
Most kitchens need somewhere between 250 and 600 cubic feet per minute of airflow at the hood, and the right range hood CFM for yours comes from three numbers you can find in ten minutes: the width of the cooktop, the total burner output if it runs on gas, and whether the hood hangs on a wall or over an island. A 30-inch electric range on a wall is well served at 300. A 36-inch gas range with six high-output burners wants 600 or more, and at that point the conversation stops being about the fan and starts being about the duct and the makeup air that has to come with it.
We sell wood range hoods finished to match the cabinets, and the blower inserts that go inside them, so we have this conversation every week with homeowners who were told "just get the biggest one." That advice fails more often than it works. An oversized fan on a 6-inch duct is loud and moves less air than its label promises, and anything capable of more than 400 CFM can trigger a code requirement that adds a second system to the job. This guide walks through what the number measures, four ways to size it, a worked table you can copy, the duct and code math, and exactly which parts of the ventilation package come from us and which you will buy elsewhere.
Table of Contents
- What the Airflow Number Actually Measures
- Four Ways to Size the Blower
- Worked Sizing Table: Six Real Kitchens
- Capture Beats Raw Airflow: Width, Depth and Height
- Duct Size and Run Length: Where the Air Gets Lost
- The 400 CFM Line and Makeup Air
- Sones: How Loud Is Too Loud
- Ducted vs Recirculating
- What We Sell, and What You Buy Elsewhere
- Planning the Cabinets Around the Hood
- The Ten-Minute Sizing Checklist
- Frequently Asked Questions
What the Airflow Number Actually Measures
CFM stands for cubic feet per minute: the volume of air a blower pulls through the hood and pushes out of the house every sixty seconds. A 400 CFM fan, running flat out against no resistance, would empty a 10-by-10-by-8-foot room of its air in exactly two minutes. Our glossary entry for CFM gives the one-line version; the part that matters for buying is that the figure on the box is almost never the figure you get in the kitchen.
There are really three numbers hiding behind every label:
- Maximum or "free-air" airflow. What the motor moves with nothing attached. Marketing copy likes this one because it is the biggest. Fabuwood's inserts, for example, list a 600 CFM model with a 650 CFM "max blower" figure.
- Certified airflow. The Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) tests hoods against a small, standardized amount of resistance, roughly what a short, clean duct would present. It is the fairest figure for comparing two products side by side.
- Delivered airflow. What actually leaves your roof or wall cap once the air has fought through the grease filters, the transition, every elbow, the length of the run and the damper at the end. On a long or undersized run this can be a third lower than the certified figure, sometimes worse.
The resistance that knocks the number down is called static pressure, measured in inches of water column. Every fan has a curve: as resistance rises, airflow falls. A fan that is strong on paper but has a flat, weak curve will collapse on a long run, while a fan with a steeper curve holds up. You cannot see that curve on a showroom tag, which is why the sections on duct size and capture matter as much as the headline number.
Two other terms show up on spec sheets. Capture efficiency is the percentage of the smoke and fumes the hood actually catches, tested under ASTM E3087; a few newer state codes accept it as an alternative to a raw airflow minimum. Sones measure loudness and get their own section below.
Four Ways to Size the Blower
There is no single official formula for a home kitchen. What exists is a set of rules of thumb, each measuring a different thing, and the sensible target is where they overlap. Run all four and take the highest number that the kitchen can physically support with its ductwork.
1. Burner output (gas and dual-fuel)
The most widely used rule for gas is 100 CFM for every 10,000 BTU of total burner output, the same as 1 CFM per 100 BTU. Add every burner on the cooktop, not just the big one, and include a griddle or grill section if it has its own burner. The ratings are on the rating plate (usually behind the oven door or under the drip tray) and in the installation manual. Heat is what drives smoke and grease upward, so this rule scales directly with what the range can throw at the hood.
2. Cooktop width (electric and induction)
For electric cooktops, a common shortcut is 10 CFM per inch of width: 300 for a 30-inch unit, 360 for 36 inches. Induction heats the pan rather than the air around it, so it produces less waste heat than a radiant electric element, but the food makes the same smoke and steam either way. Treat the width rule as the floor, not a discount.
3. Per linear foot (the HVI guideline)
HVI's guidance is framed around the length of the cooking surface: roughly 100 CFM per linear foot for a wall-mounted hood and 150 CFM per linear foot over an island. A 30-inch cooktop is 2.5 feet, so 250 on a wall or 375 on an island. The island premium exists because there is no back wall steering the plume upward; cross-drafts from doors, windows and HVAC registers push it sideways.
