Do I need an oven hood? Will it prevent grease buildup?

[sparkay1]

Just wondering how effective oven hoods are at extrcting the grease from the air? Currently cleaning out kitchen cupboard and it amazed me how easily grease seems to build up! Hoping an extractor will resolve this somewhat?....any buying tips? Dont want to spend much.

No you do not need an oven hood. The guy who fitted my kitchen for me pointed out to me, after reading the instructions, that (this particular) cooker hood is NOT used for extracting steam/grease etc, it's purpose is to extract the smell of cooking! If I'd have known that before I bought it, well, I wouldn't have bought it!!

yes you need an extractor hood that sucks the steam, smells and vaporised fat out of the kitchen and outside the house.

a recirculating one is only an ornament.

You can get a core-drill from a tool-hire shop that vuts a neat round hole through a brick or block wall, for the duct. If you cooker is not against an outside wall you can run the duct on top of the wall units to the outside wall.

If you don't want a greasy kitchen/house then you need an extractor which extracts to the outside.

My old house had a recirculating extractor and I cooked with gas. My kitchen was so greasy. I was constantly cleaning it. Yuk.

A recirculating extractor only gets rid of some cooking smells. They are frankly useless.

I now have an extractor ducted to the outside and it's amazing how often I need to clean out the filter in it. The filter area is full of grease on a weekly basis. And not just a smear of grease but a thick layer. And I don't really pan fry any food. This is just from cooking casseroles etc on the hob.

Outside extraction is great. It's made me very as I now only have to wipe out the filter area and put the filters in the dishwasher rather than wiping grease residue of a entire kitchen and wiping all the radiators downstairs as they were sticky.

Hmm...I don't know if I can have an outside extractor :-(.....I am changing from gas to electric oven & hob though, think that will make a difference?

Maybe I will invest in a steam cleaner!

"I don't know if I can have an outside extractor"

why?

i havnt needed one , i bought a range cooker 3 yrs ago when we refitted /painted the kitchen- i had intended to buy a fan and box in the vent going along the ceiling (as i dont have wall cabinets-)to the exterior wall but thought id see if i really need one as they are so expensive as yet i havent had problems but my kitchen is quite big.

You def. can!!! I have my hob and ovens on my island and I have a downdraft extractor which is ducted under the floor with a motor which sits outside. Caple make them.
You can get ceiling mounted models ducted to the outside.
And if your hob isn't along an exterior wall you can get flat ducting to sit behind or underneath kitchen cabinets.
Cooking with gas does increase stickiness. A couple of reasons for this. Firstly unlike electric/halgon/induction, gas flame produces heat beyond the edge of the pan which can lift and spread vapourised fats etc further. Second reason is that gas is hotter as its essentially burnt as you are using it. Thirdly as you use your gas hob and bits start to stick around the hob etc, the flame may not burn entirely clean which all adds to the sticky fun.

However nothing makes a bigger difference than extraction to the outside. Nothing. The difference is incredible.

When we first moved in here there was an induction hob and a recirculating extractor. The extractor was one of those Elica ceiling mounted dangly flowery lit things. Very expensive but useless (and hideous IMO). And yes we had greasy kitchen cabinets. And if you cooked steak then you would have to wipe the entire kitchen diner down afterwards.

Hmm, perhaps I should have done a bit more research on them, I just assumed that a hood did the same job as an extractor hood rather than a recirculating one!

I'm not having an over hob extractor in my new kitchen for many reasons. Noisy, ugly, bang head on them, fans the flames of the hob.

I will be having an extractor in the wall instead. A kitchen planner told me that she is increasingly seeing people plan them out of their kitchens for much the same reasons as above.

I haven't used mine for eons and my kitchen isn't greasy.

I have an over-hob extractor in our new(ish) kitchen. It was chosen for its power and the fact that the actual engine that drives it is outsite our kitchen - any noise is outsite and my kitchen is whisper-quiet (well, it would be if it weren't for the presence of 4 boys!!) AND grease/smell free .

A lot of the really fancy looking onse (glass, curved, look like a work of art, pop up from out of the worktop) are more like ornaments tbh. Ours is one aimed at commercial kitchens and, boy, it works. I would highly recommend going down the industrial route if you can.

