New kitchen - is it worth getting a cooker hood?

[tootiredtothink]

It will be on outside wall so properly vented out....but are they actually worth while?

We're buying a rangemaster 110 with just base units in kitchen so I am worried about walls looking bare, however I'm also worried about keeping it clean/banging head/changing filters.

Please tell me what to do! Builder in this week to continue plasterboarding so need to let them know.

[PigletJohn]

it is essential to have an extractor hood to take the water vapour and grease out, as well as the smell.

(A recycling hood is useless, except as an ornament)

It should be positioned slightly higher than the user, so you will be unable to bang your head on it unless you use a ladder.

Use replaceable grease filters, and lay in a stock of spare ones. They are usually easy to replace, and can often be washed out in the sink. You do not need a carbon filter on an extractor.

[Deux]

Oh goody, an extractor thread .

We are not having one over the hob in our new kitchen but will be having one in the wall instead. I have been looking at semi industrial ones and they are much cheaper too than the over hob ones I was looking at.

You need to have some kind of extractor for building control if your project comes under building control (I think).

I'm not having one for all the reasons you list. In successive homes I have never used them and end up opening the window instead.

There was an extractor thread on here quite recently.

[tootiredtothink]

Was there? I thought I'd obsessively glanced through all pages on property threads .

Thanks for your replies, looks like I'd best say yes to hole in wall being drilled. Will look at the industrial ones too.

[alwayspregnant]

I have a extractor fan thing on my outside wall at my aga, no cooker hood. Works a treat.

[alwayspregnant]

*above my aga

[Porkster]

We have recently got the a rangemaster hood and range.

Have to say, the extraction is fantastic and it's v quiet too.

Dh fitted it himself but had to hire the drill attachment.

[BumpingFuglies]

I would say it's essential, I have been in many kitchens old and new without them. Walls get heavily stained from steam etc and you can forget cooking at high temperatures - the smoke is unbearable.

[mumblechum1]

Put it this way OP, I can tell as soon as I walk through someone's door whether they have an extractor by whether their house smells of cooking.

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

Yes, yes yes.

We have a huge extractor fan above our Esse (poor mans' Aga) and it is amazing. It has 4 different settings. The kitchen is never full of steam and you don't get stale cooking smells.
If I am cooking and DH is outside he can tell exactly what I am cooking.

In our old kitchen the cooker was on an interior wall and we had a crappy charcoal filter which made no difference.

When you remove and wash the filters you will be appalled at the amount of grease in them.

[tootiredtothink]

It's unanimous. Was hoping for a different response, I cannot lie but I'm feeling better about an extractor now I know it's actually needed and not just a way to fleece me for more money .

[PigletJohn]

if you haven't chosen the model yet, have the hole drilled plenty high enough.

ones with a (fake) chimney use quite a high hole, and all the ones I've had have a vent on the top and one on the back, you use whichever you want.

The duct is the same as soil pipe, which your builder wil have plenty of.

have a Cowelled Vent on the outside to keep the weather out, and not not not one like a little plastic venetian blind, which will rattle annoyingly in the wind until the flaps break off (won't be long)

[tootiredtothink]

Thanks PigletJohn, how high is high enough would you say? How many inches above tallest person in house?

[ElsieMc]

Yes, I've also just got the rangemaster hood and they were half price when we ordered - around £165 and it does look nice. It would have been a mistake not to get one and I second what PigletJohn says.

[Porkster]

Am at your price ElsieMc, ours was £300.

I think the minimum is 650mm over electric, 700mm over gas.

I would spend a bit of time over this; we installed ours too high and you could see the underside of the hood, then too low... and then we got it right.

My dh was not overly impressed with my vacillations as the newly plastered wall was riddled with holes.

[PigletJohn]

the bottom of my hood is 1920mm above the floor. I can easily operate the switches but can't bang my head on it.

It is positioned so that top cabinets can bridge across it

If I wanted to, I could see the underside of the hood, but apart from opening it to change the filter of bulbs, I've never tried. I don't mind being able to see it.

[Porkster]

Oops, PJ, I meant from worktop.

[myron]

You can position the extractor hood to suit your height perfectly which is what I did. The downside was that I needed a custom/more expensive splashback made since my ideal gap didn't match the standard sizes of splashback and I didn't want to compromise on that since I knew it would annoy me on a daily basis if there was space between the top of the splashback and the bottom of the extractor hood. Tip - make sure that you play about with the standard size measurements first - less expensive that way!