Cooker hoods

Mojisola

We're having a new kitchen and have never had a cooker hood but would like one to extract the steam while we're cooking.

Any experiences to share? Any benefits to having one concealed in a cupboard as against the "out in the open" ones? Is it purely the looks?

We particularly want a quiet one. Any recommendations?

paddy's_mum

You can't bang your head on an extractor that's housed in a cupboard above the cooker.

(Can you tell that I found that out in a painful way?!)

Mojisola

paddy's_mum wrote: »

You can't bang your head on an extractor that's housed in a cupboard above the cooker.

(Can you tell that I found that out in a painful way?!)

That's one thing we were talking about. With three tall men in the family, it's an important point!

jackieb

I got a round one after OH kept banging is head on the old one!

Absolutely

I've found cooker hoods/extractors no more use than opening a window to be honest. Waste of money imho.

Plus, I bang my head on mine regularly and I'm only 5ft 7. It's not housed in a cupboard.

I do like the fact it has a light that I can put on directly above the cooker as I have a fairly dark kitchen.

I think most cooker hoods are noisy. Mine has 3 settings on it though. The first fan setting is ok, the next makes me turn the tv up, and the last makes my autistic son put his fingers in his ears!

jhe

i have extractor in a cupboard(pull out type), havnt had the other type so cant comment. it cuts down on cooking smells as well as steam.had mine years its a hotpoint, but as said when its on full speed it can be a bit noisy but not deafening

jackieb

Mine is a Hotpoint too. OH still sometimes bangs his head but at least he can't poke his eye out cos it's rounded! Our one's filters are washable. I find it does make a different to not having one on. It has 3 settings - not the quietest either, but not too bad.

jackieb

If you look at shops online most of them tell you what noise level they have.

visidigi

this is quite a good one,

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90157237

if you have a 600mm cabinet above your hob this one from IKEA (made by Whirlpool) actually retracts to be stored flat against the bottom of the cupboard (therefore you can avoid the whole head hitting thing). Note if you hve a 600mm cabinet it actually makes up the bottom of the cabinet itself and some cutting is required either way you mount it.

Externally vented is fine, but it will cause a heat loss source in your kitchen - most of the Ikea ones can be internally circulated and come with the required charcoal filters (and replacements are cheap too).

Because we fitted a five burner hob the gas regulations require a wide enough space, so we took back out 600mm one above and instead got this

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/40109060

Which fits in the middle of the 800mm space we needed for our hob layout.

Absolutely

visidigi wrote: »

Externally vented is fine, but it will cause a heat loss source in your kitchen - most of the Ikea ones can be internally circulated and come with the required charcoal filters (and replacements are cheap too).

This is a good point. I had one which wasn't externally vented in my old kitchen, and changed it to an externally vented one in my new kitchen.

In the winter, you can feel the cold coming through as soon as you get near the cooker. Plus it allows noise to travel in from next doors driveway. I can hear their conversations as they get in the car of a morning.

Interesting....

victor2

We've had both internal recirculating and extracting to the outside. Not every location is suitable for extracting outside, but that's the one I prefer. Gets the smell and steam out quickly, and has adjustable speed so you can leave it on low without it being too noisy. Agree with the good point about the heat loss - hadn't considered that although its generally not a problem in the kitchen where you are usually cooking anyway. Apart from having no charcoal filters to replace, our extracting unit just has three metal mesh grills which you can put in the dishwasher every 2 or 3 months to get the grease off them.
Wouldn't bother with a cupboard above one as it's very difficult to reach and has limited space due to the extractor beneath it anyway.