[Closed] Extractor / Cooker hood in the new kitchen. Why bother?

smell, grease etc, get one of those pop up extractor fans from the worktop......

I was gonna say, I stayed in a place that had the cooker in an island in the middle and it had a pop up extractor built into it - seemed to work fine and looked fancy! My mum has no extractor in her kitchen and it's fine most of the time but when cooking stuff like steak it's not great.

My experience is that unless you've got an extractor that vents outside they're of limited use. They do collect grease to some extent as the filters get dirty, but as far as smoke/steam or smells go the non-vented ones are pretty useless. For the frying pan I've got one of those mesh screen you put over the pan itself and that seem perfectly adequate in catching grease and oil splatters when frying and do a better job of an extractor fan.

Will a layer of grease really accumulate on the ceiling?

It will accumulate somewhere, our extractor hood has stainless steel filters to trap grease and whenever I clean them out they're coated in grease....

Aside from the legal requirement to have one, what sort of cooking do you do/expect to be doing? We regularly stir fry, make curries, cook with a hotstone (which gets VERY smoky when cooking steaks etc at 350 deg. C at the table) and various other cooking that regularly causes lots of smell and/or smoke. There would be absolutely no way not having a powerful extractor directly over the range cooker would work in our circumstances (we have a dual-motored 1m wide hood with a direct extraction outdoors - just through to the other side of the external wall it is fitted to). However my in-laws have a similar set-up as you describe and it works for them as they cook more traditional food and don't have the kitchen looking like a war-zone like I often do.

So (IMO) you should look at your circumstances and design the kitchen around your need – if you don't get it right now, you will be a long time regretting it.

You'll stink the house out, you minger. (-:

Never heard of those before - where does the steam go? Do you duct under the floor or is there a condensation trap?

Stink, grease, damp patches.

Thanks for the advice so far! Especially Cougar! 🙂

The kitchen has actually been spec'd with a extractor (recirculator with filters) built into the induction hob but holy **** - they are expensive!

Also, it's a relatively new tech and so there aren't many reviews online.

Seems like the general consensus is to bite the bullet and get one or we will probably regret it down the line.

We went without an extractor for 10 years. No big deal. We had a door from kitchen to garage and we just opened that if needed. When cooking steak or other smokey stuff we would open a window as well to get a through draft.

We had the kitchen moved around earlier this year and now have a working extractor. We use it occasionally but it is not much better than just opening door or window,

Will a layer of grease really accumulate on the ceiling?

Cookbooks, clocks, kettles, fruit bowls calendars, walls, floors, ceiling under and cupboards on the lights along and appliance handles (and cupboard handles). I've cleared plenty houses and flats with no extractor and we're not talking heavy chip pan or dff users.

Cleaning regularly will obviously sort some of it but its the bits you don't think about then you have to peel your hands off. And its tenacious stuff to clean anyway.

It's not just for smoky or steamy cooking. A gas hob emits pollutants during normal operation.

Never heard of those before – where does the steam go? Do you duct under the floor or is there a condensation trap?

When I designed and helped my builder make our extension, we sunk ducting into the floor and concreted over it - it extracted to an airbrick style vent. The 90 degree bend where the pipe 'popped' up out of the ground, ready to be mated to the vent on the extractor (on of the fancy pants elevating/pup-up ones) was only about 1.5cm off... Not bad for educated guesswork of the placement of the island etc etc!

DrP

Stink, grease, damp patches.

All of which you still get even with an extractor fan. Any surface you don't clean regularly, like the top of units etc will accumulate layers of sticky grease and dust with or without an extractor fan.

Contrary to above We went without a propper extractor for 10 years -just a window fan nearby. -even though I'd fitted the most powerful one I could find it still didn't have much effect on the job - less than 2m away

It was horrible , horrible to cook in , steam , smoke, smells hung around for ages and filtered through the house. Dining at the table was not nice if you had been cooking something at high temps and everything got filthy fast. Steam cleaner was deployed alot.

Placement of the cooker was put first and foremost to give a chance to have a outside vented hob hood. It comes straight up and out a tile vent at roof level.

It's been a transformation.

For the reasons your finding we did not go for an island it might look trendy and on point but it fairly restricts your practical options.

All of which you still get even with an extractor fan. Any surface you don’t clean regularly, like the top of units etc will accumulate layers of sticky grease and dust with or without an extractor fan.

Not nearly as much as without an extractor fan.

