How to choose a hood for the kitchen

Appliances

The cooker hood not only serves to remove unpleasant odors during cooking – it also filters and removes fats dissolved in vapors during frying and cooking. Without a hood, they easily settle on walls, ceilings and household appliances, and when mixed with dust, this sediment forms a sticky coating, which has a disgusting appearance.

How to choose a hood for the kitchen

Types of kitchen hoods

In the modern variety of models it is easy to get confused, the first thing you need to know is that, according to the principle of operation, they can be:

  1. circulating;

  2. flowing;

  3. universal.

Flowing

Flow hoods

Such a device sucks in vapors from the hob and discharges them into the ventilation duct. At the same time, the vented air is replaced by new air taken from the street or other premises due to the pressure drop. In the cheapest models of this type, the air is either not filtered at all, or by oil catching filters.

Advantages

  • does not require fine filters to remove odors;

  • ease of maintenance.

  • low cost;

disadvantages

  • requires a connection to the ventilation duct, which can significantly reduce the power of the installation, especially if there is a large distance between the hood and the ventilation window;

  • the need for fresh air, in the absence of which the level of carbon monoxide can increase in the kitchen.

  • a high level of noise and energy consumption, since a strong vacuum will be required to effectively draw in air;

Circulating

Circulating hoods

Vapors and smoke in such devices go through two stages of cleaning. First, oil-catching filters settle the greasy particles, after which the charcoal purifiers trap smaller impurities in the air (which cause the smell). Modern models of circulating hoods can remove up to 95 percent of unnecessary impurities from the air in the kitchen. With a combined kitchen and dining room, this is a very important indicator.

Advantages

  • works autonomously, does not depend on communications and does not require a constant flow of air;

  • it is possible to regulate the intensity of the fans, which is convenient when preparing various dishes, and allows you to reduce energy consumption.

disadvantages

  • the complexity of maintenance and the need for constant replacement of carbon filters;

  • high price.

Universal

Universal hoods for the kitchen

Such hoods have all the advantages of both direct-flow and circulation. But this is achieved mainly through the use of sensors and automatic control systems, which greatly increase the cost of the product.

By their design and appearance, the units can be:

  1. suspended type (only for circulating) – if there is no possibility of connecting to the air duct

  2. dome (fireplace) is mounted above the stove and connected to the ventilation duct, one of the varieties of dome hoods is island, which can be mounted anywhere on the ceiling;

  3. built-in is designed for installation inside a cabinet or other element of kitchen furniture.

Some models have been specially designed for corners. With the small dimensions of the kitchen, when there is no other option, how to install the stove in a corner, this may be the only option.

Also for small kitchens, there is an option in the 'Domino' design – this is a hood with a retractable work surface, and it can be installed both above the frying surface and in the countertop, behind or on the side of the stove.

Installation performance

This is one of the most important criteria of the apparatus, along with the design, dimensions and principle of operation. To begin with, you should know that the units can be equipped with one or two fans. Moreover, the former will in any case be more noisy, even with the same performance.

The capacity of the hood shows how much air (cubic meters) it can clean (remove) in 1 hour. When choosing, it is better not to rely on intuition, but to make a calculation, for which you first need to measure the room and calculate its volume, then do the same with the furniture. Next, subtract the amount of furniture from the total volume of the kitchen. The resulting value is the volume of air that the hood must handle. You can buy a unit with a higher capacity so that there is a stock, but you should not buy with less – although it can cope with fumes during cooking, it will not be able to effectively purify all the air in the kitchen, so odors will penetrate into other rooms.

To turn on, control and set operating modes, the following can be used:

mechanical buttons and switches – they are installed mainly on budget models, this option is optimal in terms of reliability and convenience, but

  1. loses to others in appearance;

  2. sliders and shuttles are regulators, by rotating or moving which you can adjust such parameters of the device's operation as fan speed, lamp brightness, set operating time, etc.

  3. touch buttons and panels are controls that respond to touch.

Regardless of the type of buttons and controls, the hood can be equipped with LCD screens and programming blocks. These additional options allow you to set the operating time and duration, the switching on time for periodic air purification and other parameters. In addition, the programmable blocks can have several standard operating modes, for example, for frying or cooking food, and also depending on the number of burners used. For ease of operation, the hood can be equipped with a remote control.

Filters

You should be aware of the cleaning elements that they can be disposable or reusable. The former are more often used to remove unpleasant odors (less often to precipitate fat particles from the air). Each such cartridge is designed for a certain operating time, after which it will have to be replaced.

Reusable are a very fine mesh made of metal (stainless steel or aluminum) or polymer (acrylic). Such a filter should be periodically checked and washed if it is heavily contaminated with grease and dust particles.

Almost all models of hoods are equipped with lighting fixtures. The cheapest ones use fluorescent incandescent lamps, while the more expensive ones use LED and halogen lamps. The latter are preferable because they are more economical and practically do not distort colors, so that the dish will look good even in low light conditions.

Criterias of choice

selection criteria for the hood

Color, design and design features are what people usually pay attention to. But first, you need to decide on the parameters that primarily affect the quality and efficiency of the device:

  1. Performance. The required value should be calculated in advance, and when choosing a model, compare whether it is suitable or not.

  2. Operating principle. It also depends, first of all, on the total area of ​​the kitchen, the amount of furniture and the possibility of an inflow of fresh air. For a small room that is heavily loaded with furniture, you should purchase a circulating unit with a powerful filter system, otherwise it will not be possible to avoid fat settling on the surface of furniture and household appliances.

  3. The filter configuration should be selected depending on the intensity of use of the frying surface. If a large number of people live in the house who prefer to eat homemade food, then you should not save on filters.

  4. The dimensions of the working surface must necessarily be larger than the area of ​​the frying surface of the stove.

  5. All other parameters and additional options should be selected based on the purchase budget.

Which company hood is better to choose

The number of hood manufacturers is constantly increasing, but newcomers, especially from China, can only boast of the price. The best ones have remained for many years:

  1. Bosch is the best value for money, stainless steel finish and the ability to choose a good model, both in the budget and in the expensive price range.

  2. MAUNFILD is a British manufacturer that is considered the best quality among budget models, most of which are designed for small kitchens.

  3. Asko is a premium appliance that stands out for its high quality and functionality, but at the same time it is not very cheap.

  4. Best – Italian cooker hoods that are widely used due to their modern and unusual design.

  5. Also, to study the hood market, you can look through the catalogs of manufacturers such as Shindo, Kronasteel, Gorenje and ELIKOR.

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In the following articles, we will tell you how to choose the right gas stove and the secrets of choosing a hob in the kitchen.

Video for choosing a hood for the kitchen


Attention! This material is the subjective opinion of the authors of the project and is not a purchase guide.

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