Cooker hoods are now seen as an essential addition to a kitchen. Investing in an extractor fan can save you a fortune in kitchen repairs later by preventing warping and other steam-related damage, and the circulation of air means that your kitchen becomes a healthier, odour-free environment. But not all cooker hoods do exactly the same job. Read on to find out about choosing the right cooker hood for your kitchen.

Size matters

And that’s not the size of the cooker hood we’re talking about: it’s the size of your kitchen, and of your family. The amount of cooking you do will dictate the airflow that you need in your cooker – a person living alone and eating out a lot will do significantly less cooking than a family of four, so look into more powerful options if your cooker gets a lot of use. The other important thing to consider is that your cooker hood will need to perform two tasks – getting rid of odours and grease – so you’ll want to find one that takes care of both.

Why cooker hoods for range cookers are different

Quite simply, cooker hoods for range cookers are different because of the cooker’s different size and shape. Not too difficult, right? Things get a little more complicated when the range cooker is the centre of your kitchen, not against a wall. In this case, your cooker hood will need to be designed specifically to filter air from this position, and you’ll want to pay special attention to the style and design of the hood, as it’ll take a central position in your kitchen.

The good news is that there’s a cooker hood out there for every kitchen, and you just need to find the right one for you.

The satisfaction of having a beautiful kitchen that’s a pleasant place to cook can easily be ruined by the damage that steam can cause. The good news is that steam damage can be prevented and the kitchen can generally be a more enjoyable environment with the help of cooker hoods, which absorb both steam and strong cooking odours. Still not convinced? Find out more about how a cooking hood can improve your kitchen and how you can choose the right one for your home.

Why do kitchens need cooker hoods?

Steam can cause kitchens to become damaged in a number of ways. Damp wood and furniture is already unpleasant, but its effects can be disastrous: wallpaper can peel, wood can become warped, and mould can form in areas that are consistently wet. One of the worst effects of steam damage is the inconvenience of kitchen cupboard doors that become misshapen and won’t close as a result. By trapping the steam that results from cooking and that can cause so much harm, cooker hoods keep the kitchen protected.

What’s that smell?

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Another good reason to install a cooker hood is its ability to absorb food smells. Some of the tastiest food is the strongest-smelling, but you don’t want those smells spreading and hanging around long after the meal is over.

Making the choice

Choosing a cooker hood shouldn’t be too difficult. The first thing to consider is whether the cooker hood is at least as wide as your stove. You’ll also want to think about how the hood looks with the rest of your kitchen fittings. Find out about how loud the model you’re interested in gets – you don’t want the neighbours complaining. A final word of advice – leave the installation of a cooker hood to the experts, then sit back and enjoy a better kitchen right away.

The major parts of a cooker hood includes a skirt or capture panel for containing the rising gases, one or more grease filters and a blower or fan for forced ventilation. After sometime, you may need to replace the cooker hood filters as it gets clogged due to the accumulation of various combustion products and dirt. A wide range of filters for different cooker hoods makes your task of finding a good replacement quite easy. One of the popular products is the 2 x Universal cooker hood filters which includes two indicator filters for absorbing fat and grease and the filter size is 570×470 mm.

Cooker hood extractor fans help extract all kinds of odours and smells from the kitchen to outside through a duct. When used in combination with a cooker hood, a cooker hood extractor fan helps keep the air clean inside the kitchen. Ducting the air towards the outside requires some prior planning while installing the hood and is best planned when building the kitchen. Some cooker hoods also recycle stale air and convert it into fresh air but this is advisable only when it is impossible to duct to the outside. In such cases, odours are passed through charcoal filters which helps in absorbing cooking odours and the purified air is then recycled back into the kitchen. When installed with ducting, a cooker hood will extract all the steam and strong cooking odours and collect them on the disposable or washable grease filters. Some popular models of cooker hoods are Baumatic F90.2SS, Elica Star, Hoover HFT60, CDA CPX9, Elica OM, AEG HD6470M, Baumatic F60.2SS, Smeg KSEC61NE, Smeg KSED92X, Whirlpool AKR 958, CDA A1 and CDA CPX11.

A good exhaust system is the most important factor to be considered while buying a cooker hood. Some are available with a ductwork that draws the smokes and vapours from the cooking surface to the outdoors. While some exhaust systems are recirculating, they recirculate the air through a filter which removes its impurities and sends the air back to the kitchen. Recirculating cooker hoods require more maintenance than those involving ductwork, since their filters must be cleaned and replaced periodically.

One of the leading brands of cooker hoods available in the market includes Baumatic. Baumatic BT93GL is a wall hood that has an extraction or recirculation capacity of 500m3/h. This recirculation capacity is due to the two S1 Carbon filter and three metallic grease filters. The cooker hood comes with a push button control operation and superior extraction tangential motor. Two halogen lights are also supplied with this superior cooker hood.

Franke UK is another popular name in the manufacture of cooker hoods. Its FQD 907 XS model has an extraction capacity of 1000 m3/h. The wall hood can be used as a filtering unit rather than an extraction unit when no external flue is available. Other popular brands of cooker hoods include Caple CGC600 which is a chimney hood and Neff D1613 (D1613SOGB) which is an in-built hood.