Thanks for the advice so far! Especially Cougar! 🙂

I know my comment was tongue in cheek, but there was a truth to it. I've been viewing houses recently, we found one that was lovely but didn't have a cooker extractor and the nature of the building would've made it near-impossible to fit something externally vented without running ducts half the length of the kitchen. You could smell it as soon as they opened the front door, it was pretty grim.

I just stuck one in ... extracts from above the cooker into ceiling space then vents outside.
Hood wasn't expensive compared to everything else... came with a motor but I just stuck an external fan and ran the wires back to the hood.

Also, what about all the steam? If you're not externally extracting, all that water is going into the building - it's probably a lot. Not good

We've gone from having extraction to the outside to the same extractor but in recirc mode (with carbon filters fitted) and after 18 months I can't tell the difference.

There's zero chance of us not having any form of extraction.

Also, what about all the steam? If you’re not externally extracting, all that water is going into the building – it’s probably a lot. Not good

Possibly, but filtered steam (ie with carbon filters ideally) would be preferable to not having anything but I would still be designing around being able to vent outdoors. I must ask my neighbours sometime if they like the smell of my cooking 🙂

Planning a replacement kitchen for our new place and will probably fit a hood with a bathroom style extractor with timer as per stevextc. I want the noise as far from the kitchen as possible but also increased air flow. Might even rig it up to use both (built in and inline) in tandem for super extraction power.
Our island will be for food prep/serving/baking. Sink/hob will be on external walls for ease of maintenance.

I just put a grid in the ceiling above the island cooker and a remote fan ducted thru the roof. Works really well

All of which you still get even with an extractor fan. Any surface you don’t clean regularly, like the top of units etc will accumulate layers of sticky grease and dust with or without an extractor fan.

I'll second what Trail_Rat said, we fitted a hood when we got our extension done and the difference is night and day (we didn't run it for about 6 months after discovering the builders had fitted the wrong ducting). We put full bore 150mm ducting in so it was quieter than it would otherwise be. The inside is quite filthy but everything else is clean including the stuff on cupboard tops. We can have the kitchen in a white out and still not have the smells travel, job done!

Remote fan is great as long as you can get to it afterwards!

Our new kitchen has an extractor built into the ceiling above the island hob. It's pretty obvious when you forget to switch it on, and the filters can be cleaned in the dishwasher.

We did look into those worktop mounted units, but aside from the expense, they take up a fair amount of space under the hob for the motor etc.

In contrast, our old kitchen, which had a knackered extractor, accumulated grease on cupboard tops.

Can you not just have the hob on a work top and not on the island, splash backs catch splashes, they'll just travel on an island?

I know it'll 'look nice' but practically is it the best place to have hot pans? I say this with an early 90's spec crappy old kitchen btw, one day I'll be rich enough to put a new one in, but not this year, or next by the looks of it.

I'd definitely have an extractor that vents to outside if you can. We have a Bora hob with inbuilt extractor fan ( https://www.bora.com/gb/gb/ ). When we were having the new kitchen I got them to dig out a channel in the floor that then pops up behind the sink/bin units and goes through the wall. On the outside is a Naber Flowstar ( https://www.compair-flow.com/flow-star-gts/en/ ) that opens when the extractor is on and closes when it's off which helps stop any draught or little creatures coming in.

Our extension has a cathedral ceiling so we got the builder to make a thing that hangs down over where the island now is, like an upside down chimney, that I fitted the extractor too. It’s the right distance above the hob and seems about the same height as cooker hoods in other peoples houses. It seems to do the job well and goes out through the roof. I’ve cut my head on the corner of it several times.

We couldn’t stomach the ridiculous prices for cooker hoods. Got a large silent fan from Screwfix between the floorboards with a louvred 450mm square vent above the cooker/island. Vents straight outside. Low profile nothing to bash your head on. Very quiet. Works great. Look at Lindab website for parts.

We've got a cookology downdraft extractor in the island. Vented out under floor to external. Nowhere near as costly as the others, looks nice and works.

Takes up about 1/3rd of an under cabinet.

Our house has no extractor in the kitchen and cooking pasta in winter turns the whole room into a steam room with condensation on every surface. The 'extractor' is a recirculating thing that makes no difference to smells or steam. Fitting a proper extractor is near the top of the to do list now.
My mum got one of those ones that pops up out of the counter when she had her kitchen done with a peninsular unit across the dining area. It works great, sucks the steam out through a duct under the plinths to the wall. She didn't fancy the look of the sort that hangs off the ceiling but it's all personal taste and depends on the room layout. I think the ceiling sort look fine.

How high do you lot have your extractor hoods?

