Rangehoods come in a lot of different varieties and sizes. To keep your kitchen and house smelling nice and fresh, you need a rangehood that is big enough to absorb all bad odour from your cooking. Who wants their home to smell like onions after all? Types of Rangehoods Rangehoods come in three different types – fixed, slide-out or canopy. Fixed rangehoods are, like the name suggests, fixed. They can’t move and cover the entire area above your stove top. Slide-out or retractable rangehoods save space by sliding out over the entire cooking area when they are needed. They are often fixed underneath kitchen cupboards. Canopy rangehoods are the most effective way of getting smell and greasy fumes out of your kitchen area. They can be fixed to a wall or mounted above a kitchen island as an eye catcher. Size Ideally, range hoods are supposed to cover your entire cooking area so the smoke doesn’t have much chance of escaping into the kitchen or the rest of the house. Most rangehoods come in 600mm or 900mm wide which matches the most common cooktop sizes. There are also some smaller models available. Make sure you measure the space you have available before you go out and buy a hood, sometimes you might have to compromise and get a smaller model to ensure it fits into your kitchen. Vent Options There are two vent options for rangehoods: ducted hoods and re-circulating models. Ducted rangehoods are more efficient in removing any smells and vapour as they vent the fumes to the outside. These models are usually a bit harder to install than re-circulating models as they require ducted piping. Make sure the ducting is as short and straight as possible to increase venting efficiency. Re-circulating models work by filtering the air before returning it into the kitchen. Larger particles such as grease are filtered by a metal filter that has to be cleaned regularly and might have to be replaced every few years to ensure a clean kitchen air environment. Installation Even though ducted range hoods are a bit trickier to install, they generally do a much better job. If you can, invest a little more time into putting a duct in the roof or outside wall rather than going for a re-circulating model. Quality A good indicator of great, reliable quality is the air extraction or air flow rate. Generally, rangehoods have an extraction rate of around 500-600m³/hr and anything above 600m³/hr is considered to be powerful. Keep in mind that retractable models are less efficient than canopy range hoods and that you always need to make sure your duct is clear and the air can flow freely.
