The bottom of a hood exhaust should ideally be 30-36” above the cooktop. As short as you are describing will be cramped to cook under. For example, will you have enough headroom to peer into a tall pot that is on the cooktop?

The reason that Samsung is giving such a short distance is because the hood is underpowered, and they are covering their behinds. Also 19” deep is a bit shallow, and won’t really cover your front burners. Samsung not a company known for making exhaust hoods whatsoever. Pick a different brand hood. A hood brand does not need to be the same as the range brand at all.

Check Costco for hoods at reasonable prices. If you don’t find one there, go to any appliance store. The brand called Broan Elite is good.

Thank you for your comments. To clarify, the range is a Samsung and the under cabinet hood, a Broan BCDF1. Also, I have seen on multiple sites that for an electric range, the required/suggested/typical distance between the range top and hood is 20 - 24 inches. I'm trying to find out what others have done and what their experience has been.

Whether the range is electric or not has no bearing on the distance between the cooktop and the bottom of the hood. If you are cooking something that emits a lot of smoke and grease, like bacon or hamburger, the amount of smoke and grease will be the same on an electric-powered cooktop and a gas-powered cooktop.

It is not at all ”required/suggested/typical” for the distance to the bottom of the hood to be 20-24”. That is incorrect. Instead it should be 30-36” with a good hood. The 30-36” distance is high enough so that you are able to work underneath it easily, but not so high to allow the smoke and grease to escape. You can choose to ignore me and go ahead with your 20-24” distance.

The bottom of my hood is 26 inches above the electric range top. My range states that the distance between the range top and an unprotected cabinet should be at least 30", and the distance between the range top and a range hood should be at least 24". Mine, at 26", works perfectly for me, I am 5'7". I have a Broan hood, BCDJ130 is the model.

I do appreciate your input. The 20-24 inch seems low to me, as far as access to cooking being easy and comfortable. That is why I posted these questions. However, in googling info, there are numerous sources that mention the 20-24 inches. FYI, the fan that I was looking at, is 375 cfm; the Broan Elite only 300.

Are you locked in to the Broan hood yet? M Miller's advice is very good: the short height is an indication that the hood doesn't have much power. He's also right that a deeper hood is better. You want to get close to 24" deep to capture steam and oil from the front burners. And a 24" deep hood that's only 24" high will not be fun.

If you haven't purchased your hood yet, check out Zephyr options. They're only a little more expensive than Broan, but they offer deeper hoods with a higher mounting height range.

I concur with the comments that 20-24" space over the cooktop is too low. What you should do (if your kitchen is demolished already) is get a cardboard box placed to mimic the stovetop at the standard 36" height from the floor, and another cardboard box that you can tape or hold at 24" above the cardboard box "stovetop". You will see how cramped that is. If you still have a range in place, then you can place a cardboard box above it that is 24" distance and see for yourself.

My hood is 30" above my range, and my hood is 22" deep. I would not want the hood to be hung even an inch lower, nor the depth to be shallower than that.

I am betting your "numerous sources that mention the 20-24 inches" are manufacturers' websites for hoods that have low cfms and very poor capture area (meaning the hoods are not sized and shaped well to properly capture all the cooking effluent so that they are hampered from the getgo), and that short distance is to compensate for the subpar hoods.

I agree with @palimpsest . 24" over a range is quite low and I think as a relatively tall person, you're going to find yourself knocking your head against the bottom of the vent. Get more powerful ventilation so you can raise it at least to 30" or even 36" above the range.

Well, I have had 18" with a OTR Microwave, 24 with a cabinet depth range hood (12" deep), and right now we have one at 23.5, a cheap one that sticks out maybe 16" that came with the house (renovation to come).

So I don't think 24" is quite low and I would think 36" would be quite high, unless you are using a professional range and cooking at high heat like they do in professional kitchens. And that would require a much more powerful hood than what you have.

We have 5'4" in the house and we have 6'1'' and I don't know that there has ever been an issue with "not being able to see" something cooking on the cooktop because the hood was in the way. I don't think we've paid too much attention to the height of the current hood, anticipating that the kitchen would be remodeled, and 6'1" is a former professional chef. (And as it turns out we've lived with it for 8 years waiting to get to the kitchen)

My recommendations are to follow the Manufacturer's Guidelines for your particular hood and cooktop and make sure the two are compatible. Most codes will accept manufacturer's requirements. People often quote distances to Combustible Surfaces as coincident to proper distance to a range hood, any range hood and that is not the same thing. Range hoods are not combustible surfaces.