4. Room volume (air changes per hour)
The last check is the room itself. Multiply length by width by ceiling height to get cubic feet, multiply by 15 air changes per hour, and divide by 60. A 12-by-14 kitchen with 9-foot ceilings is 1,512 cubic feet; times 15 is 22,680; divided by 60 is 378 CFM. This method is useful in closed kitchens, and misleading in open plans, where the "room" is the whole ground floor and the result is absurdly large. In an open plan, rely on the first three methods and treat good capture as the real answer.
| Method | Formula | Best for | Where it misleads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burner output | Total BTU ÷ 100 | Gas and dual-fuel ranges | Overshoots on a range you rarely run at full tilt |
| Cooktop width | Inches × 10 | Electric and induction | Ignores wok-style high-heat cooking |
| Per linear foot | Feet × 100 (wall) or × 150 (island) | Quick comparison across hood types | Undersizes high-BTU gas |
| Room volume | ft³ × 15 ÷ 60 | Closed kitchens | Explodes in open floor plans |
Whatever you land on, check it against the code floor. The International Residential Code requires kitchen local exhaust of at least 100 CFM intermittent (or 25 CFM continuous). Some states go further: Washington's residential code, for example, adds a table that sets a higher bar for hoods over gas: 250 CFM or 80% capture efficiency, against 160 CFM or 60% capture over electric, with 300 CFM required of downdraft and other intermittent fans. Your jurisdiction's adopted code decides which applies, but every realistic sizing result in this guide clears those floors comfortably.
Worked Sizing Table: Six Real Kitchens
Here is the calculator done by hand for the six situations we quote most often. Burner ratings are example figures of the kind printed on real rating plates; swap in your own. The "target" column is the range we would actually spec, after weighing the methods against the duct the house can take.
| Kitchen | BTU rule | Width rule | HVI per foot | Room volume | Our target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. 30" electric range, wall, closed 12×14 room, 8' ceiling | n/a | 300 | 250 | 336 | 300–400 |
| B. 30" gas, four burners (18,000 + 12,000 + 9,500 + 5,000 = 44,500 BTU), wall, 12×15, 9' ceiling | 445 | n/a | 250 | 405 | 400–450 |
| C. 36" gas, six 15,000 BTU burners (90,000 BTU), wall, 14×16, 9' ceiling | 900 | n/a | 300 | 504 | 600–900 |
| D. 36" induction on an island, open plan | n/a | 360 | 450 | not meaningful | 450–600 |
| E. 48" dual-fuel, six 15,000 BTU burners plus an 18,000 BTU griddle (108,000 BTU), wall | 1,080 | n/a | 400 | depends | 900–1,200 |
| F. 30" electric in a condo with no exterior wall, recirculating only | n/a | 300 | 250 | n/a | 250–400 (filtered, not exhausted) |
Reading the table row by row:
- Kitchen A is the easy one. Every method lands near 300. If you step up to a 400 insert, note that its listed maximum is 450, so read the makeup-air section first if a gas furnace or water heater shares the house. A 400 CFM insert running on its middle speed will be quieter than a 250 flat out, which is the real argument for stepping up one size.
- Kitchen B sits right on the line that matters. The burner rule says 445, the room says 405. A 400-rated blower is the practical choice, but read the makeup-air section before you buy, because "rated 400" and "capable of more than 400" are not always the same product.
- Kitchen C is where the rules disagree. The BTU rule wants 900; the HVI and room numbers say 300 to 500. Six burners are rarely all on high at once, so 600 delivered through an 8-inch duct with a properly sized hood usually performs well. Going to 900 is justified for heavy searing or wok cooking, and it brings makeup air with it.
- Kitchen D shows why island hoods need more air for the same cooktop. Induction does not change the capture problem; the lack of a back wall does.
- Kitchen E is a professional-style range, and the honest answer is a professional-style hood: 54 inches wide or more, 900 CFM and up, dedicated makeup air. That is beyond the hood shells we sell (our widest is 48 inches), and we say so up front.
- Kitchen F cannot exhaust, so the airflow number only describes how hard the fan pushes air through a charcoal filter. It removes some grease and odor. It does not remove heat, moisture or combustion gases.
