Cooker Hoods - how to check lighting?

JGderbyshire

I am looking for a chimney style cooker hood. Their shape means that they will cast a big shadow over the hob beneath them, so they need to provide their own lighting.

Most hoods have some form of lighting, but how to compare? Has anybody come across a site that shows lumens (or lux), colour temperature, and bulb type (to allow a reasonable idea of replacement cost)?

My research so far - in case it helps others.:

Rangemaster's LEIHDC90SC (also available in wider formats) seems to have the most powerful lamps - two SES (E14) sockets that come with halogen 28w lamps (for which they ask a laughable £56.86 each for replacements!) but could clearly be replaced by higher-output LED E14 bulbs. But there are multiple reviews saying that the fan performance is very poor (yet noisy: quite an achievement)

Whirlpool's WHSS 90F TS claims "7w LED" but I can't find details of lumens, colour temperature - nor any indication of fitting for replacements. Whirlpool's spares phone line sent me into an infinite loop, and the chat facility on their website couldn't help either.

Many others hoods boast "LED lamps" but these almost invariably turn out to be a couple of 1.5w or 2w lamps which aren't going to give more than a fraction of what you need for a well-illuminated hob.

Retailers seem to be no help - hoods are bulkly items, so they tend not to display more than a couple. Curry's don't bother to power them up, so you can't see the lamps at work. John Lewis don't give data on illumination for the hoods they stock, and a phone call to ask for help resulted in the suggestion that I should contact manufacturers.

Has anyone suggestions either for well-illuminated hoods, or pointers to sites that might give useful comparative data?

spadoosh

I think youre overthinking this.

Just buy a cooker hood and replace whatever bulb it comes with with one you actually want.

Amazon has got hundreds of variants of cooker hood bulb.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooker-Brightness-Energy-Saving-Small/dp/B016FL5XFY/ref=asc_df_B016FL5XFY/?!!!!!googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=225025420200&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14111979190988561336&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046527&hvtargid=pla-552731617081&psc=1

Linking more for the recommendations as opposed to the actual product.

IIRC i think all cooker hood bulbs are e14 fittings. From there theres hundreds of choices.

Belenus

A few years ago we chose a Luxair LA-70-CVD-GL 70cm Curved Glass Hood In Stainless Steel for our new kitchen.

We are very satisfied with it.

It has two lights at the rear which is enough to illuminate the hob below.

The lights use inexpensive bulbs. I think I bought two suitable spare bulbs in Poundland for £1.

The 3 setting fan makes a noise but no more than expected.

Our kitchen has a central ceiling light with 6 G10 bulbs pointing in various adjustable directions plus under cabinet lighting. That together with the two bulbs in the hood means the lighting is more than adequate.

Here is a picture I posted last month on another thread.

Belenus wrote: »

That is what we did a few years ago with a similar hood.

JGderbyshire

spadoosh wrote: »

I think youre overthinking this.

Just buy a cooker hood and replace whatever bulb it comes with with one you actually want.
....
IIRC i think all cooker hood bulbs are e14 fittings.

Sadly not true. Not all use e14, nor even any other standard replacement bulb. Siemens say of the model that I asked them about "... LED lights may be replaced by the manufacturer, their customer service or a qualified technician (electrician) only" - and gave me a link to a £23 replacement module with the LED sandwiched between a plastic front cover and a metal back box.

And even when they do take a bulb with standard fittings (eg CDA's model ECN92SS which has "12v G4 lamp x 2"), you can't be sure that an LED replacement will fit physically: the pins will be the same but G4 LEDs tend to be a lot fatter than G4 halogens.

keith969

JGderbyshire wrote: »

Rangemaster's LEIHDC90SC (also available in wider formats) seems to have the most powerful lamps - two SES (E14) sockets that come with halogen 28w lamps (for which they ask a laughable £56.86 each for replacements!) but could clearly be replaced by higher-output LED E14 bulbs. But there are multiple reviews saying that the fan performance is very poor (yet noisy: quite an achievement)

I have a Rangemaster 110 hood (not sure of the model without checking). It was 5W LED bulbs which are a pain to change, but as far as I can see are standard 240V 5W gu10. They are however quite bright enough. Why they try and charge £125 for a replacement beats me - I had one go within the warranty period and had it replaced, with the service engineer very kindly leaving me a spare.

The fan is OK, but it is very noisy even on the minimum speed setting.

spadoosh

JGderbyshire wrote: »

Sadly not true. Not all use e14, nor even any other standard replacement bulb. Siemens say of the model that I asked them about "... LED lights may be replaced by the manufacturer, their customer service or a qualified technician (electrician) only" - and gave me a link to a £23 replacement module with the LED sandwiched between a plastic front cover and a metal back box.

And even when they do take a bulb with standard fittings (eg CDA's model ECN92SS which has "12v G4 lamp x 2"), you can't be sure that an LED replacement will fit physically: the pins will be the same but G4 LEDs tend to be a lot fatter than G4 halogens.

Youre right, i didnt even think of my own cooker hood which uses GU10. *facepalm*

I still think youre overthinking this.

Just buy a cooker hood with led bulbs (already bigish in size) that are replaceable with generic fittings (GU10, G4, SES etc).

From there it doesnt matter about lumens and lux as you can just replace the bulb with whatever you deem suitable.

JGderbyshire

spadoosh wrote: »

...
Just buy a cooker hood with led bulbs (already bigish in size) that are replaceable with generic fittings (GU10, G4, SES etc).

The snag is that retailer sites don't specify the light fittings for hoods, and often manufacturer sites are also silent on this. And searching on "Cooker Hood GU10" (for example) throws up nothing that matches both terms.

I've just looked at ao.com, and for the first hood it offers, the spec says: "LED lights: Yes" - and that is all. Manufacturers and retailers seem to think that consumers will think "ooh, goodie - it has an LED light" and need no further information.

Belenus

You could narrow your choice of hood to a few and then contact the manufacturers technical or customer service department to clarify the type of bulb used.