How to Choose a Cooker Hood
While most people enjoy cooking at home, they do not enjoy the lingering odors which can hang around long after the meal was prepared and enjoyed. The generally preferred post-meal kitchen odor, for most people, is none. Cooker hoods are the ideal appliance for removing cooking odors and the evaporative moisture within foods released during cooking. To get the best, most efficient cooker hood for your kitchen, follow some helpful suggestions. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Decide the stove and hood location, while you are in the building process. Obviously, if the house is built, this choice has already been made. Place the stove on an exterior wall for maximum cooker hood effectiveness. Consider that shorter venting equals stronger venting with more powerful air removal.
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Wall mounted hoods have a shorter, more direct vent path Avoid island or middle-of-the-kitchen cooker hood mounting. Keep in mind the hood needs to be vented to the outside for best odor removal. Remember vent length reduces vent hood fan effectiveness. Use a more powerful cooker hood fan, if the location is already in the middle of the room with longer venting installed.
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Size the cooker hood appropriately. Use the general rule of thumb measurement of the hood being at least as wide as the cooking surface. Get a cooker hood 6 to 12 inches larger than the cooking surface if space permits.
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Fan strength is measured by how much air the fan can pull through it Make sure to get a fan powerful enough to pull the odors and vapor up through the vent and out of the house. Refer to the amount of air the fan will move. Look for the CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) strength of the cooker hood's fan. Buy the highest CFM for the best, most efficient odor/moisture removal.
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Consider the fan type of the cooker hood. Buy either the traditional blade-type, rotary fan, or consider the newer, cylindrical fan that works with centrifugal force. Select the cylinder fan for more powerful fan pull and less running noise.
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Halogen bulbs are more energy efficient and last longer Buy a cooker hood with strong adequate lighting. Make sure the bulb is a halogen type for the best, brightest lighting available. Use the maximum recommended wattage bulb if halogen lighting is not featured on the hoods available in your area.
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Check the noise level of the cooker hood fan to find the quietest ones. Keep in mind that fan strength is generally proportionate to fan noise. Look for a fan within the one to two sone range.
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Tips & Warnings
Sound is measured in decibels and noise/loudness is measured in sones.
One sone is equal to the noise of a quietly running refrigerator, while normal conversation is around three or four sones.
Unvented cooker hoods only circulate the air pulled away from the stove top back into the room which diminishes their effectiveness.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit kitchen stove image by weim from Fotolia.com kitchen image by Pavel Losevsky from Fotolia.com computer cooler image by Soja Andrzej from Fotolia.com halogenlampe image by Ubi17 from Fotolia.com
