In another post, I mentioned that i installed a Viking Badged Vent A Hood (48" - 2 x 600 cfm) in my old house about 20 years ago. I spoke to the guy I sold the house to last year. The hood is still working great. He keeps up with it by doing the proper cleaning on a regular basis. Vent A Hood is a great product IMO. I'm going with a BlusStar 42 inch Pyramid with a 1200 cfm internal blower in my latest kitchen, over a 36" RNB. This is what my salesman recco'd, and i liked him. He knew his stuff. I wanted Vent A Hood, but he talked me into the Blue Star. I'll post a pic back here in 6 weeks. I hope he was right. He handles all the fancy shmancy builders around these parts. Our house is not a fancy shmancy one, LOL. The kitchen will be nice though. Good luck

First my back story.

I bought a 48" Viking "commercial" about 20 years ago. It was black with red knobs. I had 6 burners and a 12" griddle. I also bought a Viking badged hood which was then made by Vent A Hood. I cooked on the Viking for about 4 years prior to selling that house. Here's my take. i had nothing but problems with the right oven door. It was lopsided and never closed properly. The range itself was far from "commercial" and more like "flimsy" Multiple service calls and new oven doors and they never got it right. Even the distributor came out a few times. Obviously, this unit was either improperly built or terribly mishandled in transit. Either way, I had to live with it until we moved. The upside is, I only paid for 75% of it. I put 75% down when ordering and never paid for the rest, because they never made it right. They threatened to sue me and I was courteous enough to give them my lawyer's name and number. Needless to say, they never did. Based on that experience, which was a long time ago, I'd never buy another Viking product again. That's just how I am.
in our next house, I purchased a full blown true commercial 60" Garland range. 6 x 30K BTU burners, and a raised 24" griddle with a 3 flame broiler underneath. This range weighed 1000 pounds and was amazing. I could stand on the open oven doors to clean the stainless hood.
I had to use triple 2x12' floor joists underneath the span of flooring where the range was installed. I also had to use metal studs and non asbestos board over fire resistant drywall around the range as it was NOT zero clearance. I bought a Garland badged hood 1200 cfm which was not even close to powerful enough for this monster. Oops, I screwed up there. On top of being underpowered, my HVAC contractor failed to tape the joints on the 12" round vent pipes. That meant smoke got into the ceiling and billowed into the kitchen through the can lights in the ceiling around the range. It was actually quite the sight. LOL We've since moved again, and i brought my Garland range with me. Problem is, it's just too much range for our new kitchen. So, it sits in the garage, unused. That makes me sad.
Okay, so now what to do. The kids are grown and it's just me and my wife. We needed a new more suitable range. We looked at Wolf, Capital Culinarian, and Blue Star. Wolf's sealed burners were very unimpressive to me. Capital's oven cavity lacked height, but had the rotis and those great 23K open burners. Since we decided to go 36", we really needed the oven cavity to be good size, for holidays, parties, etc. Here comes Blue Star. Nice big oven, a pair of 22k star burners (same style burner as my old Garland) and the other 4 star burners (3 x 15k and 1 x8k) are plenty. I loved the beefiness of the Blue Star. It felt and looked very solid. That's the ticket, and that's what we chose. After discussing venting options with the salesman, (a real pro, who knew his stuff really well) we opted for the Blue Star 42" Pyramid with 1200 CFM. yes, 1200 cfm is overkill, but now I can really cook hot in my cast iron. I'm a big fan of cooking steaks in red hot cast iron. To me, it's almost tastier than a steak cooked over hardwood.
We ordered everything last week. It's going to be 6 weeks or so, and I'm excited.
Once I get it all in, I'll post pics. BTW, and fwiw, I spoke to the local distributor for Blue Star here and he was most helpful.
When it comes to selecting the right range and hood, it's all a very personal thing. Each unit has its own special qualities. I say go for the one that most suits your needs. Make sure that you're getting a quality product. these things aren't cheap. Good luck everyone.

Westy