"Noisy, ugly, bang head on them, fans the flames of the hob"

not true.

I think you just don't want one.

outside

Piglet John, that has just been my experience, so I don't see why you can say it's untrue?

What are you, the Extractor Police? Good grief, this isn't an AIBU.

Extractor police.

Fwiw. Mine is a downdraft so sits flush into worktop when not in use and obviously I can't bang my head on it even when in use.

It's virtually silent as the motor sits on a wall outside.

And I like it.

skandi, I like down draft and that was the front runner as I'd completely ruled out ceiling mounted. Agree, no banging of head which was a big selling point.

Do you find the extraction is as good at the front of the hob, am assuming yours is it that back of the hob? Or do you have one either side?

Is your floor suspended or concrete? Ours is concrete and it kind of put me off a bit.

So many questions.

I can't wait to have one. I'm glad I read this re: the difference between the two types. I'll be getting a new kitchen put in to our new place and this is something I'd need to know.

I never deep fry anything in oil. I do brown meat once a week or so for sauces/ casseroles etc. I also do soups etc (which require sweating the onion/carrot/celery a bit in oil before making the soup). It all adds up. The tiles around the oven definitely gets greasy. The windows steam up as well, and it's not ideal to have all that moisture inside. I'm looking forward to having an extractor again.

Deux.

It's one of those who sit behind the hob iykwim.

I find the extraction at the front fine. My hob is 5 ring and the two at the front are the smallest so not that hot and therefore not as steamy as the two at the back or the central one (think its called a 6kw burner??).

Love it most when it pops back down into the worktop once I am done with it. And then all I can see is a vast expanse of marble that is my island with two slivers of stainless steel in the centre.

I loved the look of the down draft ones, but could not convince myself that they would be as efficient as an overhead one: hot air rises, non?? The kitchen shop sales person did his best, but it just seemed counterintuitive to me... Interesting to read about your experience with one, skandi.

Re 'vast expanse of marble' our vast expanse of Corian is constantly Full Of Crap. Mainly DCs' crap, but also My Crap and DH's Crap. Oh, and Random Crap .
I have beautiful minimalist expensive kitchen and the main decorative theme is Crap

skandi. sounds lush.

I'm hoping for a minimalist look too but fear the Random Crap. I have this airy-fairy notion that I will be able to have an empty drawer into which I can sweep Random Crap. DH is the worst offender. He's really worried that he 'won't have anywhere to put anything'. Poor lamb.

Oh yes, we started out with several empty drawers. Which are now all filled and overfilled with Random Crap.
But you can strive for minimalist heaven... .

We don't have any extraction system, except lots of windows. That is because we have induction hobs in two separate parts of the kitchen and a couple of old fashioned gas burners in a third alcove. And we change the layout quite often, still figuring out what arrangement works best for us.

Things do get greasy, but we just clean with vinegar at the end of the day. And since it is lavender infused vinegar, the bonus is we come down to a nice smelling kitchen in the morning

Guess we are quite easygoing as we stay in an old farmhouse and with woodburning fires and wet dogs and lots of cooking (including deepfrying) we are used to grime and soot.

My mum used to have a fan thingy in one window (I guess similar to a bathroom one?) and she would switch it on while deep-frying. I remember her kitchen as being immaculately clean.

Sorry only answered half your questions.

I have suspended timber floors (old house and basement below).

You could still it with a concrete floor but messy as you would have to get it channelled out for ducting.

Also you need to think about which way your joists run as you need to run the ducting in between them. The ducting is too large to be run against the joist run the way you can with water and central heating pipes. So your joists need to run towards an exterior wall for this to work.

hee hee!

I take care to fit extractors so they are higher than the top of my head, therefore, unless I jump up, it is impossible for me to bang my head on them.

The suction is very low pressure and at least 800mm above the hob, so there is no wind to blow the flames.

unless I turn mine up to speed 3 (not nexecessary unless I have cremated the bacon) it is not noisy.

mine is very beautiful and has a matching walnut fascia panel

Just my experience

E.P.C. 49