I recently did a deep dive into buying a range hood that would improve air quality in my house. I discovered the following things: 1. The highest end range ho

I recently did a deep dive into buying a range hood that would improve air quality in my house. I discovered the following things: 1. The highest end range hood sold in stores, is not that good at cleaning out air borne pollutants. 2. Nearly every range hood on the market is designed for style over usefulness. You need a large open cavity to capture particles before they are expelled, the larger the empty area in the hood, the better. Modern hoods are flat and stylish. 3. Odds are you need a makeup air system that forces replacement air into the house at the same rate it is being expelled. Without this, your range hood is basically trying to "vacuum" the air out of your house. (This doesn't apply to older poorly insulated leaky houses) 4. Range hoods need to extend over the sides and front of the cook top by a large amount. Some range hoods don't even extend out over the entire front of the cook top! 5. For noise levels, ideally you want an exterior mounted fan. The 2 high end kitchen stores I went to both worked hard to talk me out of even thinking of an exterior fan. Doing all of these things, or even just the top 4, requires a custom system that is a fair bit of money. The $200 home depot special doesn't cut it. Even the $2000 ultra-deluxe system from dedicated kitchen store won't help improve indoor air quality that much. Doing it properly actually costs less than the highest end pre-build vent hoods you can buy, which is likely why even the nicest stores try to talk you out of a custom build.