Kitchen extractor fan

[Freshair1]

Do I really need one? Never had one in years of owning homes but am fitting a new kitchen. We have pendant lights for the island which is where the hob will go. Suggestions?

I’ve never had a home without one! Don’t the cooking smells stay really strong, and are noticeable all over the house? Do you get a lot of condensation? Is there a lot of grease build up on top of cupboards?

Depends on the size of your kitchen I guess. Ours is massive and doesn't need one.

Fwiw, if you think you might ever want to rent your house out further down the line, I think I came across something the other day that says it's a legal requirement.

Why does being massive help?

Smells dissipate really easily and nothing gets steamed up.

Cool..having a bit of a mid project wobble.

We found the amount of steam lessened greatly when we changes from gas to electric, gas produces a lot of water when it burns. We just have an xpelair type fan, like a bathroom one

I hate them, in my old house there was an over job one that's sole purpose appeared to be providing forehead bruises!

Never turned it on, kitchen was small and not grease covered!

New house we have a fan in a corner away from the oven, larger kitchen and again it's never turned on. I won't remove it as would mean patching a hole in the brick work but to me they are pointless (again kitchen doesn't get steamed up and nor are the tops of my cupboards greasy)

Thanks all for your thoughts. We will have three windows within the space, all with trickle vents and hoping this will suffice. Never had extractors on before.

Really poor advice above! You need an extractor if you're putting in a new kitchen because of building regs! Plus you have smoke, oil and carbon dioxide created in cooking which lowers the oxygen in the air. You need one and you should get one...and you should use it!

We have a large kitchen with bifolds, sliders and French doors and I would 100% say you need an extractor. The smells don't dissipate, they will impregnate all your furniture and increase humidity. We have pendants over our induction hob so have a hob with an extractor incorporated in it with ducting under the floor to outside.

Not if your existing kitchen doesn't have one, you have to have the same or above what you have. If we were to have a new kitchen we would have to have at least an Xpelair type fan as that is what we have. OP doesn't say if she already has one.

Building regs requires one. I put in an induction job with integral down draft extractor. Very neat solution.

Link to said regs? I've looked and all it says is to replace extraction like for like. But there isn't anything except for a dated window extractor thing.

If there's a rule that says: "for your own health and safety, do this" why would you try to find a way in which this doesn't need to apply? Also do you have a gas hob?

Induction hob

Just open a window.

We've compromised by getting a small wall mounted venting extractor. It's like a little square which will blend in with cups on a shelf.

I've only recently had a new kitchen fitted with an extractor that has an external separate motor. Previously I never used an extractor, as I left a window open. One day I decided to make a 12 hr broth and didn't switch the extractor on, the glass French doors were sweating and water dribbled down as well as the smell.

Next time I made a 12 hour broth I used the extractor, none of the above happened.

I now realise the purpose of it!

As PP says, their primary purpose is to is to get rid of condensation when you are boiling any kind of water on the hob. Otherwise you will get alot of condensation which is bad for any house.

I don't think I've ever switched mine on. The house seems fine.

Yes to needing one. We also have a massive space but depending on what is cooking it can really leave smells. This is a reason why I didn't use the island for the induction hob and went for it on the wall sided tops with a fairly powerful hood. Standing outside it definately works!!

I just don't understand not using one... It covers everything nearby in a sticky residue! Especially with gas hobs the air pollution caused by them is not good at all without an extractor running the whole time. We borrowed an indoor air pollution monitor and when we cooked on the hob and forgot to turn the extractor on, oxygen levels really plummeted.

Pulling out high humidity air created by cooking via extraction hood is a pretty good way of controlling house humidity at low cost.

If you don't do this you will probably have to get rid of it in some other way. The problem is every time you open the kitchen door you will get humid air going into the house. Basically you are setting yourself up for humidity problems.

If you are using the kitchen for anything more than boiling a kettle and making some toast, yes you absolutely need one! If you are proper batch cooking - you also need to get it ducted outside, to really extract the moisture and smells and not just recirculate trough the filter.