Should of got an extractor fan for new kitchen!

[NoLongerATeacher]

So I have a lovely new kitchen with my oven in a central island. During the design I was sort of talked out of having an extractor fan along the lines of who uses them anyway? I didn’t really use mine a lot so agreed. Fast forward - big mistake! Kitchen is such a big open area now that any cooking smells etc go everywhere - and cooking steaks - well we couldn’t see for a while😂anyway has anyone got any experience of ceiling extractor fans that don’t actually extract outdoors and just use the filters? Anything you can recommend? Thank you for your help.

Yep. They are f,king pointless and I wish we'd installed a fan that extracts externally.

Watching with interest as we've just had an island installed with a hob in it and decided against an extractor. We have velux windows above it and were hoping they would be enough.

Thanks - I’ve just gone back to my kitchen fitter and told him I want one that extracts outside - unless anyone else has any positive views on the filter ones?

Filter ones are better than nothing, but I changed mine out for a real one with a pipe to outdoors after six months.

Whoops, hit send.
Loads better. But make sure you get one that you don't bonk your head on all the time if it's suspended.

I actually thought building regs required a kitchen extractor. We don’t have one though. We have roof lights that open (glass orangery roof) and open a window. Don’t cook steak that often in the kitchen. Prefer bbq steak. Generally though we don’t care about cooking smells. When I had an extractor we still had smells! We like food though!

Meant to say. Put it in the ceiling and duct out between ceiling and floor above. Recycling ones are not that great. Buy the quietest you can get. My old one was like a plane taking off!

We sucked up the cost and had a box section built on the ceiling with an externally vented extractor fitted. Cost a lot but it's been amazing.

This one comes up fairly regularly.
Can't for the life of me understand why people think they don't need an extractor as (when correctly dimensioned & positioned) they do exactly what they are designed to do.
Same goes for a bathroom or shower, you can't beat good old fashioned fresh air but an extractor is a necessity to keep moisture to a minimum (especially in the winter).

I tried a filter type in my old kitchen many years ago and quickly discovered it was next to useless and instead installed a directly vented one.
Later on when we re-modelled the kitchen with a centrally mounted stove we had the ceiling down and installed duct to an external wall so it vented perfectly.
It can be done but can be distruptive.

How strange. Why would a kitchen designer (?) advise against one? Bonkers.

Can you maybe get a downdraft one retro-fitted? No idea how good they are, we’ve always had a proper extractor fan and would never not get one. In fact, the house we’re buying may have one with a filter and even though we won’t be changing the kitchen quite yet we may be replacing it with a proper extractor.

We debated this issue so much when we got a new kitchen. We have a cheap wall extractor to the outside to meet building regs but due to layout it isn't near our hob. So over our island we have a ceiling recirculating fan. It does the job when cooking fish or steak and we are glad we got it.

Filter ones that don't actually extract are pointless.

You were talked out of having one on the premise no one uses them? I beg to differ and I wonder how many of their customers are cursing the shitty “advice”.

An alternative is a hob with a built in extractor in the side. No experience of those though so not sure how effective they are.

To be fair I had thought the extractor would have to come down over the island and I didn’t want that to ruin the view of my lovely lights and he just said well how often do people use an extractor anyway - I’m really rubbish at this sort of thing and I should have researched first but at the time this didn’t seem important when so many other major stuff was happening. Anyway I am where I am - not decorated yet and I like the idea of a box section which would work - thank you everyone - very helpful xx

We have one over the hob in kitchen and a really quiet automated one in the adjoining utility where I do the ironing. Both extract outside and would never consider not putting one. Also ensure that you can get one that will cope with the room size plus.

In terms of retrofitting, you might find it easier and cheaper to swap out your hob for one with an extractor. If your problem is smell rather than moisture then that might help, and won't ruin the sightlines on your nice lights

I would kill to have an outside extractor. The filter ones are useless. All the tops of my kitchen cupboards are covered in grease, even with regular cleaning. They seem to do precisely zero for smokey things like frying steak on cast iron.

How have the building regs signed it off? Ours insists on various things like a mechanical extractor, window vents etc.

I have. Rangemaster so can’t change hob - the island is jilt around it. - I need to check about building regs as no one mentioned them!

Yeah, all these huge designer kitchens - do they actually cook in them, we like curry so the house would smell without our extractor to the outside, and doors and windows.

Well we don't have one any more, we did before but we just open the window and it seems to work far better anyway. You don't need one as long as some form of ventilation is available (external door/window). If you have an open plan room you may end up not wanting the noise of one, or if you definitely want one maybe try and check reviews for one that's not too loud.

We’ve just moved into a house with no extractor fan in the kitchen, it’s awful and we can’t understand why the previous owner removed it - we’ve seen old pictures of the kitchen from before they bought it and there was one. Interesting to read you didn’t install one for aesthetic reasons as we have been wracking our brains to think why someone would do this!

If you have extended you’ll need one to comply with building regs. Otherwise it’s your choice but I’m also baffled as to why anyone wouldn’t have one.

When we moved into this house there was a filter one and it was useless, luckily it was on an outside wall so we were able to convert it to ducted. I'd never not have one, we are open plan and the smells go all round the house without one, the noise is a small price to pay. You can get downdraft ones that go in the units for islands but I don't know any details.

We’ve also moved with a kitchen that hasn’t got one. Madness. It’s awful cooking in it. We are hoping to update the kitchen this year and will definitely make provision for one that extracts externally.