?) so take my measurements with a grain of salt:) My set-up is above-all functional and I love it.

x

oldbat - I'm not following you. Not sure what flanking countertops are or what a sump is? I'm very new to this stuff.

kaseki - What is that?

Fori - Thanks. Your input was helpful.

I've been having all kinds of issues with alignment of cooktop and hood (story from a different thread). I didn't think I was going to be able to perfectly align them but we're going to move the island so I can center the cooktop with the hood. However, that would put the hood even with the edge of the counter and I thought that would be a problem.

I went to my appliance store and we found one hood that was even with the counter and it's not bad at all. Not only that but I won't even be able to put the hood 36" above the counter, 32" up is the highest I can go and it's honestly not a problem.

Thanks!

Flanking: on the left and right sides.

Not sure what a sump pump has to do with this...

Glad to hear you have resolved your problem. Following is a definition of a sump (essentially hood capture area) :)

Source:

The capture area of the range hood is typically defined by the outer most perimeter of the hood bottom. The “SUMP” is the inverted area of the hood bottom that acts like a container to hold the inrush of heat and smoke until the blower can drain it away, preventing smoke from spilling over the edge. If at all possible, select range hood designs that have at least a 1" deep sump. For high-performance cooktops select a model with an increased sump size. If that is not possible, increase the CFM.

flatline

all the people who had heart attacks

I suggest that the capture area is defined by the inner edge of the hood bottom where the flow rate is established (should be established) to handle the highest steady-state cooking plume conditions. The zone between the inner and outer edges can be considered partial capture area as the flow conditions there fall off at a rate dependent on the thickness of the hood edges. That is, the outer boundary is part of the capture area for low plume velocities, and the inner boundary is the limit of the capture area for high plume velocities. (Note that real plumes have varying velocities over their conical shape so generalizations made here are not absolute.)

The "sump" as defined above that we have previously called the capture volume is the volume between the plane defined by the hood bottom edge and the lower surface of the baffles. This volume helps "smooth out" transient plume effects, such as suddenly uncovering a frying pan, or throwing wet meat into a hot wok. The minimum desirable size of this volume is determined by cooking conditions, but for many this volume need not be very large. Nonetheless, like other hood aspects that are generally informed by commercial hood design, larger can be deemed better than smaller -- performance wise.