Capture Beats Raw Airflow: Width, Depth and Height
Airflow only matters if the smoke reaches the filters. A hot plume rises and spreads as it goes, roughly like an upside-down cone, so a hood that is too narrow, too shallow or mounted too high lets the edges of the plume roll past it no matter how strong the motor is. Most "my hood doesn't work" complaints we hear are capture problems, not fan problems.
Width
The hood should be at least as wide as the cooking surface. For gas, and for anyone who sears or stir-fries regularly, go one size up so the hood overhangs by about three inches on each side: a 36-inch hood over a 30-inch range, a 42-inch hood over a 36-inch range. The extra width costs far less than extra CFM and does more for capture.
Depth
The front burners are where the big pots go, and they sit 18 to 20 inches out from the wall. A hood that only reaches 12 or 15 inches forward will catch the back burners and miss the front ones. Wood hoods and chimney-style hoods are typically much deeper than a standard 12-inch wall cabinet, which is part of why they outperform a slim under-cabinet unit at the same airflow.
Mounting height
The Broan-NuTone insert guide whose specifications match Fabuwood's 400 and 600 models places the bottom of the hood no less than 24 inches and no more than about 30 inches above the cooktop for best capture. Every inch higher widens the plume the hood has to catch. Two cautions override that range. First, your range manufacturer's installation manual sets its own minimum clearance to combustible materials above the cooktop, and on many gas ranges it is 30 inches; whichever number is higher wins. Second, the insert guide calls for a metal liner whenever the unit sits less than 30 inches above the cooktop, to protect wood cabinetry from heat. Every Fabuwood Allure wood hood ships with a full stainless steel interior liner, which covers that requirement.
Wall vs island
A wall hood gets help from the wall: the plume leans against it and rises in a predictable column. An island hood gets none, and the plume drifts with every draft. That is why the per-foot guideline jumps from 100 to 150 for islands, and why an island hood should be wider than the cooktop on all sides, not just left and right. If your layout is still in flux, our island clearance guide covers the walkway side of putting a cooktop in the middle of the room.
| Cooktop width | Minimum hood width | Better (gas or heavy cooking) | Typical target airflow, wall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30" | 30" | 36" | 300–450 |
| 36" | 36" | 42" | 400–600 (more for high-BTU gas) |
| 48" | 48" | 54" | 600–1,200 |
Duct Size and Run Length: Where the Air Gets Lost
The duct is the part of the system nobody sees and the part that decides whether a 600 CFM blower behaves like a 600 or a 350. Three rules cover most of it: the duct should never be smaller than the blower's outlet, it should be smooth rigid metal, and it should be as short and straight as the house allows. The IRC requires hood ducts to be smooth-walled metal (galvanized steel, stainless or copper), to terminate outdoors rather than in an attic, crawl space or other space inside the building, and to carry a backdraft damper. The insert guide Broan-NuTone publishes adds that ducted units must always vent outdoors and must use metal duct only.
Match the duct to the airflow
Air moving through a small duct has to go faster, and faster air means more friction, more resistance and more noise. The table shows the math: the same airflow through a larger duct moves at a fraction of the speed.
| Duct | Cross-section | Air speed at 400 CFM | Air speed at 600 CFM | Where we would use it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6" round | 28.3 in² | ≈2,040 ft/min | ≈3,060 ft/min | Up to about 400 CFM on a short run |
| 3¼" × 10" rectangular | 32.5 in² | ≈1,770 ft/min | ≈2,660 ft/min | Where a round duct will not fit in the wall; treat like 6" |
| 7" round | 38.5 in² | ≈1,500 ft/min | ≈2,240 ft/min | 400 CFM on a longer run |
| 8" round | 50.3 in² | ≈1,150 ft/min | ≈1,720 ft/min | 400–600 CFM; the default for a 600 insert |
| 10" round | 78.5 in² | ≈730 ft/min | ≈1,100 ft/min | 900–1,200 CFM professional hoods |
The Broan-NuTone power-pack inserts whose specifications match Fabuwood's 600 CFM model accept a 6-inch round, 8-inch round or 3¼-by-10 rectangular connection, and only the 600 takes the 8-inch. If you are buying the 600 and then running 6-inch duct because that is what the old hood had, you have paid for airflow the pipe cannot carry.
