Kitchen & Bath: Venting Professional-Style Kitchen Ranges

One of the latest must-haves in trendy upscale kitchens is the professional- style range. A standard range can be satisfactorily vented by a standard- size hood, but the commercial-look range produces much more heat, mandating a high-capacity ventilating hood. Some designers and clients want to forgo any hood over a pro-style range lest it distract attention from the showcase cooktop. Or maybe after swallowing the price of the range, there’s little stomach left for a compatible hood (you’ll want to allow between $1,000 and $3,500 in the appliance budget for a professional- style hood — a custom hood can range from $5,000 to $10,000, depending on features). But leaving out the hood is an invitation to “disaster,” as one range manufacturer’s