Cooker Hoods/extractors - do they really work/are they worth the money?

[SamVimesIsMyHero]

We're thinking of having our hob in the island in the new kitchen to make it a bit more sociable for the person who is cooking. At the moment we don't have a cooker hood and I hate the fact that my house always seems to smell of last night's dinner. Sooooo, if we have an 'island' cooker hood over the hob, will it really work and do you need to pay for the very expensive ones for them to be effective? Thanks.

I think they are only of limited use but we have never spent more than a couple of hundred quid on ours. Maybe they are more efficient the more you spend. They are all bloody noisy though which rather cuts down on the social angle if you ask me.

Good point lala, hadn't thought of that. It's just the smell ...

I hate them too but had to have one in my new kitchen as we had an extension done and to comply with building regs we had to have one. I rarely use the extractor itself and went for the least obtrusive I could find but I do like the lights in it when I am cooking...

Why was it part of building regs? I thought it was more of a personal thing, how does it add to safety etc?!

Something to do with ventilation I think, in the same way that you need an extractor fan in a new build bathroom now. You could phone up your local building control department to check?