Ours is low enough that I can rest my chin on it. That seems stupidly low to me.

It's a recirculating hood too, so we rarely bother switching it on (the kitchen is only about 9 foot by 10 foot). Bloody pointless IMO

It was hard enough drilling a hole to get the gas into our kitchen, we just open a window instead.

Also suffered a lot of rubbish extractors in rented accommodation so really doubted their ability to do anything but make noise.

How high do you lot have your extractor hoods?

Dunno, above head height, 2m mark or so probably?

We just have a cowl on the outside with a neoprene lined plate that lifts when it runs. Occasionally get a clunk in high winds but otherwise draught free.

We went with a Bora as well. Ceiling mounted fan we had before was next to useless.
Now I can cook steaks inside without setting off the smoke alarm.
Mmm, steak.

Mine being just a grid in the ceiling is about 3 m high 🙂

Ours is low enough that I can rest my chin on it

Are you very tall?

Our cooker hood is mounted immediately above a stainless steel splash back and its lowest point is probably 1.75m above the floor. Sufficiently low that I can bang the edge with my head now and again.

I have seen them lower in some kitchens - about 1.7m above the floor.

I suppose the compromise is low enough for any controls to be accessible and to better ‘catch’ things rising off the hob, yet high enough for the hob  to be visible and avoid too many head & face hits.

An extractor I think is necessary for modern kitchens and cooking. If I were refitting our kitchen I’d probably still go for a hood but with an external fan. More suck, less noise. Though if there was space for an island then one of these worktop-level extractors sounds ideal. Again, I’d see if there was an option for an external or distant fan to reduce kitchen noise.

How high do you lot have your extractor hoods?

I fitted Mines at 1.95 off ground

There was no way I was going any lower to hit my head .

All my wall units are higher than standard too so the whole worktop is usable

Ok, I have some experience in kitchen ventilation (I’ve designed ~dozen commercial kitchen systems over the years and know my way around BESA DW/172 and a passing familiarity with CIBSE TM50).

In commercial kitchens extract is to protect the staff (a barbecue grill gives off worse carcinogenics than cigarette smoke iirc) and to protect the building fabric/maintain cleanliness for environmental health reasons. You are talking approx 40-60 volumetric air changes of the kitchen...

Ok, a bit of overkill for a domestic kitchen I’ll admit.

Things have changed in domestic building regs recently but it used to be 30l/s minimum extract directly over the cooker/appliance or 60l/s if not. Last time I looked the old style kitchen hoods were no longer available for sale for new build.

One of the cardinal rules for local extract vent is extraction of pollutant at source is the most effective (which is kind of obvious when you think about it). So the most effective option is always going to be directly over the cooker.

Building regulations are there for a reason and are minimum requirements. I know nobody wants actual ‘experts’ anymore but, please, do it properly. I mean, it’s only beneficial to your health and the building fabric...

We don’t have one at all due to tiny kitchen and where it’s situated. Stable door and window open when cooking.

Our kitchen doesn't have one. The spring clean routine involves a paint scraper to trowel off the grease above the hob. You do get a cool retro nicotine colour stain to everything though.

Get an extractor.

I've got a ceiling one in my kitchen, the ceiling is about 6-8inches lower above the island to house the extractor, works effectively, no grease on the ceiling to note.

We've got a wall mounted extractor hood. We splashed out on a decent one as we had friends and family discount at Siemens at the time. This thing could suck an apple through a hose pipe. However, we have it in re-circ mode as the position of the hob doesn't allow for external ducting and it was only after about two years that I realised the metal grease filters weren't a full complement and we needed carbon filters too... I still to this day haven't bothered and the kitchen has been in 6 years.. I'm surprised there's not a massive stain on the white ceiling above TBH. It is essentially a very fancy light.

We're getting the kitchen done next year so will be keeping the hob and hood but moving it to allow for external extraction. I'm hoping I can purchase the kit from Siemens to do this as the original probably went in the bin..

Will a layer of grease really accumulate on the ceiling?

Yes. Ours makes tons of noise and barely shifts any air (fixing the ducting is on my to-do list) and our light fittings and high-up shelves get covered in greasy nasty goo.

Are you very tall?

Our cooker hood is mounted immediately above a stainless steel splash back and its lowest point is probably 1.75m above the floor. Sufficiently low that I can bang the edge with my head now and again.

I have seen them lower in some kitchens – about 1.7m above the floor.

I'm only about 6ft (if i stop slouching). Our hood is at 1.58m above the floor.