Count equivalent length, not just feet
Every fitting adds resistance equal to some length of straight pipe. BEST, a Broan-NuTone range hood brand, publishes an estimator that assigns each part an "equivalent length," and it is the clearest tool we know for comparing two duct routes before the drywall comes down. The figures below come from that sheet.
| Component | Good version | Bad version |
|---|---|---|
| 1 ft of straight duct | Smooth rigid: 1 ft | Flex or corrugated: 2.5 ft |
| 90° round elbow | 5-section: 7 ft | 3-section: 17 ft |
| 45° round elbow | 3-section: 4 ft | Mitered: 11 ft |
| 90° rectangular elbow | Smooth: 4 ft | Mitered: 24 ft |
| Round-to-round transition | 6" up to 8": 4 ft | 8" down to 6": 5 ft |
| Roof or wall cap | Average: 25 ft | |
Now run a real route. Take a 600 CFM insert on an exterior wall two joist bays away from the range. Route one: 3 feet straight up, one 5-section 90° elbow, 12 feet of smooth 8-inch duct through the joist bay, out a wall cap. That is 3 + 7 + 12 + 25 = 47 equivalent feet. Route two follows the same path, but the installer uses a 3-section elbow, swaps 4 feet of the horizontal for flex to get around a pipe, and necks down to a 6-inch wall cap because it was on the truck: 3 + 17 + 8 + 10 + 5 + 25 = 68 equivalent feet, and the last stretch of the run is now a pipe with just over half the area. Same blower, same wall, roughly 45% more resistance, and a noticeably weaker, louder hood.
Two habits fix most of this. Leave a straight section of duct above the blower before the first elbow, so the air leaves the fan in a smooth stream rather than slamming into a turn. And if a long run is unavoidable, go up a duct size rather than up a blower size; the insert guide itself notes that larger ducting may be needed for best performance on longer runs.
The 400 CFM Line and Makeup Air
Every cubic foot the hood blows out has to be replaced by a cubic foot coming in from somewhere. In a drafty old house it leaks in around windows. In a tight modern house, a big hood can pull the whole building into negative pressure, and the easiest path for replacement air may be backwards down the flue of a gas water heater or furnace, bringing combustion gases with it. That is the reason for the makeup-air rule.
What the code says
Section M1503.6 of the International Residential Code, in the 2021 and 2024 editions, reads in substance: where one or more gas, liquid or solid fuel-burning appliances that are neither direct-vent nor mechanical-draft vented sit inside the dwelling's air barrier, each exhaust system capable of exhausting more than 400 CFM must be provided with makeup air at a rate approximately equal to the exhaust rate. The makeup air must discharge into the same room or one connected to it by permanent openings, its damper must be a gravity damper or an electrically operated one that opens automatically when the exhaust runs, and gravity or barometric dampers cannot be used in a passive system unless they are rated for the design airflow at a pressure difference of 0.01 inch of water column or less.
Four practical points follow from that text:
- The trigger is "more than 400." A system capable of exactly 400 does not trip it. A system capable of 401 does.
- "Capable of" is the phrase to watch. Many blowers are sold by a nominal rating but list a higher maximum. Fabuwood's 400 CFM insert, for example, lists a 450 CFM maximum. Inspectors read that differently from town to town, so ask your building department before you buy, not after the rough inspection.
- All-electric homes are generally outside the model-code trigger. If there is no atmospherically vented fuel-burning appliance inside the air barrier, the IRC text does not require makeup air, though the house can still be starved for air and a door may whistle when the hood runs.
- Local amendments vary. Some states and cities adopt the IRC with changes, some are still on older editions whose wording applies the rule to any hood over 400 CFM, and some add their own energy-code requirements. The model code tells you what is likely; your permit office tells you what is required.
The options if you cross the line
- Stay at or under 400. For most 30-inch and many 36-inch kitchens, a well-ducted 400 with a wide, deep hood performs better than a poorly ducted 600, and it keeps the job simple.
- Passive makeup air. An outdoor air duct with a motorized damper wired to open whenever the hood runs. Cheapest route, but the incoming air is untempered, which is noticeable in a northern winter.
- Active or tempered makeup air. A dedicated fan, sometimes with a heater or a connection into the HVAC return, interlocked with the hood. Better comfort, more cost, and an HVAC contractor's job rather than a cabinet installer's.
- A "code ready" blower. Fabuwood's 600 CFM insert includes Code Ready Technology that caps the blower lower to satisfy makeup-air rules. In the matching Broan-NuTone guide, the 600 can be set to 400 or 300 CFM maximum, the setting can only be made in the first five minutes after power is applied, and it cannot be reversed. Decide with your inspector before the electrician energizes the circuit, not during the final walk-through.
