Product review (4 stars): Solid, Value Priced Range Hood
This review comes the day after I received and installed this range hood.  My initial impression is that its a pretty good hood.  I did about a day's worth of research on hoods when the light went out on my old one, which was a 17 year old builder installed GE model.

Based on reading reviews of a lot of under $200 models, I realized that, like this hood, none of them come with the power cord so when I took out my old one, I disconnected the cord to reuse it.  Connecting is a simple three wire connection with wire nuts.  The hood's instructions say to connect the hood's black wires to the cord's black wire and the white to the white.  My cord is all grey but I marked which wire was connected to the old hood's black wire since I don't know if this makes a difference or not.  My old hood also had a plastic grommet that fit inside the knockout where the cord passes through to protect it from the sharp edge.  That looked like a good idea so I took it out of the old hood and installed it on this one.  Probably not necessary or you could use duct tape to tape the cord to the top of the hood and that would keep it from rubbing.

If you've read some of the other reviews for this hood you might have read that the tacks that hold the knockouts in place are strong.  They are indeed.  One reviewer said he used a Dremel to cut them out, which is probably a good idea.  I needed a top, rectangular exit so I practiced on the part of the round exit that would be coming out.  Placing a screwdriver on top of the tack and striking the screwdriver with the heel of my hand worked to get a couple loose.  From there I could work the others back and forth with pliers.  As you're wrestling with these, don't forget that the bottom of the hood, which you'll see when its installed, is also taking a beating.  Cushion accordingly.

I decided to use the new hood's rectangular adapter to the exhaust duct since it had a damper and my old one did not.  The instructions here were not clear to me.  Put the flap under the edge of the hood and secure the other side with screws.  There was no flap.  On one end there are two cut outs along the edge but its flat with the rest of the edge.  I screwed in the two screws and managed to force the edge of the hood (sort of) through the two cut outs.  The part that went through that moves a little since its part of the knockout that would have come out if I was using a round exhaust exit.  I didn't do this but I should have used duct tape around the edge of the adapter to the top of the hood.

As for the damper I was exited about, it was a no go.  First, there is little clearance between the short edges of the damper and the edge of the frame.  Between the play in the damper, its rough edges, and its poor hinge design it did not open very easily.  After the hood was installed, I turned on the fan and, as I feared, the damper didn't open.  I tried to force it open by pushing a pen between the fan blades but I had no luck.  That I couldn't open it makes me think it was making contact with some part of the duct.  I tried repositioning the duct but never got it to work.  In the end, I removed the duct and took out the damper from the top (so I wouldn't have to take the whole unit down) which was easy to do.  By the way, even with the duct off the damper had trouble opening and I could see it was not being obstructed.

Hanging the hood is a simple matter of 4 screws.  The back edge of the rectangular exhaust exit is about 1-1/2" from the back side of the unit.  My old one was only about 1/2" from the back so I had to cut a small section off the shelf over the stove so I could move the duct forward.  Not a big deal but be prepared for this if the hood you're replacing is similar.  By the way, the screws are a bit of a hide-and-seek game.  There are two small bags of screws.  One I didn't find until I took the exhaust knockout off.

Installed, the hood is very simple.  I ordered the white model and its pretty much all white.  I'm not crazy about the plastic panel on the front that seems to be common with lower end convertible hoods.  It covers what would be the exhaust exit in a non-ducted application.  When I was putting the hood together I also wasn't crazy about the aluminum cover that goes over the wiring.  I would have preferred it was painted white but once installed, I hardly notice it.  Mercifully, the unattractive stickers easily peeled off.

The fan seems to move a decent amount of air.  At its highest setting its fairly loud but not louder than I expected.  At its lowest setting its very quiet.  Using it will be finding an acceptable compromise between adequate air movement and tolerance for the noise.

My old hood required a fairly low wattage bulb, which was a struggle because I wanted more light over the stove.  The light fixture was also close to one edge so it was tricky to fit a full size bulb.  My solution was to use a short model squirrely compact fluorescent bulb since they draw a lot less power.  I don't think you're supposed to use these in a dimmable fixture but it has worked for me for at least five years.  This hood's light fixture is up front and center and the easy to remove plastic cover will easily accommodate a full size bulb.  I put the same bulb I was using before in this hood.  Unlike my old hood, I see no difference between the "on" and "night" settings.  Maybe I have a bad unit but its not enough of a problem for me to return it.

In the end, this is a pretty good hood for the price.  You've probably seen that you can spend a whole lot more and I probably will when we get around to replacing all our kitchen appliances.  Until then, this one will be just fine.  If I needed another range hood and wanted to keep it under $100, I would but this hood again.