Please tell me about your range hood...

[Phentex]

I need to replace mine for a couple of reasons. The first being it doesn't work (hence the post about the smoke alarm, lol.) And the second is it doesn't match anything in the kitchen. It's ancient. Oh, and a third, it's really low. I have pots that are difficult to use because the hood is barely 18 inches from the cook top.

So I look at pictures in catalogs and online and see all these hoods way up high. Fancy ones, plain ones...they all seem positioned very high above the cooktop. Can they possibly still work?

I mentioned to my husband that maybe we could remove the cabinets housing the duct to the hood and just raise the "new" hood up a little. I can't reach anything in the cabinets anyway. I think it would just open it all up in a good way, plus solve the tall pot issue.

He says the hood won't work if it's positioned higher than where it is now. Now, after googling, I see the recommended height is 18 to 24 inches, depending on the model.

What do you have? Does it work? I don't care about the looks so much as the function. Would two more inches make a difference?

Thanks.

[Warpy]

1. The large hoods that really are hoods

meaning they're big sheet metal cowls that cover most of the area of the top of the stove (or more) can be quite high and still work, although anything over 30 inches looks weird.

Heat rises and with it the smoke and cooking smells. The large hood cowling traps it where the fan can suck it out of the kitchen.

The small kitchen hoods need to be a little closer to the stove since they rely 100% on the fan to work. 24 inches is the absolute maximum for one of those.

[AwakeAtLast]

2. My microwave is above my range

with a fan underneath. It works as well as anything I've ever had, but I lived in three mobile homes before we built our house. I even grew up in a mobile home. Which means what I've got now is amazing! ;)

:hi:

[supernova]

4. That's what I have

microwave with a vent over the stove.

But it doesn't vent to the outside. One of the things I intend to fix when and if I ever get to reno.

[NMDemDist2]

5. yup me too

this one in fact, we got it at Sears when we moved here and if I remember to turn it on High speed, the smoke alarm (usually) doesn't go off :rofl:



edit to add, here's the one we put into the PHX house, but I hardly ever used it....

[hippywife]

3. I don't have one.

Never felt the need. :shrug:

[Warpy]

8. I miss one that vents to the outside

I do a lot of Chinese cooking and it's a smoky proposition.

I like cabbage and it's a stinky proposition.

I don't have a hood, at all. Jobs like reducing balsamic vinegar have to be done in summer with the kitchen window open and the swamp cooler going full blast.

[sandnsea]

6. I have a 1960's house

I don't think the stove or range hood are original, although they are in the original location. The range hood is about 8" tall. It sits about 24" from the burner. It looks exactly the same as every other cooking stove and every other range hood that I have ever had. I can't even fathom 18" between the burner and the range hood, it seems really close together to me. It could be a bit closer and would probably be more effective, maybe 21", but I wouldn't want it any closer than that. I am tall though, so that might be why 18" seems so strange to me.

[Kali]

7. Do not have one.

didn't have one in the house I grew up in either. Have had the kind that are just a fan and filter in apt.s before - they seemed useless and were totally gross to clean.

[spinbaby]

9. Ventahood

It was a major expense--about $900--when we renovated the kitchen over a decade ago and I never regretted it for a moment. It doesn't use a filter but uses a squirrel-cage fan to spin grease out of the air into a sort of a box. Once a month or so we take the box off the hood and run it through the dishwasher. The fan tends to be loud (the manufacturer claims it's quiet, no idea what they're comparing it to) but it's unbelievably efficient. Over the holidays, we deep fried three batches of sauerkraut balls and you could hardly smell them in the house at all. I can stir fry with garlic and never worry about what the house will smell like afterwards. I love my range hood.


http://www.ventahood.com/magiclung.jsp