I hadn't seen this thread when it appeared in Oct. I actually find it kinda odd. The OP has never posted again. Maybe it was indeed spam? Either way, I have really found the original Range Hood FAQ very helpful, and have emailed the link to friends cause it's such a good summary. I don't think the OP has added anything helpful to the hood FAQ, and his additions might confuse someone new to the Appliances Forum, or someone struggling with hood choices (the hardest choice for me in my kitchen!). As others have pointed out, it's odd he chose a 36" hood for a 48" range. Odd that he doesn't mention Wolf hoods in his discussion of high-end hoods, even though that's the range brand he chose. Why does he say baffles are not standard in high-end hoods - that's incorrect. And indeed, despite his contention, the greater component of noise in a hood is the airflow. You can have two identical hoods in two homes - the home with the problematic ductwork (i.e. more bends, longer, or narrower) will be noisier despite the identical motors. I think the Futuro hoods are a good brand, judging by what others have enthusiastically written on the Gardenweb about them. But I hope that people looking for helpful info on hoods in general will look at the original Hood FAQ rather than the OP's additions.

You guys didn't scare me away, LOL! All very good advice, and definitely a lot of solid arguments I can bring to the designer and MSO and convince them to drop this idea. It's starting to sound like the sink & prep area should be in front of the window, and the range should be either on the side wall, or on a center island that would need to be built (yay, another thread topic). palimpsest, that's actually exactly what the folks on Houzz suggested - hang an island hood in front of it. Pic attached. northcarolina and cstr, I agree 100%, just wanted to get a 2nd opinion. livewireoak and glitterandguns, good points about the time spent on various activities - also something to bring up as a counter-argument. marcolo, that was pretty damn hilarious, thank you! :) :) :) remodelfla and kitchendetective, that was some pretty impressive "detective work"! I like the concept, but unfortunately there's just not enough space to set up something like that, and anyway, it looks like we'll be scrapping the whole range-in-front-of-window idea altogether. Problem solved, it seems. Thanks a lot, everyone, for your VERY useful commentary!

Am transitioning between 2 homes and have 36" ranges with grills in both so here goes: One hood is 600CFM VH has 4' duct run with one rt angle (sounds like Steve's above), the other is 1200CFM Modern-Aire mounted flush to an outside wall (which I might add is a beast). Both are flanked by cabinets which probably add to their efficiency. The VH was part of my first real cooking kitchen and has been fine, although I have set off the occasional smoke detector with grilled ribeyes and the like. No grease on cabinets after 10 years of very constant use and almost no residual grilling odors the next morning. The cleaning is OK, but cleaning the inside of the hood is more work over time as the magic lung design doesn't extract grease until the effluent is in the hood so it accumulates on the exposed metal inside. The modern aire is baffled so hopefully the effluent is a little better scrubbed and will stay cleaner. To clean the VH I put the blower box in the DW and finally replaced it after the paint began to flake off after several washings (about 6 years of use). The modern-aire is too new to tell other than it moves an incredible volume of air. A few VH observations: air movement in the room significantly affects getting smoke and grease to the hood (things like open windows or doors, fans and HVAC forced air systems). An island mount for me would mean a seriously powerful hood. I have a high riser shelf below the VH and that impedes the airflow (more smoke in the kitchen). Comments I've read in the past here that don't match my experience: "you've got to have 1200CFM with a grill"--not my experience, the 600CFM in my config has been adequate. That "24" deep and range-width wide is adequate for a grill and serious cooking" my VH is 27" deep and 42" wide and the modern-aire is same dimensions except 30" deep--the additional size IMO significantly adds to the efficiency. "that CFMs and different hood shapes are pretty much comparable." Given the vagaries in how CFMs are measured, the different shapes and sizes of capture areas, two hoods with similar stats may perform very differently. While I haven't had a baffled hood long enough to tell, my intuition suggests that a baffled hood will stay cleaner than the magic lung design because the reason given above. As you get a little older, reaching up over the range with a pan of soapy water and cleaning the inside of the hood with a scrubbie and then rinsing it gets a little old even though it's a few times a year. ymmv. sorry for post's length--good luck.

That is commonly called a register, not a diffuser, although some diffusion surely takes place. The device commonly called a diffuser has larger, fewer blades, and will be less turbulent on the output, more directional, and less restrictive. Examples start here: https://www.hartandcooley.com/grilles-registers-and-diffusers-grd/commercial-grds/ceiling-diffusers One specific type is this: https://www.hartandcooley.com/products/are/aluminum-louvered-ceiling-diffuser-flat-margin And within this collection, type 1L without damper would be my off-the-cuff suggestion as a relevant example. https://www.hartandcooley.com/assets/files/59/sd-9303.pdf Choosing will require more effort than I have put into it!!! Generally, you can adjust the blades to flow near perpendicular to the face or variously off axis to parallel with the wall you mount it on. You may also find more applicable/aesthetic units. I can't tell if there is something about the physical shape that would preclude your using it on your wall interfacing with your ducts. I have a 3 x 3 foot unit of this type on a hallway ceiling aimed to flow down the hallway toward the kitchen.