Cooker hood consumables

gropinginthedark

My (Neff) cooker hood is vented to the outside but came with grease filter (kind of blotting paper),  a black fleece grease filter (replace every 2 months) and another rather more substantial activated charcoal filter (official replacement costs over £50, advised to replace annually).  On the advised frequency of replacement that makes about £100p.a. maintenance cost (third-party spares can reduce that a bit). As mine vents outside, smell isn't such an issue, am I OK to do away with the charcoal filter? My concern is that if there's still any grease in the exhaust, the pipe and fan will capture the muck and eventually cause the fan to fail. 

tacpot12

You are right that if you allow any grease to pass through is eventually cause the fan to fail. I think you will be ok to leave the charcoal filter out though as the main purpose of the charcoal filter is to remove smells (not grease). If you replace the "blotting paper" filter and the "fleece" filter regularly, I think you will be fine. 

EssexExile

We just use the blotting paper type stuff, change it when the colour change tells you to, probably about once a year. No problems so far and the kitchen has been in over 15 years.

neilmcl

Agree with the above. I used to keep buying the replacement paper filters and carbon sheets for a Bosch cooker hood as that's how it came but I could never find a decent replacement aftermarket fleece filter that lasted that long before so I just did without and just use the paper filters on their own. Some are better than others, I just bought a pack of these and they seem quite substantia.