Solutions to cooking smells/smoke?
Discussion
Hi. I miss my old big kitchen but one of the tradeoffs for moving was a kitchen/diner (actually leads into the lounge too as it was 'knocked through' probs in the 60's).
Anyway, in our old place, had a cooker hood that led to a duct & the outside world. Excellent at sucking up cooking fumes.
However the cooker hood in the new place isn't connected to anything. Just sits there, drawing air up into a mesh filter so probs catches a bit but in reality, if anything is being cooked on the hob, particularly if any oil is involved, the whole of the ground floor gets smelly - and very smoky too if my wife's cooking...
Regardless of windows being open etc.
Short of knocking holes in the outside wall to install a proper cooker hood, is there anything we can do? Any sort of counter-top filter that would help?
Anyway, in our old place, had a cooker hood that led to a duct & the outside world. Excellent at sucking up cooking fumes.
However the cooker hood in the new place isn't connected to anything. Just sits there, drawing air up into a mesh filter so probs catches a bit but in reality, if anything is being cooked on the hob, particularly if any oil is involved, the whole of the ground floor gets smelly - and very smoky too if my wife's cooking...
Regardless of windows being open etc.
Short of knocking holes in the outside wall to install a proper cooker hood, is there anything we can do? Any sort of counter-top filter that would help?
You need the hole to the outside imho. And you need to install the ducting so that it has the right amount of airflow to get it to suck properly. Anything else is eternally disappointing performance wise....
The recircling onesdon't can't work - - If you are trying to suck bacon fat out of the air into a filter, they just don't cut it......
If you are up against a wall, it isn't *that big a job to install it, and if it's an island then you might have to get into the ceiling to run a duct out, but I'd definitely be considering the routes / options to do it properly.
The recircling ones
If you are up against a wall, it isn't *that big a job to install it, and if it's an island then you might have to get into the ceiling to run a duct out, but I'd definitely be considering the routes / options to do it properly.
If you have a recirculating type check the filters and buy some replacements from an approved supplier. 95% of the amazon / ebay ones are fake HEPA and wont catch anything.
Proper HEPA filters are actually pretty good - but they are not cheap. My Neff hob has an extractor in the middle and it can actually do a decent job but you do need to change the filters every 3-4 months and wash the metal portion every week or even every few days tbh.
If you do that it will work ok, still not as better as a proper extractor though.
My kitchen has no easy way to get an external vent as we have an island and the nearest external wall is about 4 foot thick sandstone...
Proper HEPA filters are actually pretty good - but they are not cheap. My Neff hob has an extractor in the middle and it can actually do a decent job but you do need to change the filters every 3-4 months and wash the metal portion every week or even every few days tbh.
If you do that it will work ok, still not as better as a proper extractor though.
My kitchen has no easy way to get an external vent as we have an island and the nearest external wall is about 4 foot thick sandstone...
We had similar, for some reason the builder didn't vent the extractor to the outside even though the cooker hood was on an outside wall.
I borrowed a core drill and sorted it, took a few hours but the difference is night and day.
I'd forget the recirculating fan if you have the option to vent outside.
I borrowed a core drill and sorted it, took a few hours but the difference is night and day.
I'd forget the recirculating fan if you have the option to vent outside.
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