Is a range hood really needed for a stove?

[drnickriviera]

I'm remodeling a home and am at the kitchen design stage. I'm starting to see some kitchen designs without a range hood at all and it got me thinking how little I use the one we have. I know some places have code requirements for them and noticed broan has a ceiling vent fan rated for kitchen use (L300KMG) and was thinking if using that for smoke extraction. Lighting would be the only other concern. The ceiling is only 8' so i'm wondering if a pair of recessed cans offset to either side of the stove would work.

 

[highland145]

Why put in a vent fan and canned lights when you could just put in a hood?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yes, a range hood really is needed for grease.

 

[herm0016]

yes, if you do any cooking at all, put in a hood. the Chinese ones are not too expensive and work pretty well. had one in the last place.

and vent it outside. putting a damper and vent on the roof is really not that big of a deal.

 

[PowerEngineer]

While I would prefer a traditional range hood, our home has a downdraft cook top that has worked well enough for us.

 

[Greenman]

Hood isn't always required, but it's foolish to remodel a kitchen and not install one. Grease and smoke make a mess. A ceiling fan helps, but a proper hood is the right way to go.

 

[drnickriviera]

Well the issue I have is that I cook every day, don't use the hood I have and dont have a problem with grease. I do use mesh shields when I pan fry, so maybe that is catching most of it.

I don't really care for the look of them, think they are expensive for what you get. If i'm not using it then it is wasted space there. I was figuring a shelf in it's place around 21" off the stove.

I asked other family how often they used their hoods and most were rarely or never, so got me wondering why i'll spend $200-$1000 on something i don't use. Oh well may just be wishful thinking

 

[Greenman]

Check the specs on your stove, they will have minimum clearances to cabinetry above it (a shelf counts as cabinetry).

 

[RearAdmiral]

I recently re-did my kitchen and got a pretty good range hood. It is great but not 100% effective. Extrapolate that to putting in a broan ceiling vent which will probably barely do anything for you. I also have a similar height in my kitchen. I hated having an ineffective one before I re-did the kitchen. Do you not get smoke when you pan fry?

My hood

 

[drnickriviera]

I try to use a high smoke point fat when frying. The few times i do use the hood is when if forget or don't think it will get to smoke point.

 

[Sukhoi]

You want a hood, and should be using one now. Read up on indoor air quality from cooking. It gets pretty nasty. https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2018...r-home-advises-indoor-air-quality-researcher/

 

[drnickriviera]

Lol, great, something else to kill me. Next there will be an article. Cooking healthy meals at home is killing you! Eat out more!

Anyone have any articles on makeup air for hoods? the min 250 and up to 1000 cfm isn't an insignificant amount of air. Can even an old leaky house supply that much air? Would be nice to have the makeup air be near the stove so that the unconditioned air can be sucked back out the range hood

 

[RearAdmiral]

I'd figure an older home would have enough leaks where it wouldn't really matter. The fan won't in actuality pull that much air either. You can run calculations based on size of ducting, # and degree of turns, length of ducting, etc to find a more realistic # of CFM being pulled out of your home.

 

[NutBucket]

A new home should have an air exchanger of some sort anyway since they're so tight.

A range hood is a must for us, for grease and smell. Those mesh filters suck though so gotta avoid those. Maybe it would be ok if you threw them in the dishwasher weekly.

 

[mindless1]

I was figuring a shelf in it's place around 21" off the stove.

A hood is not only a light source but a shield. It catches/blocks not only grease but water vapor from cabinets above (which I insist on but higher than 21") so they aren't damaged. 21" for a shelf seems way too low to me, I imagine steam and grease will not only wreck the shelf and make everything on it grimy, but also make the stove seem quite cramped unless it's a very shallow shelf.

Even if the fan isn't 100% effective when you need it, any % is greater than 0%.

 

[zinfamous]

If you actually cook, then you shouldn't be without a proper range hood. Any kind of high heat, protein cooking is going to toss greese all over the place. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean your walls aren't coated with it if you spend any amount of time cooking without proper ventilation.

And you really need to vent that stuff outside. the cheapo toss-back-into-your-face after some sub-par filtering designs are no good.