Do I really need a cooker hood? Updating kitchen

[ohwell02]

My kitchen is so small I hardly use mine as I just generally open a window Or it is more a style thing?

If it’s a small kitchen, I imagine that steam and grease would build up very quickly without a cooker hood.

I've not used ours for years. It never made a blind bit of difference when I did.

So, it is a huge white elephant gathering dust and grease. Personally, I'd have shelves instead. Or nothing and just a tiled wall.

You don’t need a hood. You can have a small filter fitted into the cupboard above.

an extractor will remove steam, fumes and smells from your kitchen.

Some hoods are not extractors and so are purely ornamental.

We're not having one in our new kitchen. I don't like the look of them & never use them, have never had problems with grease & smells. It's a big room with plenty of windows so ventilation not a problem.

Interestingly none of the kitchen designers tried to push them & when I said we weren't going to have one 3 out of the 5 (including lovely independent who came up with best design) said they didn't have one at home either.

If you’re planning on selling anytime soon then I’d put one in just because I think it would put a lot of buyers off. Also you say you’re updating but if your kitchen is in a new extension then I believe you need one to pass building regs, although that might just be gas hobs.

Ours is broken and we have to open the window every time we cook, or the windows steam up. Our kitchen is freezing anyway so in the depths of winter or after dark I really dislike this, but that might just be us.

When we redo it I'm going to have an old fashioned small extractor with cupboard space above.

I know when we had a new kitchen as part of an extension there was a building regs requirement (I think) that you had to replace like for like - so if you had an extractor previously, new kitchen had to have one - not sure whether that applies if you were just replacing kitchen and didnt need building reg sign off.

We have a wall mounted extractor fan above a high unit next to the hob, so not a cooker hood.

I've just lived 2 years in a house without an extractor fan.
Condensation grease and lingering smells have become the bane of my life.
I open the window- intact we had a window put in 18 months ago that opens wider than the previous one but it makes life difference except makes us cold on the winter.
I'm not overly house proud but I've spent more time scrubbing down tiles, unit doors and the top of my wall cabinets than I ever have before (in 20 years).
I'm getting a new kitchen put in next week. The electrics and cooker are being moved just so I can have a fully extracting hood.

I do think size and layout of a kitchen help but after what I have experienced on the last 2 years I would never be without one again.

10+ years in a house with a broken extractor fan. I open the window for very smelly food, and generally don't cook burgers on the grill, but otherwise find it makes fuck all difference

If you are just "refurnishing" the kitchen, ie not knocking out walls or moving it into a different room, you don't have to improve on your current situation.

Current building regs require extraction to outside either "adjacent to the hob" ie a cooker hood, or a wall extractor fan like an Xpelair. 2nd of these is much cheaper, less bulky and under-appreciated option IMO. But kitchen companies love to flog you an expensive extractor hood.

As a previous poster said- they just catch dirt and grease- but that is part of their job. I think it totally depends on your ceiling height and how much/what you cook. We have friends, that didn't put one in, with fairly low ceilings. They have a dirty greasy area above the cooker with peeling paint. They don't appear to mind but it would drive me up the wall.

I don't use mine because I can't stand the noise. Are there any that run silent (or at least quietly)?

When we bought our home there wasn't one and the kitchen was about 30 odd years old. The grease was ingrained in the walls and window frames. Not immediately apparent but there.

We've redone the kitchen and put one in and it does make a difference and I think you need something ideally.

an extractor will remove steam, fumes and smells from your kitchen.

We can't have external extraction, anyone got any opinion on whether it's worth it at all without?

For quiet try Envirovent or remote motor extractors. It's quite illuminating to look at the decibels noise ratings of different fans.

Also IME the grease deposits are quite localised to within about a metre of the hob so if you have no wall units or an island set up, just make sure the nearby surfaces/ splashback are easy to clean.

We lived in a rental house without one, and we just couldn't keep the kitchen clean - admittedly we did a fair bit of frying, and cooked for large groups a couple of times a week, so the kitchen was well used! Our current house has a hood with extractor fan (connected to the outside world) and the difference is substantial. I would never consider not having one again, but that does depend on how/what you cook.

I was desperate for one for ten years but was in a rented place where the landlord wouldn't consider it. I'd never be without mine now. It does actually extract though, I wouldn't bother with anything ornamental