In a closed kitchen, a range hood is the cook's problem. In an open-plan room it is everyone's. The hood runs while someone is on the sofa, while the table is being set, while a guest is talking to you across the island. And the rating printed on the box is usually the one for the slowest speed. The figure that decides your evenings is the one for the step you actually cook on.
How the hood fits with the dishwasher and the fridge is on our page about planning a quiet open-plan kitchen.
This guide works that out for each hood. We took each maker's full table of sones and airflow, used the makers' own sizing rules to find the airflow a typical cooktop needs, and then read off the sone rating at the first step that gets there. We say, every time, whether that figure is certified by the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) or is the maker's own.
Our picks are listed above, with full specifications for each.
How we ranked them
Picks are in order of their HVI-certified high-speed rating, because that is the one speed position every hood here shares, measured the same way. The "At cooking airflow" line on each pick is the figure that matters in an open room: the sone rating at the first step that meets the airflow target for that hood's typical cooktop. Where that figure is certified we say HVI; where it is only on the maker's spec sheet we say so.
A reminder on the unit. Sones are linear: 4 sones sounds twice as loud as 2, and 8 sounds twice as loud as 4. That makes gaps easy to read. The EMS9026 at 2 sones and the Glacier at 7 sones, each at the step a 36-inch cooktop needs, are not close; the Glacier sounds three and a half times as loud. Decibels are logarithmic and work differently, and there is no reliable way to turn one into the other, so we never convert. For more, read sones vs decibels.
Step one: find the airflow your cooktop needs
The makers agree more than you might expect. FOTILE and Best both say 100 CFM per foot of cooktop width for a wall hood over a standard cooktop:
- 30-inch cooktop: about 250 CFM.
- 36-inch cooktop: about 300 CFM.
- Gas ranges: FOTILE and Best both give 1 CFM per 100 BTU of burner output. A 60,000 BTU range needs about 600 CFM, and Best adds 200 CFM for a built-in grill or griddle.
- Islands: Best gives 150 CFM per foot, so about 450 CFM for a 36-inch island cooktop. FOTILE says to add 100 to 200 CFM to the wall figure.
One rule needs care in an open-plan room. FOTILE also offers a room-volume method: multiply the kitchen's length, width and height, multiply by 15 air changes an hour, and divide by 60. FOTILE's own example, a 12 by 15 by 10 foot kitchen, gives 450 CFM, and FOTILE says to use whichever method gives the highest number. Apply that to a kitchen that is part of a large living space and the number climbs far past what any cooktop rule suggests. FOTILE's own FAQ warns that "excessively high CFM can lead to noise", so we sized on the cooktop and treat the room-volume figure as a reason to buy a hood with headroom, not a reason to run it flat out.
Step two: read the sones at that step
Once you have a target, look up the full speed table, not the headline. Here is what that does to the picks:
- FOTILE EMS9026 (36-inch): its lowest step is 360 CFM at 2 sones, certified. It never needs a louder step for everyday cooking.
- FOTILE Pixie Air (30 or 36-inch): speed 1 is 240 CFM at 1.2 sones, a little under 250. Speed 2 is 370 CFM at 2.5 sones, certified.
- Bosch 800 Series insert (30-inch): 0.7 sone at 180 CFM, then nothing published until 5 sones at 380 CFM. The step you can rely on is high.
- Best HBN5 single blower (36-inch): speed 5 is 340 CFM at 3.0 sones on Best's spec sheet, not certified.
- Broan Glacier (36-inch): medium is 280 CFM at 4.0 sones through a 7-inch round duct, not certified and just short of 300. High is certified at 7 sones at 380 CFM.
The pattern is the point of this guide. Two hoods can both be certified at 4 sones on high and still sound very different on the step you use every night, and a hood with a gap in its published table leaves you guessing at exactly the step that matters.
Bigger blower, lower step
Best makes the case in its own buying guide that a higher-capacity hood "can often run at lower fan speeds during everyday cooking, making it quieter than a smaller hood operating at maximum speed". Its HBN5 spec sheet lets you see that on paper. Near 600 CFM, the single-blower version is on its top speed, certified at 8.5 sones at 620 CFM. The dual-blower version lists 2.5 sones at 560 CFM and 4.5 sones at 730 CFM on its middle steps. Those middle figures are not certified, so hold them loosely, but the direction is clear.
