How to choose the ideal cooker hood for your kitchen
How can you choose the best cooker hood for your kitchen? Get the best advice and shopping tips for choosing the right kitchen cooker hood for your needs. Below you will find a shopping guide helping you get the most of your kitchen cooker hood.
It’s hard to imagine a modern kitchen without a cooker hood. During cooking, the kitchen is filled with steam, smoke, wet air or unpleasant cooking odors.
These aspects become all the more unpleasant both in summer when the heat is suffocating and the kitchen should have fresh air as well as during the cold season when you have to open the window to air it that means the outside frost to invade the kitchen space .
All these inconveniences are easily solved by purchasing a kitchen hood. The ideal cooker hood contributes to both the appearance and the cleanliness of the kitchen, avoiding oily deposits and smoking the walls or furniture and is beneficial for our health after all. It is not healthy to stay in a room full of steam or smoke.
Table of Contents
How to choose the best cooker hood
Of course, choosing the kitchen hood is the same as with all household appliances: according to individual needs. You have to keep in mind a few important criteria when you are looking to buy the best cooker hood.
Hoods can operate on two principles: air filtration and recirculation or air exhaust. Each of the two types of cooker hood has its advantages and disadvantages.
There are also mixed operation cooker hoods that combine both principles of operation and can be used according to the need of the moment.
Types of cooker hoods
Air recirculation cooker hood
The air recirculation cooker hood does not permanently remove the air from the kitchen but recirculates it after it is filtered, as the name says. The advantages of such a hood are that you are not conditioned by fitting the cooker as close as possible to an outside wall or by having outside walls.
It also mounts easily and quickly anywhere. Instead, the disadvantages of a recirculating hood are numerous. The hood filter needs to be changed quite often depending on how much the hood is used, generating a high maintenance cost.
The odors are eliminated only partially, the air being filtered and not permanently discharged, and the heat is not removed from the room.
Air evacuation cooker hood
The kitchen hood with the air outlet was put on the market before the filter with air recirculation. Such a hood has a much better advantage/drawback ratio than the filter hood.
While a filter hood can be mounted anywhere, the exhaust hood requires a way of communicating with the outside so that the air can be evacuated.
Another great disadvantage of the evacuation hood is that during winter it cools the kitchen air during its operation.
But no matter how unpleasant it is to cool the room during the winter, so useful is the evacuation of hot air during the summer and the maintenance of an adequate temperature.
The ability to remove smoke, steam or odors is much higher than the air re-circulation filter hood, making it useful within certain limits even without the fan being switched on.
Mixed type cooker hood
Mixed kitchen hoods are a combination of the two types of hoods we talked about with exhaustion and filtration. With a simple push of a button, you can switch from filtering to re-circulation of the final exhaust air.
The hood combines the advantages of both types of hood, but not the drawbacks, thus offering great flexibility in how to use it.
For example, in the winter you can use the filter function to prevent the frost from entering the room, while in the summer you can use the air exhaust function to remove heat and keep the air fresh.
Design and functionality
Dimensions
Dimensions are an important feature of a kitchen hood, along with its design. Size matters not only for the aesthetic aspect but also for functionality and efficiency.
The size of the hood should be at least as large as that of the cooking appliance, and the ideal size would be even a few centimeters higher.
The dimensions vary greatly depending on the needs, from the smallest hotels to the island-type industrial used in the kitchens of the restaurants, for which I can not say that there is an ideal size.
Of course, the size of the hood along with other criteria has an important say in terms of efficiency.
Design
Regarding the design side, the hoods have advanced a lot in recent years.
The hoods are made of different materials, from sheet metal to glass or even glass.
The design offer is very extensive, from classic to retro or minimalist models. It’s impossible not to find anything to suit your taste or in tune with your kitchen furniture.
Cooker hood lighting
Hood lighting is an important aspect both in design and utility. The most cooker hoods are providing light using a neon or two light bulbs.
The latest hood models illuminate the cooking surface with LED systems or other types of spotlights. Keep in mind that light sources must be strong enough and well distributed so that the cooking surface is illuminated as well and as evenly as possible.
Telescopic cooker hoods
Telescopic cooker hoods are hoods with retractable elements made for easier integration into furniture or for better aesthetics.
Telescopic cooker hoods are generally smaller in the rest position and during operation the telescopic elements increase the depth of the hood for better efficiency.
Now that we’ve covered the design, let’s talk about the technical characteristics of a kitchen hood. The capacity, filter type and number of engines your hood has are some of the most important features to check when purchasing.
Technical specifications
Capacity of a cooker hood
The capacity of a kitchen hood refers to cubic meters of air that are evacuated or filtered in an hour. Experts recommend that at least ten air exchanges be made in one hour, so by a simple calculation, the capacity of the best kitchen hood should be at least ten times the volume of the kitchen where it will be installed. The higher the capacity of the hood, the better the ventilation of the space.
All cooker hoods have adjustable capacity depending on the number of speeds. It is good to choose a hood with a maximum number of speeds so it will not always be used at full capacity. The more the hood has a more adjustable capacity, the longer the life will increase and the noise produced will be reduced.
Noise level
Considering that you will spend the vast majority of the operating time of the hood right next to it, the noise level is another factor to keep in mind. The noise produced by a cooker hood can generally be between 40 and 75 decibels.
