Picking the Best Range Hood for Your Kitchen (2022)

Each cook knows the requirement of having a high-quality range hood in the kitchen. The first reason is this appliance sucks out the warm air and heat that is filled up in the kitchen when you cook anything. Secondly, and more significantly, the hood helps to remove toxins and harmful particles that are released as parts of the cooking process. And, if you don’t invest in a good quality exhaust system, you’d have poor air quality at home that would affect you and your dear ones’ health. Are you worried about how to discover the perfect range hood for your kitchen! Then, fret not, in this blog, you’d find the best tips for purchasing a quality kitchen exhaust system.

Purchasing a kitchen exhaust system:

The basic function of a range hood is to ventilate your kitchen for removing smoke, heat, and odours. This appliance also helps to absorb and trap grease that would otherwise land up on your walls, cabinets, & kitchen appliances. Well, before we look at considerable factors for buying a kitchen exhaust system in Pakistan, let’s first take a look at the below-mentioned terms that you should know before purchasing a range hood.

Important terms for buying an exhaust system:

• CFM (cubic feet per minute)
• Make up air damper
• Air capture area

Let’s understand these terms in detail below

CFM:

CFM stands for cubic feet per minute. This is how the power of air movement is measured. So, you could calculate how efficient your exhaust system is. For your gas stoves, a minimum ventilation level of 100 CFM per 10,000 British Thermal Units (BTU) is recommended. For instance, if the total output of your gas stove is 45,000 BTUs, your range hood should have at least 450 CFM output for giving the best ventilation.

Make up air damper:

This is a device that opens and closes for allowing fresh air in. This tool helps replace the air that is removed by the range hood.

Air capture area:

This area regulates the area that is actually covered by the kitchen hood. 

When you’re picking the best kitchen exhaust system, you must know that there are different kinds of options for venting in a range hood.

Considerable factors while buying an exhaust system:

You must look at the following factors when you’re selecting the right kitchen hood:

• Size
• Mount
• Ventilation
• Filters
• Power
• Noise
• Height

Let’s discuss these factors in detail below.

Size:

The best method for calculating the efficiency of air removal while purchasing an exhaust system for your kitchen is to examine the width of the range hood. This technique should be at least of the same width as that of your cooking surface.

Ideally, the size of a range hood should overlap 3 inches on either side of the cooktop for covering the maximum area. So, if your cooktop is 30 inches wide, a 36-inch-wide range hood would be the right choice for you. Remember that the exhaust system should be deep enough for covering the back burners and at least half of the front burners. If your range hood is shallow, this appliance should be installed closer to the cooktop.

If you have a kitchen island, the range hood should cover at least six inches more on either side of the cooktop. Coz within a kitchen island, there are cross breezes that could carry the heat and smoke and make your atmosphere suffocating.

Kinds of mounting options:

Pick the best range hood for a kitchen island.

Once you determine the size of the exhaust system, you should know how you’re going to mount it. There are four different varieties of mounting choices that are available in the market.

·         Under cabinet:

This kind of mounted range hood is present under an already existing cabinet above your cooktop. The duct or vent passes through the wall, and it’s hidden under the cabinet.

·         Wall-mounted or chimney:

This sort of range hood is mounted on a wall, and the duct is hidden inside the chimney.

·         Island:

This kind of range hood hangs directly from a chimney and present above the island cooktop.

·         Custom:

The custom hoods are also known as insert or liner hoods, and these are installed directly inside an already existing hood in their kitchen.

Sorts of venting options:

There are three different kinds of venting options. These are:

·         Vented or ducted:

The vented or ducted hoods funnel the bad air out of your home through a duct or vent.

·         Ductless ventilation:

The ductless ventilation is normally placed inside an apartment/condo where you don’t have direct access to the rooftop/ceiling. So, this is ductless. This pulls the bad air via a charcoal filter and recycles the clean air back into the room. Well, it is always a good idea to regularly change the charcoal filter. Otherwise, the exhaust system won’t be much effective.

·         Convertible:

This sort of vent has both options that are vented and non-vented. Therefore, you could use the vent choice when required.

Filters:

You should clean the mesh filter of your range hood.

Probably, the most important factor while selecting a suitable range hood for your kitchen is picking the right filter that can effectively remove grease, grime, and smoke. This assists in keeping the kitchen clean & improve the indoor air quality. There are three different sorts of filters that are used in a range hood.

·         Mesh:

Aluminium mesh filters have a filter like mesh that captures the grease. The mesh has to be properly cleaned; otherwise, the grease would block the pores in the mesh. With some range hoods having a mesh filter, there is a distinct container that could gather the oil and grease.

·         Baffle:

A baffle filter is the most effective filter in capturing grease, and it is most common in ducted range hoods. These filters have alternating three-sided baffles that could maximize the airflow and grease filtering mechanism when the hood runs.

·         Charcoal:

Most circulating/ductless range hoods employ charcoal filters. The charcoal filter has to be changed more often. Otherwise, the exhaust system would not work up to the mark.

Power:

As it’s mentioned above, the range hood’s ability to move air is measured in CFM. To know the cubic feet per minute of a range hood, you must determine what kind of a stove you have. For an electric stove, you’d require 100 CFM for every 10 inches of width of the cooktop. For example, you have a 40-inch wide cooktop you’d need a 400 CFM.

If you have a gas cooktop, you have to take the maximum number of BTUs (British Thermal Units) and divide that by the number, hundred. So, if you have 65,000 BTUs, you’d need 650 CFM.

Noise:

Another considerable factor while purchasing an exhaust system for your kitchen is how quieter you desire your exhaust system to function. The volume of the range hood is usually measured in sones. The lower the number of sones, the quieter your range hood would sound. Also, for a reference, 1 sone measures the sound that’s made by a quiet functioning refrigerator.

Plus, the noise of an exhaust system is generally made by the blower, but this is also determined via the air movement. You could decrease the noise level of your exhaust system by the addition of a remote blower that is located away from your kitchen, in the inner side of the duct/on your rooftop.

Height:

Select a range hood of some appropriate height.

The height of the range hood plays a significant role in determining the efficiency of your exhaust system. If you place this too high, the heat & smoke would not be effectively filtered. A regular cooktop is generally 36 inches above the kitchen floor. The bottom of the range hood should be 28 to 36 inches above the cooking surface. Therefore, if you want to know how tall your range hood should be, you should apply simple mathematics.

If you have a ceiling height of 96 inches, the cooktop height is 36 inches. So, the distance above the cooktop is 30 inches that should be further subtracted from the ceiling height. And, the result would be the range hood height that is 30 inches in this situation.

Best Range Hood Price In Pakistan:

Conclusion:

We hope that you might have understood everything regarding the article, picking the best range hood for your kitchen (2022). Now, only one point is remaining. Rays (empowered by Connect Solutions) sells quality range hoods and has been doing business for a long period. You might examine the website and check several products there. This is possible that you might find the product of your needs. Now, all has been done from our side but not from your side. So, if you actually appreciate our hard work, do comment below, and share our piece with your loved ones. Well, through your help, your connections might purchase a quality range hood for their kitchen.