Sones: How Loud Is Too Loud
A hood that is too loud to leave on is a hood that does not get used, which makes noise a performance spec, not a luxury one. Loudness is rated in sones, and unlike decibels the scale is linear to the ear: 2 sones sounds twice as loud as 1, and 4 sounds twice as loud as 2. As rough anchors, 1 sone is about the hum of a quiet refrigerator and 3 to 4 sones is ordinary conversation.
ASHRAE Standard 62.2, the residential ventilation standard that ENERGY STAR and several state codes build on, sets a ceiling of 3 sones for intermittent kitchen exhaust, measured at one or more speed settings that still move at least 100 CFM. In practice that means the hood needs a usable low speed, not that it must be quiet on high. Every hood gets loud at maximum.
Fabuwood publishes normal-speed ratings for its three inserts: 3 sones for the 250 CFM model, 1 sone for the 400 and 0.5 sone for the 600. Maximum-speed ratings are not in the published sheet, so we do not quote them. The pattern is typical of the category: a bigger blower loafing along at a middle setting is quieter than a small blower at full speed, and a larger duct lowers noise further because the air moves more slowly. If quiet matters most, that combination beats any "silent" marketing claim.
Ducted vs Recirculating
A ducted hood removes air from the house. A recirculating, or ductless, hood pulls air through a grease filter and then a charcoal filter and blows it back into the kitchen. The difference is bigger than it sounds.
| Ducted to outdoors | Recirculating | |
|---|---|---|
| Grease | Filtered and exhausted | Filtered; some passes through |
| Odor | Removed | Reduced while the charcoal is fresh |
| Heat and steam | Removed | Returned to the room |
| Combustion gases from gas cooking | Removed | Not removed |
| Ongoing cost | Occasional grease filter cleaning | Charcoal filter replacement on a schedule |
| Makeup-air trigger | Possible above 400 | No, because no air leaves the house |
Recirculating is the right answer when ducting is genuinely impossible: a condo with no exterior wall, a landlord who will not allow a penetration, a kitchen buried in the middle of a building. It is a poor answer over a gas range, because it does nothing about the nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide that burners produce. Fabuwood's own sheet says it recommends that all of its hoods be vented to the outside and tells buyers to check local codes and heating-appliance requirements first. We agree. Codes also generally do not count a recirculating hood as the kitchen's required exhaust, so a ductless setup may need an exhaust fan elsewhere to satisfy the inspector.
What We Sell, and What You Buy Elsewhere
Here is exactly what our hood listings contain, because a wood hood is a cabinet-shop product and a blower is an appliance-shop product, and the two get confused constantly.
The hood shells
Every range hood in our catalog is a Fabuwood Allure wood hood, finished to match the Allure cabinet collections, with 31 finishes represented across Galaxy, Luna, Fusion, Echo, Luxe and Nexus at the time of writing. The shell is the wood body you see. Each one ships with a full stainless steel interior liner, removable for cleaning, which protects the wood from heat and accepts Fabuwood's Broan-NuTone blower inserts. The shell does not include a blower.
| Fabuwood style | SKU family | Widths | Listed on our site as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arched | RHA (e.g. RHA363021) | 36", 42", 48" | Wall-Mount Range Hood |
| Euro | RHE | 30", 36", 42" | Chimney Range Hood |
| Farmhouse | RHF | 30", 36", 42" | Designer Range Hood |
| Signature | RHS | 30", 36", 42" | Slim Range Hood |
| Curved Artisan | RHCA | 36", 42", 48" | Curved Glass Range Hood |
Several styles also come in Timber or Walnut accent versions. The chimney sections on the Euro, Farmhouse, Signature and Curved Artisan hoods are trimmable on site; the Arched hood is a flush-sided box whose top panel lifts up, and its depth can be changed through Fabuwood's custom-quote process. Prices move, so check the live hood listings; as a reference point this month, a 36-inch hood in a standard painted or stained finish runs from about $2,418 (Arched) to about $4,043 (Farmhouse) with our current Fabuwood discount applied, and the oak finishes cost more.
