Range Hood

With the kitchen being the most popular room in the home, good appliances are important when it comes time to cook.  To help keep air pollutants to a minimum and your oven/stove area looking nice, you need a good quality range hood.  In addition, the range hood keeps the walls from becoming greasy, along with paint from peeling, carpeting from becoming discolored, and the house from having a musty smell.  In other word, the range hood keeps the kitchen and other rooms of the home clean and healthy.

This means you can cook to your heart’s delight without the worry of smoke, steam, grease, odor, and other air pollutants from consuming you.  When considering a range hood, the best solution is one that can be vented to the outside.  With this, you want the range hood to be ducted.  While you could consider a recirculating hood, which draws the pollutants up through a charcoal filter with air being circulated back into the kitchen, we strongly recommend you go with the ducted option, which is far superior.

When you shop for a new range hood, make sure it has ample power to filter the amount of air pollutants in your kitchen.  You will find hoods measured in cubic feet per minute or CFM.  Typically, for every 10,000 BTU that a gas stove would produce, you need 100 CFM.  Now, if you use an electric stove to cook, the CFM is estimated differently, this time by the size of the stove with 100 CFM per every 10 inches of width.

You will also find a number of quality range hoods on the market that use exterior blowers or interior blowers.  Then, you want to make sure any range hood you buy has the Sone rating, which is the measurement or unit of noise the hood makes.  With this, the key is choosing a lower rating, which equates to a quieter hood.  Obviously, you do not want to turn on the range hood only to have it drown out conversation, which unfortunately, some do.

For the venting range hood, this can be a little more challenging to buy simply because it needs a connection to an exhaust duct.  For the non-venting type of range hood, as mentioned, the air is simply blown back into the kitchen.  However, the non-venting option does need an electrical connection.  With the non-venting option, any small droplets of air pollution such as grease are trapped in a metal screen filter and/or the charcoal filter.  In addition to stopping grease buildup on countertops, furniture, flooring, and cabinets, this would also help with odor.

Just remember that regardless of the type of range hood you choose, occasional cleaning is required.  Then for the non-vented options, the metal screen would need to be cleaned or replaced from time to time.  With a new range hood, you can enjoy time in the kitchen cooking and visiting with family and friends without worrying about the mess and smell.