Hob cooking will always release some degree of vapour into the air, regardless of whether you’re using a gas hob, electric range, or an induction hob. Cooker hoods are therefore an important addition to your kitchen, helping to extract and filter this so-called ‘waste steam’ that is created when using your range cooker.
Vapours rising from heated foods will usually contain various greases, oils, particles, and odours. Without any sort of removal system in place, these can quickly build up to create stubborn films on kitchen surfaces, worktops, cupboards, soffits, ceilings, and walls. Without proper extraction or filtration, you’ll find yourself having to clean a lot more thoroughly and a lot more often.
Oven hoods help greatly in reducing this build-up over time - but which cooker hood types are the best choice for your kitchen?
There are several key decisions you’ll need to bear in mind when choosing the best type of cooker hood for your kitchen setup. These include the type and size of hood profile you want, the extraction mechanism, and the sorts of design features you might find useful.
Chimney hoods are a classic style of cooker hood and are always among the most popular with contemporary kitchen designers. They feature a narrowed flue extending above the hood itself and can be presented in either a sleek modern style or a more traditional look, with built-in LED lighting and removable, dishwasher-safe filters.
Chimney hoods tend to be neat, clean-lined, and sturdy, offering a good balance between powerful filtration, space economy, and low noise levels. At Leisure, we typically recommend chimney hoods as the ideal solution if you don’t want to sacrifice unnecessary space to a larger canopy design, but you’re looking for a more contemporary style than the less fashionable visor-type extraction unit.
Chimney-type designs are available in a range of styles and sizes to suit most classic or modern range cookers, including ones designed to fit with 60cm, 90cm and 100cm models.
You’ll also need to decide between a full extraction cooker hood, and a recirculating hood. Extraction models use fans and ducting to fully vent the waste steam outside your kitchen, usually through a purpose-cut vent in the nearest external wall. This offers a very robust method of filtering out vapour. However, these can be expensive to set up and require additional space for the necessary duct work.
Recirculation hoods don’t vent the cooking vapours outside your kitchen, instead they use a fan system to suck in the air before filtering and releasing it once cleaned. As such, recirculating models don’t require any ducting or building work, making them considerably quicker and cheaper to install, as well as more economical in terms of space.
Once you’ve decided which type of cooker hood best suits your needs, you’ll also need to consider the power and performance ratings you’ll need to enjoy the best experience from your range cooker. One of the first things we always encourage buyers to think about are cooker hood noise levels and extraction rates.
Extraction rates are usually stated in terms of cubic metres per hour, or m3/h. The ideal power balance for your space will come from a chimney hood capable of circulating the total volume of air in your kitchen about 10 times each hour.
To figure out a suitable flow rate for your space, measure the width, length, and height of the room in metres. Multiply these numbers together to give you the total volume of your kitchen, and then multiply the result by ten to get your approximate recommended extraction rate in m3/h.
While some degree of fan noise is inevitable for achieving cleaner air, you’ll want to end up with just the right balance of power vs. noise for the size and shape of your kitchen, so you can carry on with your family sing-a-longs. Modern designs tend to offer much quieter operation than many people with older hoods will be used to, and a powerful contemporary model needn’t completely dominate the soundscape of your kitchen while it’s running.
To help you achieve more powerful extraction at lower noise levels, Leisure chimney-style cooker hoods incorporate advanced modern features, such as Ecosmart motors for high energy efficiency, touch control displays, and removable low-noise recirculation filters.
Leisure supplies high quality cooker hood designs to fit our flexible modern and traditional range cooker designs, with various options available for our 60cm, 90cm, and 100cm range cookers in a range of colours and finishes. With both contemporary and traditional styles covered in our product range, you can choose the perfect hood to fit your cooking needs, your hob size, and your kitchen style.
Feel free to browse our catalogue of stylish and feature-rich range cookers for more detailed information, and make sure to consult our Before You Buy guide to pick up some additional tips on choosing the ideal cooker for you.
Any other queries about buying and using range cookers or cooker hoods should be covered in our handy FAQ section, and you can always check out our varied Home Improvements blog for more kitchen design ideas and inspiration.
