Haven't thought about that. It might help though. Unless I am wokking, usually it would be on 2, or 3 which is quite a bit more quiet compared to it running at maximum. I feel the noise mainly comes from the shape of the ducting. Being a flexible bellow it would create more noise despite being stretched. My idea was that if I put a smooth solid ducting near the kitchen area in the cupboard aka what Sirius and Qasair advocate, the main noise I should hear is from the air going through the filter. Once it pass the ceiling, a bit of flexi ducting and some bends will help damping noise from the motor travelling back inside which is what Schweigen and Whispair advocate.

Sharon, I think they both look great. Trust your instincts. I personally would not be put off buying a house, because I didn't like range hood. I really like the sound of all the choices you have chosen for the kitchen.

Hi Kerryn, I am wondering do you mean an under Counter Hood (in the bench top, next to the cooktop) or do you mean an inset Hood installed in Under the Overhead Cupboard like in the attached photo (top)? Can I also assume this is for a single story? May I ask, Is this a new build in the planning stage or a Renovation or a flue already in situ? Are you able to let me know the style of your cabinetry and if your Hood is on an external wall or on an internal wall? If it is on an internal wall; what is on the other side of that wall, and 2) what is the wall construction; Brick, or Timber stud, Steel, Hebel etc? Siriuskey is correct, Building a Bulkhead and finishing it with Cornice like our photos below may be one way to address this. There are several other ways to deal with this depending on your situation and so with a little more information and perhaps a photo, I may be able to suggest a solution that is best for you. Regards Malcolm

Thanks for your input Malcolm, I do regularly clean the filters in the dishwasher and the drip of oil is not a huge problem. What started this whole saga is that our existing hood is so noisy we wanted to get a Quasair and have the motor externally for quieter kitchen. While we were discussing this with a salesman, we were told that you can only use rigid ducting with that brand. we currently have a combination of flexible and semi-rigid because of the layout of the flue/chimney. So I had this brilliant idea that we could just bore a hole out through the chimney breast and duct to the outside, problem solved. No!!! You can’t just remove bricks without the whole chimney stack being compromised and possibly falling down, not ideal. We then started to notice the few drops of oil hanging off the bottom of the twin motors of the rangehood which made us worry that the whole vent might be a fire hazard. We are wanting to switch from gas to electric induction and also make the hob wider which necessitates getting a new hood anyway. Before we go to that expense we want to sort out the ventilation first hence the first post. I appreciate all the interest and comments thanks everyone. We have a rangehood installer coming to advise us this week so fingers crossed we can sort something out. Watch this space 😊