The trade-off is size, price and ducting. The dual-blower HBN5 needs a 10-inch round duct, and at 1,240 CFM it will likely trigger make-up air rules where they apply. Best's Code Ready Technology can cap the airflow to meet those rules, which also caps the loudest step.
Island or wall
An island cooktop is the most open-plan choice of all, and it is the hardest to make quiet. Both FOTILE and Best say island hoods need more airflow, because there is no wall to help contain the smoke. More airflow means a higher step, and a higher step means more noise.
The one island hood we could verify with certified ratings, the Best ICB3, shows the problem plainly: 1.5 sones at 210 CFM, then 11.5 sones at 580 CFM, with no figure for its other two speeds. FOTILE's 42-inch EA06C island hood publishes its noise only in decibels, so it cannot be compared with anything rated in sones. If you are still planning the room, a wall-mounted cooktop with a hood like the EMS9026 is the quieter layout by a long way.
Remote and inline blowers
Moving the motor out of the room is the classic answer for a big hood. An in-line blower sits in the ductwork, often in the attic or a ceiling space; an exterior blower mounts on the roof or an outside wall. Best's spec sheet for its EB6 and EB9 exterior blowers says that, "to achieve reduced sound levels at the range hood", the blower should be installed at least 10 feet from the hood, with one 90-degree elbow in the duct between them. Best describes its ILB6 in-line blower as one that "exhausts the cooking area from a remote location".
What Best does not publish, for either type, is a sone rating. Its spec sheets list certified airflow only (590 and 840 CFM at 0.1 inch for the EB6 and EB9, 600 CFM for the ILB6). So a remote blower is worth asking your installer about for a big pro-style hood, but nobody can tell you from a spec sheet how quiet it will be at the hood.
What else you hear from the sofa
Automatic modes. Best's SmartSense Pro adjusts speed for heat, humidity and VOCs. Its Heat Sentry feature switches the blower to high when it detects excessive heat. Broan's SmartSense Auto on the Glacier adjusts to heat from the cooktop, and Bosch's Home Connect lets the insert match the power of a Bosch induction cooktop. These are sensible, but they mean the hood can jump to a louder step on its own. In an open room, that jump is what people notice.
Delayed shutoff. The Pixie Air can keep running for 5, 15 or 30 minutes after you finish; the EMS9026 for 2 minutes; the Best ICB3 for 5. A long delay clears odors, but it also means the hood is still running when you sit down to eat.
Lights. In a room you also relax in, the hood light matters. FOTILE lists night mode lighting on the Pixie Air, and Best's HBN5 lets you set the color temperature from 2700K to 5000K to match the room.
The duct. HVI certifies the Pixie Air at 2.5 sones at 370 CFM through a 7-inch round duct and 4 sones at the same airflow through a 3-1/4 by 10-inch rectangular one. Round, short and straight is quieter.
How quiet is quiet enough in an open room
Best's own buying guide gives a rough scale in sones: 1 sone next to a quiet refrigerator, 4 sones next to normal conversation, and 6 to 7 sones next to a typical conventional range hood. By that scale, a hood at 2 to 2.5 sones on your cooking step sits under conversation, and a hood at 5 sones or more competes with it. That is Best's scale, not a measurement, but it is a useful way to picture the figures. To decide what figure to aim for elsewhere in the house, see how quiet is quiet enough, room by room.
What quiet costs
The quiet hoods here cost more. The EMS9026 is $1,499 on sale at FOTILE, and the Bosch insert $1,449, against $519 for the Glacier. Quiet can also mean fewer gentle steps (the EMS9026 has no speed below 360 CFM), a bigger duct, or a bigger blower that pulls you into make-up air rules. And an island costs you quiet no matter what you spend.
For the full ranking of range hoods at top speed, see our quietest range hoods guide.
How we chose
We started from the hoods in our parent range hood guide, reopened each maker's product page and spec sheet, and checked every figure against the Home Ventilating Institute's certified directory (data generated September 23, 2026). We added the FOTILE EMS9026, the single-blower Best HBN5 and the Best ICB3 island hood from their makers' pages and spec sheets, and the FOTILE EA06C to show a hood we could not rank. Airflow targets come from FOTILE's and Best's own sizing guidance. Prices are the makers' own, dated in each product's details; where a maker shows none, we say we could not verify one.
We did not measure any of these hoods ourselves. Every sone and CFM figure is the maker's published rating or HVI's certified one, quoted with the speed it describes, and we say each time which figures are certified and which are not.
