During my renovation, I thought hard about whether I should really install a cooker hood. After all, I've been cooking without a hood in my old house for the past 10 years. Anyway, I finally went ahead to install one and here's my verdict.
Question:
Is it necessary to install a cooker hood? Does it really remove smell and grease and keep your home smelling clean and fresh?
Question:
Is it necessary to install a cooker hood? Does it really remove smell and grease and keep your home smelling clean and fresh?
Answer:
Yes, it is necessary to install a cooker hood as it really does remove most smoke, smell and oily grease. In my opinion, between 70% to 80% of smoke and grease is removed, which keeps my house stay smelling fresh and clean. Most of the time, there's no need to mop the floor after I cook. I don't do deep fry though. Just some light frying. But the downside is that for maximum efficiency, I need to close all doors so that the kitchen is completely enclosed and it can be quite suffocating with the smoke, steam (sauna!) and the noise emitted by the cooker hood (which can be rather deafening).
Yes, it is necessary to install a cooker hood as it really does remove most smoke, smell and oily grease. In my opinion, between 70% to 80% of smoke and grease is removed, which keeps my house stay smelling fresh and clean. Most of the time, there's no need to mop the floor after I cook. I don't do deep fry though. Just some light frying. But the downside is that for maximum efficiency, I need to close all doors so that the kitchen is completely enclosed and it can be quite suffocating with the smoke, steam (sauna!) and the noise emitted by the cooker hood (which can be rather deafening).
Question:
Which cooker hood is the best?
Which cooker hood is the best?
Answer:
It depends on the type of house and the users' preferences.
It depends on the type of house and the users' preferences.
1. Extraction Type (Ducted/Recirculated): Can the grease and smoke be extracted outside of your home through ducting shafts, or be filtered and recirculated back into the kitchen? Some cooker hoods are convertible between ducted and recirculating mode. Usually, if you live in high rise apartments, you can only install the recirculated extraction hood. For stand-alone houses, you can choose both ducted and recirculated hoods.
2. Extraction Rate (m³/h): Simply multiply the volume of your kitchen (LxWxH) in metres by 10 and you'll get the extraction rate (aka air flow, air exchange rate) needed for your kitchen. Usually the rating ranges from 200 to more than 1000 m³/h. But for me, I'll just go for those higher than 700 m³/h at least. More than 1000m³/h if I ever have an open-concept kitchen.
3. Size and Installation: Usually the length of cooker hood comes in 60 or 90cm. It should cover the length of your cooking stove/hob. If the length of your hood and hob differs, centralise the hood above the hob. Also, the minimum height distance between the hood and hob is usually 65cm for gas hob and 55cm for induction hob.
4. Types of Hood: They can be mounted on the ceiling (island style), on the wall (chimney, canopy, conventional, etc.), under the top cabinets (slimline, telescopic/retractable, etc.) or even concealed below your kitchen countertop when not in use (downdraft, countertop extractors). The choice depends on your needs and wants. Consider the extraction type and rate, size of hood and installation type (ceiling/wall/under-cabinet), your kitchen design and theme, your budget, space constraints (need more storage space?), maintenances needed (frequency of cleaning and changing filters), types of material (glass/stainless steel), etc.
5. Lighting: Finally, most cooker hoods come with lightings (usually LED or halogen bulbs) so that you can have a clearer cooking view. LED lightings are more energy efficient, last longer and emit less heat than halogen bulbs, making cooking a more pleasant (cooler) experience. Also, LED bulbs emit a cooler, whiter light as compared to halogen bulbs which emit yellowish light which I don't like. Whiter lighting makes me see much better.
2. Extraction Rate (m³/h): Simply multiply the volume of your kitchen (LxWxH) in metres by 10 and you'll get the extraction rate (aka air flow, air exchange rate) needed for your kitchen. Usually the rating ranges from 200 to more than 1000 m³/h. But for me, I'll just go for those higher than 700 m³/h at least. More than 1000m³/h if I ever have an open-concept kitchen.
3. Size and Installation: Usually the length of cooker hood comes in 60 or 90cm. It should cover the length of your cooking stove/hob. If the length of your hood and hob differs, centralise the hood above the hob. Also, the minimum height distance between the hood and hob is usually 65cm for gas hob and 55cm for induction hob.
4. Types of Hood: They can be mounted on the ceiling (island style), on the wall (chimney, canopy, conventional, etc.), under the top cabinets (slimline, telescopic/retractable, etc.) or even concealed below your kitchen countertop when not in use (downdraft, countertop extractors). The choice depends on your needs and wants. Consider the extraction type and rate, size of hood and installation type (ceiling/wall/under-cabinet), your kitchen design and theme, your budget, space constraints (need more storage space?), maintenances needed (frequency of cleaning and changing filters), types of material (glass/stainless steel), etc.
5. Lighting: Finally, most cooker hoods come with lightings (usually LED or halogen bulbs) so that you can have a clearer cooking view. LED lightings are more energy efficient, last longer and emit less heat than halogen bulbs, making cooking a more pleasant (cooler) experience. Also, LED bulbs emit a cooler, whiter light as compared to halogen bulbs which emit yellowish light which I don't like. Whiter lighting makes me see much better.
Conclusion:
If I can freely choose a cooker hood again without any space and budget constraints, I'll install a slimline hood (simple design looks neater) with the highest extraction rate (more than 1000 m³/h), the quietest (less than 50 db), the one with LED (white) lightings and finally, with no transparent glass material (glass is fragile and difficult to keep clean, coloured glass is okay).
By the way, this is the online specification screenshot of the model I installed.
