Choosing between the different types of kitchen extractor fans

Kitchen extractor fans go by a wide variety of names, including cooker hood, extractor hood, ventilation hood, and electric fireplace. Although they are most often installed directly above your oven by mounting on the wall, there are many other types of models available, such as those built into your cabinets, freestanding types, chimneys, and island range hoods that mount to your ceiling. This article will take a look at each of these different types and hopefully give you a better idea of ​​which one you’d like to have installed in your home.

The most widely used style of kitchen exhaust fans are known as canopy hoods and are installed to hang directly over the kitchen stove. They are used to suck out all the contaminated air, steam and airborne grease that can result from cooking. This is done by completely evacuating the polluted air from your home or by passing it through a filter and recirculating it through your home. To evacuate the air from your home, you will need to have ductwork connecting your fan to the outside, which can be expensive. If this is not the option for you then you will need a filter based system.

Next are island range hoods, which use a chimney-like structure to pull polluted air out through the ceiling. One of the drawbacks of this style is that they are practically impossible to hide since they are in the center of the room. They are also usually more expensive than the other models, but this is because they are much more efficient. Their high performance allows them to suck air through long sections of duct without losing strength.

Free-standing kitchen extractor fans are very similar, but they do not have a chimney and therefore do not completely evacuate the air from the home. Instead they will use a carbon filter to clean the air and then recirculate it through your kitchen. You’ll usually have a choice between a disposable filter that you’ll need to replace every so often and a reusable one that you can simply wash in the dishwasher before replacing.

These days, you also have many accessories to choose from for your kitchen extractor fans. First of all, most models come with incandescent or fluorescent lights to illuminate the cooking surface. However, there are plenty of other add-ons too, such as electromechanical controls, thermal sensors, auto power on/off, overheat protection, and even cleaning reminders. The prices of these machines vary, so it is difficult to give an approximate price. However, you can typically expect to pay between $100 and $20,000. Custom models can cost even more.