Cooker hood mandatory?

Jaynne

We're just playing with kitchen designs and I was wondering if a cooker hood is mandatory? We never use ours, I think they make too much noise and they all seem to be designer to have sharp corners at the height of my forehead waiting for me to be distracted. We have a decent sized window and french doors too so ventilation isn't an issue.

If it makes a difference we're looking to have a gas hob but I'd probably switch to induction if it meant losing the hood.

billieboy_2

We've just installed a new kitchen and have an integrated one which is out of reach of heads! TBH I usually forget to use it but probably would use it if I were cooking something smelly like fish. The light is handy. All down to personal preference I suppose and would certainly save a few pounds if omitted. HTH.

dukesy_2

we chose this one...

http://www.elica.co.uk/view_products_child.php?id=141

ic

Angled so there is nothing to hit your head on:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90074242/
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50145406/
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00123826/
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/80123846/
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00125769/

Pulls out when you need it, otherwise stays flush with the cabinets:

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

southcoastrgi

as far as gas safe is concerned no it's not mandatory to have any kind of extraction providing you have an opening door or window, im really not sure about the building regs however according to the building regs if you do have a cooker hood (in a new kitchen) this must be vented to outside & not just carbon filters, with regard to your new hob please get whoever is fitting the kitchen to check the hob installation instructions this will give a min distance to the cupboards above & may not line up with any tall units you have, height of units into the hob instructions not the other way round.

evokit

Extractors are Mandatory when having a new extention with a kitchen, your not even allowed a re-circulating one it has to be ducted or will fail building regs.
I just had a customer asking the same so called them.
If your house isnt being signed off then no you dont need one - they did say (suggest/recommend) though its always best to have some sort of extraction so the damp steam and smells have somewhere to go or will just go into the plaster and above floor boards. they then went into health issues but im very sure this wouldnt be as deeming.
As a kitchen supplier - i would not guarentee any wall unit close to the hob or above with no extractor due to the steam effecting the carcass structure.

Hope this helps

pinkteapot

Just as an aside, are you planning to sell the house at any point during the life of the new kitchen? If I viewed a house without an extractor, I'd be pricing up a new kitchen for it unless there was room to fit one...

Yes they're noisy but do you really have the window open while cooking in the depths of winter?

katejo

evokit wrote: »

Extractors are Mandatory when having a new extention with a kitchen, your not even allowed a re-circulating one it has to be ducted or will fail building regs.
I just had a customer asking the same so called them.
If your house isnt being signed off then no you dont need one - they did say (suggest/recommend) though its always best to have some sort of extraction so the damp steam and smells have somewhere to go or will just go into the plaster and above floor boards. they then went into health issues but im very sure this wouldnt be as deeming.
As a kitchen supplier - i would not guarentee any wall unit close to the hob or above with no extractor due to the steam effecting the carcass structure.

Hope this helps

What do you mean by "the house isn't being signed off"? Surely you can have one with a circulating extractor if you are just having a new kitchen installed in the current room without any extension being built? If the gas point for the hob is on an inside wall, there is a problem.

evokit

Katejo - means if your just replacing your kitchen and its not a new extension or newbuild then it doesnt need signing off from building regs. you can have any extractor or not if thats what you want.

Its only when its a new extention or new build that regs are it has to be ducted

iamcornholio

The requirement is that the kitchen has "mechanical extraction". This can be via a cooker hood over the hob, or a fan elsewhere.

There is nothing as efficient as over hob extraction. The steam will have deposited its grease and odour into walls, ceilings etc a long time before it gets out or any window or door

If yours is noisy and you bang your head on it, then it is poorly sited or designed and probably one of the cheap ones which rattle to high heaven

Jaynne

Thanks for the responses. I've found every single extractor noisy when used at the higher settings and the only time I want to use the things is when I've burnt soomething or occasionally deep frying and need the max settings. Usually opening the window works much better.

We were planning on having no wall units on the wall the hob is going so it would be easy for someone to add an extractor at a later date but we're not planning on moving for at least 7 years so I'd hope we'd have gotten our moneys worth on the kitchen by then anyway.