It should be said that the price will be inversely proportional to the noise level of the hood, a hood with a low noise level will have a higher price and vice versa. Calculate your budget and choose the hood that fits your needs.
Hood filters
Hood filters are the ones that retain the fat from the filtered steam. Grease that would otherwise lie on the kitchen walls and inside the hood, reducing his lifetime.
Not all hoods benefit from such a filter, but it is good to choose a filtering hood when making a purchase. Filters can be of more than one type: disposable, washable or ionic.
- Disposable filters can not be cleaned and must be changed one to two months depending on the operating times of the hood. These filters are generally made of paper or synthetic materials.
- Washable filters are metallic, generally aluminum, and can be cleaned without the need for replacement. They generally have to be washed once a month, more often or less, as needed. Such filters bend very easily, so be careful not to damage them during washing.
- Ion filtration is the latest technology in the industry. Ion filters deal with the negative ionization of recirculated air. By this negative ionization, the efficiency of the hood in eliminating smells is enhanced, eliminating at the same time microbes or viruses in the air, keeping it much fresher. Some hoods even have the air refresh function, which is used outside the cooking time simply to have cleaner air in the room.
Cooker hood engines
The number of hood engines is not as important as it would be. This technical specification manages to fool many buyers.
Kitchen hoods can have one or two engines. Two engines do not automatically mean greater efficiency. Of a two-engine hood and a single-engine hood, at the same capacity, the one-engine cooker hood will always be much quieter. Study this attentively when purchasing.
Price
The price of a simple cooker hood starts somewhere from 30-40 £ and can even reach up to 2-3000 £ for the most demanding customers. Carefully weigh all the pluses and minuses shown for each type of hood and choose the hood that matches your needs and the kitchen where it is to be fitted.
Recommended cooker hoods
We chose some recommended models of kitchen cooker hoods that combine a pleasant look with a quality/price ratio as great as possible.
- ENERGY EFFICIENCY COOKER HOOD: This A rating energy class kitchen extractor can save up to 40% of energy consumption, compares to Class C models.
- 60cm EXTRACTOR HOOD: Suitable for using above a standard-sized hob, 2 pieces 26 x 31,9cm grease filters and pyramidal appearanc provide a large extraction area.
- 370m³/h SUCTION POWER: The suction power is strong enough freshen up your kitchen during your cooking hours. 3 speed levels can be chosen to meet your need.
- 【Strong Suction Power】 Strong suction means there is no more annoying disturbance of cooking fumes, and you can enjoy cooking in a fresh way, as the 180m3/h powerful airflow efficiently removes the most unpleasant odors, steam and grease.
- 【Dual Extraction Modes & Three Speeds】 Our Comfee hood is applicable to both the duct out type and the internal recirculation type (need seperate purchase of cotton filter), depending on your demands. With three power options, it can precisely meet your needs and keep your kitchen always fresh.
- 【Simple & Intuitive】 Intuitive use with a clear operating panel. Push the button and obtain reliable physical haptics. 20000 times service life for the button guarantees your long-lasting usage. Also, push and turn on the LED light, ensuring a decent visibility at your stove-top.
- 【400m³/h Strong Suction】 Stronger suction among all cooker hoods, which means there is no more annoying disturbance of cooking fumes, and you can enjoy cooking in a fresh way, as the 400m3/h powerful airflow efficiently removes the most unpleasant odors, steam and grease
- 【Dual Extraction Modes & Three Speeds】 COMFEE' hood is applicable to both the duct out type and the internal recirculation type (need seperate purchase of carbon filter ---- search B098XFHFY3), depending on your demands. Duct-out Type does not need carbon filters. If With three power options, it can precisely meet your needs and keep your kitchen always fresh.
- 【5-layer Aluminum Grease Filter】 Our Comfee hood, equipped with 5-layer aluminum filters, efficiently filters out grease and other solid particles. Also, being easily detached and cleaned, it can always sustain its optimal efficiency.
- 3 SPEED SETTINGS - Multiple settings for added versatility - no matter what you are cooking, your kitchen will be smell and steam free.
- EXTRACTION OR RECIRCULATION - Ensures you can alter your cooker hood to best suit you, at the easy touch of a button.
- TOUCH CONTROL - The 5 clearly displayed controls are easily accessible, meaning you can quickly alter the ventilation rate, switch on your hood or turn on the light.
- ENERGY EFFICIENCY A ++: Compares to Class C models, the Class A++ can save up to 80% of energy consumption.
- ULTRA-STRONG SUCTION POWER：4 power levels and boost function, a powerful flow rate of up to 650 m³/h, fits all your needs and keep the air fresh and clean.
- DUAL VENTILATION MODES: Ducted outside with a 1.5m exhaust pipe. Or easily convert it to ductless with our CBCF003 functional charcoal filters.
- ENERGY EFFICIENCY HOOD: The extractor hood is in the energy efficiency class A, at the same suction power, reduces up to 30% energy consumption compared to the models class C.
- HEAD FREE:The wall-mounted chimney hood is installed at wall by an angle from the cook top surface, comes with a pleasant headroom above the cooking area.
- POWERFUL AND QUIET: It can extract up to 350m³/h,and noise level is at a maximum level of 62 dB(A). Three speeds help you adapt to each meal individually.
Last update on 2022-08-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API