Very small Kitchen Extractor Fan! Acceptable?

don9999

OK, I am seriously considering purchasing a new house.

Have a few questions about the house, and we are discussing them at the moment.

I also had a question about the lovely kitchen. The hob is situated in the central island, but there is no obvious extractor fan! I asked about it and was shown the ceiling extractor - apaprently specially chosen when the kitchen was installed so as not to lose aesthetics. However, I am concerned that it won't be strong enough - especially in this large kitchen. The seller claims it is, and when flicking the switch you can hear it - but I wonder if they even do much cooking, in which case it wouldn't matter to 'them'.

Any kitchen experts out there that can offer an opinion?


To me, it looks more like a bathroom extractor fan, rather than one for a hob. 'If' we find it is not suitable, how easy would it be to retro-fit a coventional over-hob extractor?


Pic 1 - Shows hob, with no obvious overhead extractor fan
Pic 2 - Kitchen seen from other viewpoint, you can just about see the extractor in the ceiling
Pic 3 - Slightly closer pic of the extractor

ReadingTim

Unless you plan on doing a serious amount of frying - which that hob hardly looks suitable for anyway - then the lack of extractor fan is hardly going to be a problem given the size of the room.

There is also a window by the sink. You could try opening that - it will have the same effect.

AdrianC

How easy? Not hard. You've got ducting above the hob, heading (presumably) outside. So you can fit a top-hung free-standing extractor to that ducting.

We have no extractor in a (large) kitchen. It's really not a problem - and we (properly) cook a lot.

If you want to quickly test, then slap a pan of water on the hob boiling away, and see what happens when the fan is switched on.

StumpyPumpy

Where does it "extract" to? Is there ducting in the ceiling to the outside? Or is it actually just a filter recycling "clean" air back into the room? Do you know the model of the fan and what its rating is?

I can't say I'd be too worried about it as there seems to be enough alternate ventilation should any cooking disasters happen in the form of opening windows and doors and most kitchens survived for many, many years without any form of mechanical air extraction until they became trendy.

SP

davidmcn

As above - it's a big room, there's at least one openable window, and a fan is better than none at all (pretty commonplace to have "extractor" hoods which are actually just filtering and recirculating the air). If it's a newbuild (or a recent extension etc) then does it comply with building regulations?

don9999

Thanks for all the comments....making me feel a bit more comfortable :-)

To answer the questions....

* I don't profess to be a great cook, but is 5-ring hob (not sure if is ceramic or induction), and we do an 'average' amount of cooking for a family of 5

* There IS ducting in the ceiling, extracting directly outside, to the right (a few metres)

* Yes is a very light, airy kitchen with lots of openable windows

* Is a greatly extended and enhanced building (rather than new), and everything appears to be finished to a high standard. Whilst I have not seen any compliance documentation, I am led to believe they passed them all as they had to modify some things to meet regs eg. they had to install sprinklers downstairs because of a separate open plan area where the stairs are etc... (I assume compliance will be checked when we Get a Homebuyer's Report - not sure if its worth us getting a full Building Survey)

3D view of house (look at 'lounge' area to see the kitchen):

https://info-propertyorange-co-uk.vr-360-tour.com/e/C7gBaMzS_7M/e?hidelive=true&initvars.autorotate.enabled=always&fbclid=IwAR0NvGBrT9OnH_cPbC6FqncCsChZRp4XVJ9iZD7n7A0Gw4mbxQAHbixkdGE

Perhaps I was thinking 'opposite' to what will actually happen. I wondered if, in such a large kitchen, steam/smoke/smell etc would waft around, rather than get immediately extracted up and out. Is quite a big open-plan area, consisting of kitchen, dining area and living area (you can just see one of the sofas in the far left of the first picture - the living area being at the far left area, out-of-pic), so I would want to minimise steam/smoke/smell wafting around if possible.

Am also pleased to hear that it would be relatively easy to install a conventional overhead extractor 'if' we deemed it necessary in the future (although it 'would' impact the current clean lines of the kitchen, which I am told is why they didn't have one in the first place).