How to Choose a Kitchen Range Hood

A range hood is one of the most functional elements of any kitchen — and one of the most commonly undersized. The wrong hood leaves cooking odors, grease, and combustion byproducts in your kitchen air. In Houston's humid climate, that grease and moisture accumulates faster and causes more problems than in drier markets. Here's how to choose correctly.

Start With CFM: How Much Ventilation Do You Actually Need?

CFM (cubic feet per minute) is the measure of how much air a range hood can move. The general rule for gas ranges:

• For ranges up to 40,000 BTU total: minimum 400 CFM
• For ranges 40,000–60,000 BTU: minimum 600 CFM
• For professional ranges 60,000+ BTU: 900–1,200 CFM or more

For electric ranges and cooktops, the calculation is simpler: 100 CFM per linear foot of cooking surface is a common baseline.

Most builders install range hoods that are dramatically undersized for the ranges they're paired with. If your kitchen has a 48" professional range with 60,000 BTU and a 400 CFM hood, you're not ventilating the kitchen — you're just making noise.

Ducted vs. Ductless

Always choose ducted if you can. A ducted range hood exhausts air to the exterior of the home. A ductless (recirculating) hood filters the air through charcoal and blows it back into the kitchen — it removes some smoke and odor but doesn't remove heat, humidity, or combustion gases. In Houston's climate, introducing more humidity into the kitchen air is the last thing you want.

Getting duct runs to the exterior in existing Houston homes can require creative routing — through a soffit, through an exterior wall, or up through the attic and out the roof. We plan duct routing early in every kitchen remodel to avoid the situation where a homeowner orders a powerful range hood with no viable duct path.

Types of Range Hoods

Wall-Mount Chimney Hood

The most common configuration in Houston kitchens: the range sits against a wall and the hood mounts above it with a chimney-style stack running to the ceiling. Available at every price point. Works with any ceiling height. Most straightforward to install and duct.

Island Hood

For ranges or cooktops on a kitchen island, the hood hangs from the ceiling. Island installations are more complex — ducting runs through the ceiling structure — and the hood needs to be larger than its wall-mount equivalent because air can escape from all four sides.

Under-Cabinet Hood

Mounts beneath upper cabinets directly above the range. The most compact and affordable option. Appropriate for standard residential ranges. Not adequate for high-output cooking equipment.

Insert / Liner

A blower unit installed inside a custom-built or decorative surround. Common in high-end kitchens where the architectural surround — often plaster, stone, or custom millwork — is part of the design. The insert needs to be sized appropriately for the cooking equipment.

Sizing the Hood to the Range

A range hood should be at least as wide as the range, and ideally 3–6 inches wider on each side for better capture of cooking vapors. A 30" hood over a 36" range isn't capturing everything. A 48" range deserves a 48" or 54" hood.

Mounting height matters too: wall-mount hoods typically perform best at 24"–30" above the cooking surface. Too high and capture efficiency drops. Too low and it interferes with cooking and creates a visual problem.

What to Spend

Range hoods span a dramatic price range:

• $300–$800: Builder-grade. Adequate for standard ranges, not for high-output equipment.
• $1,000–$3,000: Good residential hoods from Broan, Zephyr, or Best. Appropriate CFM for mid-range cooking setups.
• $3,000–$8,000: Higher-end options from Vent-A-Hood, Kobe, or Zephyr's premium lines. Better build quality, lower noise levels.
• $5,000+: Professional hoods from Wolf, Thermador, or Lacanche. Appropriate for high-BTU professional ranges.