For spec reasons, compatibility, matching the hood to the range maker is often recommended. I noted a lot use mesh too. I wonder if you may upgrade to baffles. If you can, it may cost less by means of aggravation in the end. That said, here are a few companies that I bookmarked: http://www.rangecraft.com/ http://www.prizerhoods.com/ http://wolf.com http://thermador.com

Gee, that's a new issue to worry about. My hood, DCS Eurohood, has the controls underneath but on the right edge - I've never noticed them getting greasy or sticky. On the other hand, the outside front of my hood does get a little greasy because the hood isn't deep enough to cover the front burners completely. I think in my case I'd have more of an issue if the controls were outside on the front.

I'm going to be doing the same search for a 24" or 27" inch deep hood in ~4 months. I'm hoping to do 27" or even 30" deep lower cabinets on the wall where my cooktop will live, to give me a deeper counter behind the cooktop for large pots and to allow for deeper cabinets up top. Plus more counter space is good in general. If I do that, I'll either need a deeper hood or I'll need to add blocking to prop a shallower one out from the wall. That would probably work with a cabinet or soffit above the hood, but not with a chimney-style hood. If I go the chimney hood route, ModernAire seems to be the right choice because they can do custom sizes depths. They also seem to have a continuous slider control for the fan speed rather than a 3-speed one, which I like. (I'm going to have a roof-mounted blower.) ModernAire is super pricy, though, especially for custom sizes. If anyone knows of other brands with these features, please post them! Hijacking a bit: On the subject of deep counters... I'm hoping to do 27" lower cabinets (28.5" counters) with 15" deep upper cabinets. This would violate the letter of the 'upper cabinets no more than 13" deep' rule that I've seen in some cooktop and range manufacturers' installation instructions. I don't think it violates the spirit, since the cooktop would be pulled out too and there would be less depth of cabinet along the cooktop edges than there would be with 24" lowers and 13" uppers. Has anyone tried that? What did the inspectors say? I know I need to talk to my local inspector (or have my contractor do so) but I figured I'd ask here too. Laura

The range hood aperture should overlap the rising and expanding cooking plume for good capture. The air flow rate should be sufficient to ensure containment of the plume captured in the aperture such that it doesn't "reflect" out into the room, but is instead ejected into the outside environment. The range hood should also be affordable and aesthetically pleasing, fit into the available space, provide a fire block, be reasonably quiet, and support cooktop illumination. Most of the time for most of the people looking for a hood, not all of these "shoulds" are simultaneously able to be met. I can only advise on performance "should's"; the affordability and aesthetics "shoulds" have to be weighted by the buyer within his own trade-space versus grease and odor removal. Ideally, then, for the hood aperture to overlap the pans on the front burners by at least ten degrees at the height chosen for the base of the hood, the depth has to be roughly 27 inches front-to-back, although 24 inches may be satisfactory for most, and in a wide range of candidate hood styles, the largest depth available. Arguably, 24 inches as a wall mount is likely as effective as 27 inches in a peninsula/island mount. It is important to keep in mind that good containment air flow is nominally 90 CFM per square foot of aperture, so larger hoods need more air flow, and what goes out has to be replaced, so higher make-up air capacity is also required. So size is a cost driver. As to why many hoods do not meet the ideals of sufficient depth for good performance -- this is determined by market forces. Even if everyone who wanted a hood came to this forum and studied all the commentary, treating it as canonical truth, many would have to choose a lower performance hood design for cost reasons, or due to other factors. If the greasy cooking is kept to the back burners, then a 20-inch hood may be sufficient. kas