The blower inserts
| Insert | Rated / max airflow | Normal-speed noise | Controls and filter | Current price with discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHBB 250 CFM | 250 / 300 | 3 sones | 2-speed rocker, washable mesh filter | ≈ $419 |
| RHBB 400 CFM | 400 / 450 | 1 sone | 3-speed rotary, washable mesh filters, ENERGY STAR | ≈ $904 |
| RHBB 600 CFM | 600 / 650 | 0.5 sone | 4-speed, heat-sensing auto mode, Wi-Fi and voice, hybrid baffle filter, Code Ready down to 300 | ≈ $1,788 |
All three are Broan-NuTone units carrying Broan-NuTone's one-year limited warranty, and all three fit every Allure wood hood except one: the 250 is not offered for the 48-inch Arched hood (RHA483021). For kitchens that cannot be ducted, the RHBB DCT kit converts an insert to recirculating use with a charcoal filter, a soffit grille, a 90° stack boot, a length of 7-inch round duct and a 6-to-7-inch transition; it appears in our hood listings under "Duct Cover," and its charcoal replacement is the RHBB FLTR. Fabuwood's note on every blower says the dealer and installer should follow the heating-appliance manufacturer's ventilation requirements, and Fabuwood is not responsible for improper blower selection or installation. In other words, sizing is on the buyer and the installer, which is the reason this guide exists.
What you will source elsewhere
- Ductwork, the wall or roof cap and the backdraft damper. Your HVAC contractor or installer supplies these to suit the route.
- Makeup air equipment, if your system crosses the 400 line in a house that needs it.
- The electrical circuit and the installation. The insert guide calls for a qualified installer and wiring to code.
- Anything above 600 CFM, any island hood, and any hood wider than 48 inches. Our shells are wall-mount only, the 600 is the largest insert we offer, and the liner is specified for Fabuwood's Broan-NuTone inserts. If Kitchen C or E in the table above is your kitchen, we will still design the cabinets around a third-party hood and tell you honestly that the hood itself should come from a ventilation specialist.
Planning the Cabinets Around the Hood
Once the airflow and the hood width are settled, the hood stops being an appliance and becomes a piece of the cabinet layout. These are the decisions we work through on every drawing that has a range hood in it.
The hood width sets the gap in the upper run
The base run below does not change: a 30-inch range still sits in a 30-inch opening. What changes is the upper run. A 36-inch hood over that 30-inch range needs a 36-inch gap between the flanking wall cabinets, so the cabinets either side are three inches narrower than the base cabinets beneath them, or the layout absorbs the difference with a filler. Designers who forget this end up with a hood that is the same width as the range, which is the least capture you can buy. Decide the hood width first and draw the uppers around it.
Height math against the upper cabinets
Standard uppers hang with their bottoms 54 inches off the floor, 18 inches above a 36-inch counter; our wall and tall cabinet guide explains why. A hood mounted 24 to 30 inches above the cooktop puts its bottom edge at roughly 60 to 66 inches, so the hood sits visibly higher than the cabinets beside it. That step is correct and expected; do not pull the hood down to line up with the cabinet bottoms, because you would be below the clearance the range and the insert both require.
Depth and finished sides
A wood hood projects well past 12-inch-deep uppers so it can cover the front burners. That means its sides are on show, and the Fabuwood Arched hood is built with flush finished ends for that reason. If you are adding crown molding, Fabuwood's note on the Arched hood is specific: the crown goes above the cabinet, not on the face frame. Our Allure series guide covers the door styles these hoods are finished to match, and the Allure spec book has the full dimension drawings.
Ceiling height and the chimney
The chimney sections on the Euro, Farmhouse and Signature hoods are removable and trimmable on site, and the Curved Artisan's one-piece chimney trims by up to 12 inches. That makes the standard pieces forgiving on 8- and 9-foot ceilings. On a 10-foot ceiling, or where the hood meets a soffit, check the spec-book dimensions against your actual floor-to-ceiling measurement before ordering, because trimming only works in one direction.
Plan the duct route before you pick the style
A chimney-style hood hides a vertical duct that heads into the ceiling, which is ideal when the joists run toward an exterior wall and awkward when they run across it. A wall-mount hood on an exterior wall can often go straight out the back with one short run, the cheapest and best-performing duct there is. If the range is on an interior wall, draw the route through the ceiling on the plan and count the equivalent length using the table above; sometimes the best ventilation decision is moving the range to the outside wall, and our kitchen layouts guide can help you test whether that works.