But I was reading this which says a cooker hood should only be up to 75cm above the hob. And our hob is at 0.9m. So in theory, it shouldn't really be located that much higher than it currently is?

How high do you lot have your extractor hoods?

Ours is low enough that I can rest my chin on it. That seems stupidly low to me.

Just measured mine. Lowest point is 1.54m above ground, 630mm from the hob. It tapers towards the front so the front panel is pretty much eye level, I can see on the top of it if I crane my neck slightly.

I suspect the installer was working in feet, it's almost exactly 5' from the floor.

Ours is 2m from the floor.

Our current extractor is a outside venting Bosch, set 750mm exactly above the hob, 1660mm above the floor. I’m 186cm, I have bashed my head on it once but generally isn’t a problem. Our kitchen fitter used rectangular 205x60mm (Edited as I just checked!)tube to the outside, which works fine and is easier to hide above wall units, but I think is probably less efficient than 150mm round would have been, and this may be why it is a bit noisier than expected.
The gauze filters wash in the dishwasher, it it so much better than the previous recirculating carbon filter one we had in our old kitchen.
We have an island unit that would have been big enough for a hob, but chose to keep it on a wall unit partly for this reason. Some friends of ours have an island extractor ducted under the floor and it does work well but I think it was quite expensive

Indeed but given the choice between banging my head off the thing or it being slightly less efficient..... I'm taking the latter all day long.

205x60mm (Edited as I just checked!)tube to the outside, which works fine and is easier to hide above wall units, but I think is probably less efficient than 150mm round would have been, and this may be why it is a bit noisier than expected.

We fit 220x90 rigid flat ducting where possible or 150mm round. 205 a bit skinny for a powerful machine, it has 30% less volume that the bigger section.

Ideally all ducting should be minimum 125mm (pref 150mm) and rigid. A lot of builders still chuck in 100mm flexi ducting, which is pretty bad for extraction and very noisy. The longer the run, the bigger the section should be.

For those with a Bora, do you have the extracting versions, or just recirculation?
And did you use Bora's own (expensive) ducting?

A shop we spoke to said they recommend recirc with Bora as they are really sensitive to badly fitted ducting. With all others brands go extraction.

We’re unsure whether Bora is worth a bit extra over Bosch. Everyone who has one loves it - but few people will have tried both to properly compare!

When we did the kitchen last year, an extractor was a must have for me, if only to avoid setting off the smoke alarm every night, but also to avoid smelling last night's dinner for the next 24 hours, and to stop filling the house with condensation.

Having done my research and a bit of thinking, my conclusions were:
- Vent externally if at all possible. Recirculating is a poor imitation - it'll help with the grease, but not condensation. Due to attached garage and conservatory, there's only about 2 foot of external wall in our kitchen, so I had to route the ducting along the wall above a window and through a wall cabinet to get there, but it was worth it.

- Go big or go home on the ducting. Builder (who wasn't going to be doing the extraction anyway) was adamant 4" diameter would be fine "because that's what they usually put in". Bigger=better flow and less noise. I went for 6" diameter equivalent rectangular section.

- Angled hood FTW. You want it as close as possible to the hob, but I'm 6'1" and in our last rented house there was a standard square stainless hood, and I think I still have the scars on my forehead.

It was an absolute pain in the a**e to route the ducting, drill through the wall to vent outside, box in the ducting, plaster and paint, but now I've done it, I'm really happy with it. Rarely use the extractor on more higher than speed 1 of 3, smoke alarm rarely goes off from cooking, noticeably less smell after cooking, less condenation.

We're right in the middle of having a new kitchen fitted. We discussed extractors with the designer and he said unless it is a proper outside vented one they are really just for aesthetics and essentially useless and not to bother with one.

So we havevn't.

We did have one at the old house when we had a new kitchen and probably used it twice. Never really noticed the difference with or without one. Never noticed an issue with cooking smells, grease, condensation etc...

Since this thread started, we got a new kitchen, with a new extractor that now vents outside (vertically straight upwards out of the single-story extension). And is located much higher above the hob.

Notable differences to the shitey old one: I don't bang my head on it, and sometimes the flaps don't close properly so we get a cold draught. Not sure about any differences to smells, grease etc.

We've just finished our new kitchen - of course it has an extractor - and after a last minute change of plan to get a Stoves one to match our oven, have a brand new in box one of these spare: https://www.johnlewis.com/bosch-dwb64bc50b-60cm-box-chimney-cooker-hood-brushed-steel/p3533297

DM me if anyone's looking