Kitchen extractor fan, ducted cooker hood or both?

doubleL_2

Hi everyone,

I need some kind of ventilation for my kitchen, but I don't know which one exactly.

Before buying my house, someone did a damp survey. They advised to install two extractor fans, one for the kitchen, one for the bathroom, in order to prevent damp issues in the future and to make the house breath.

I haven't seen any sign of mould or damp so far but when I cook the cooking smells travel all over the house and there is a lot of condensation. I think this can create mould problems in the future.

So my question is:
What is the most appropriate solution to avoid condensation and cooking smells?
- Is a good extractor fan enough to do the job or do I need to fit a cooker hood as well?
- If I purchase a ducted cooker hood instead of an extractor fan, (a cooker hood that extracts the air outside the house), is it supposed to do the same job as an extractor fan?
- Do a need an extractor fan and a cooker hood?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Lisa

Furts

First off, does your existing kitchen and bathroom fan work ? Plus is there an over run on the bathroom fan? If you have checked these and they are OK then the condensation may be caused by the cooking. Do you cook with open pans allowing steam into the air?

It has been accepted practice for the last 30 years to have cooker extracts. So I would expect you to have one. Early models were sometimes recirculating units with charcoal filters to absorb the cooking smells. These did nothing to address condensation, and the charcoal filters had to be renewed to keep them effective. Hence you need to establish what you have, or have not, got here.

If you concern turns out to be simply cooking related then an extract to an external wall may solve this. It would not be normal practice to fit another kitchen extract - just one is standard practice.

Hope this helps.

Jonesya

Just fit a cooker hood.

The main source of steam will normally be pans on the hobs so a cooker hood does a better job of removing it at source, rather than relying on it drifting across the kitchen to an extractor fan, by which point some will have condensed onto walls, ceiling, cupboards etc.

no1catman

It can depend on the cooker you have e.g. my parent's kitchen had a gas cooker with an eye level grill, they had an extractor fan in an adjoining window.
At my previous address when I changed my cooker with an eye-level grill for one without - I added a cooker hood fan. I did not have an extractor fan for the kitchen otherwise - just put the window open.
When I moved, able to vent the air outside from the cooker hood- cooker sighted on an external wall - certainly don't feel the need for a separate extractor fan.

dampdaveski

Double,
Part F of the building regulations dictate that for kitchens you should have an extractor fan in the kitchen. If it is fitted directly above the cooker then this should extract at a rate of 30 litres per second, if you can't fit one over the cooker then it must extract at a rate of 60 litres per second.
sounds to me like you need a hood to reduce the cooking smells. If you can't fit a cooker hood that extracts to the outside then don't bother (unless it looks nice and needs to fill a gap) and fit an extractor fan somewhere else in the kitchen.
Recirculating cooker hoods (i.e no hole to the outside) are a complete waste of time

DD

doubleL_2

Hi, first of all sorry for my late reply, I didn't see any notifications on my mailbox so I didn't know there was answers!
Thank you all for your answers.

So, Furts, to answer your questions, I don't have any extractor fan, neither in the kitchen nor the bathroom. Do you advise to fit an extractor fan only or an extractor fan + cooker extract?

doubleL_2

Hi Dampdaveski, thank you for your very detailed information.
Yes, I can fit a cooker hood that extracts to the outside.
So if I understand well your answer, I can fit either an extractor fan or a cooker hood but both are not necessary?
Do both do the same job? Isn't an extractor fan supposed to be running all the time in order to make the house breath?

dampdaveski

Hi double,
For the kitchen it is indeed one or the other.
Most extractor fans that people fit are axial fans (ie it has blades like a propeller) and if you're lucky they will have an overrun that you can adjust otherwise they are just on/off fans. These cheap fans are ok for a downstairs toilet but are generally just crap. Stick one of these in the ceiling with trunking to the outside and most of the time they will just make noise and extract buggar all, this is because the trunking restricts the air flow.

fans that work all the time are usually centrifugal fans (this has a drum that is a bit like a paddle steamer wheel) these fans shift a lot more air for a lot less energy consumption AND can overcome resistance if there is a lot of trunking
These fans are more expensive and are a bit bulkier, but like everything in life you get what you pay for

As you have the choice I would go for the externally vented cooker hood and if you have the option for a more powerful one and it is in budget, get it!

doubleL_2

Hello I am opening this conversation again as since I last posted my question, I haven't had the work done but now it cannot wait anymore (doors starting to swell because of condensation!)

From all your answers, I now understand that I can fit either a ducted hood or extractor fan but both are not necessary.

But I'd like to give more information about my kitchen because I was not clear enough last time and I have a couple more questions in order to make the right decision...

My kitchen is quite small and the cooker is against an external wall.
On this wall, there is already an old extractor hole that has been blocked (you can see it outside but not inside), it's located above the cooker, which is handy. However, if we fit a ducted hood, the hole won't be perfectly aligned with the hood pipe, therefore the hood pipe needs to be diverted to the right by 20 or 30 cm. (Is this technically possible?) Or I can also have an other hole but when you are outside, two square holes next to each other will look weird.
To avoid the hassle, I guess in my situation an extractor fan is better (also, as it will be fitted above the cooker, I guess it will make it more efficient?)

Dampdaveski, do you think that given the context I should still go for a ducted hood? If I go for a fan, what is better: a centrifugal fan with timer or humidistat control ?

Thanks a lot!!

flashg67

To offer an answer to one of your questions, you can buy all manner of different angled adapters to divert the extractor air flow - screwfix is a good place to start, I've found

EssexExile

Or use flexible ducting.