Finish and samples
Because the hood is often the largest single painted or stained surface in the room, it shows color shifts more than any door. Order a Fabuwood door sample in your finish and look at it under the range lighting you plan to install. For how hoods fit into the wider cabinet families, see our guide to kitchen cabinet types, and for what the rest of an Allure kitchen costs, the Fabuwood price list breaks it down by product type.
The Ten-Minute Sizing Checklist
- Write down the cooktop width and whether it is gas, electric or induction.
- For gas, add every burner's BTU rating from the rating plate and divide by 100.
- Run the per-foot check: width in feet × 100 on a wall, × 150 over an island.
- In a closed kitchen, run the room check: length × width × height × 15 ÷ 60.
- Choose a hood width equal to the cooktop at minimum, one size wider for gas or heavy cooking.
- Sketch the duct route and total its equivalent length; if it is long, plan a bigger duct.
- Match duct size to airflow: 6 inches up to about 400, 8 inches for a 600.
- Check the 400 line: list every fuel-burning appliance inside the house and call the building department about makeup air if you are over it.
- Confirm mounting height against both the insert's 24-to-30-inch range and the range manufacturer's clearance to combustibles.
- Draw the uppers around the hood, not the other way round.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does CFM mean on a range hood?
It is cubic feet per minute, the volume of air the blower moves out of the kitchen each minute. The printed figure is usually measured with little or no duct attached, so the airflow you actually get after filters, elbows and the wall cap is lower. Compare products on certified ratings and plan the duct to protect what you paid for.
Is 400 CFM enough for most kitchens?
For a 30-inch electric or induction cooktop on a wall, and for many 30-inch gas ranges, yes, provided the hood is at least as wide as the cooktop and the duct is short and smooth. It becomes marginal on 36-inch gas ranges with high-output burners, on islands and in kitchens where someone sears or wok-cooks often.
Is more airflow always better?
No. Past the point the duct can carry, extra blower capacity mostly buys noise. Above 400 CFM it can also trigger a makeup-air requirement. A wider, deeper hood mounted at the right height usually improves results more than a bigger motor does.
Do I need makeup air for a 600 CFM hood?
Under the current model code, you do if the house has an atmospherically vented fuel-burning appliance (a gas water heater or furnace that is not direct-vent or power-vented, for example) inside its air barrier. All-electric homes are generally outside the trigger. Local amendments differ, so confirm with your building department. Fabuwood's 600 CFM insert can be permanently capped at a lower airflow if that is the simpler path, but the change cannot be undone.
How much airflow does a 36-inch gas range need?
Add up the burners and divide by 100. A typical 36-inch range with around 60,000 BTU of burners points to about 600; a six-burner professional model near 90,000 BTU points to about 900. Pair it with a 42-inch hood and an 8-inch duct, and start the makeup-air conversation early.
Can I run a 600 CFM blower on 6-inch duct?
It will run, but the air has to travel about 1.8 times faster than it would in an 8-inch duct, so resistance and noise climb and delivered airflow drops. The Broan-NuTone inserts whose specs match Fabuwood's 600 offer an 8-inch connection on that model for a reason. Use it.
Do your wood hoods come with a blower?
No. Each Fabuwood Allure hood ships as a finished wood shell with a stainless steel liner, and the blower insert is a separate line item: 250, 400 or 600 CFM. Ductwork, the exterior cap, makeup-air equipment, electrical work and installation come from your contractor.
How high above the cooktop should the hood be?
The Broan-NuTone insert guide that matches Fabuwood's 400 and 600 models specifies 24 to 30 inches from the cooktop to the bottom of the hood, with the lower end giving better capture. Your range's installation manual may require more clearance to combustible material, and when it does, the range manufacturer's number governs.
Your Next Step
If you already know the cooktop, send us its width, fuel type and burner ratings along with a rough floor plan and we will size the hood and insert, place the upper cabinets around it, and show you the result in a 3D drawing through our design service, typically within 3 to 5 business days. Want a budget number first? The kitchen cabinet cost estimator gives a starting range for the cabinets, and you can browse finish-matched hoods in the Fabuwood Allure collection. Contractors and trade buyers get the same sizing help as part of the quote.
Questions about a specific kitchen? Reach us through our contact page or call 609-900-3358 and talk it through with a designer who sells these hoods every week. We will tell you which blower fits, and when the right hood for your range is one we do not carry.

Written by
Noor K.Technology Manager at Captivating Cabinets
Noor manages and develops the Captivating Cabinets website, and writes practical guides on cabinet styles, finishes, pricing, and remodel planning.
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