Before choosing Cooker Hoods, you firstly need to identify the following:
Where is your hob? Against a wall or on an island?
Will you be having an external motor and ducting to an outside wall or will it be recirculating?
Do you want to conceal the extractor hood or have an exposed one?
What is the size of your hob?
Once these basic points are identified, you can start searching for the right cooker hood.
If you have the hob on the island, you have the option of something hanging down from the ceiling or something built into the ceiling.
Against the wall you can have something exposed or something concealed (built into the wall units). AKA Canopy hoods.
If you have the budget and not worried about extreme high smells, you can opt for a ‘downdraft’ which is the extraction coming out of the worktop. I think that deserves an entire post in itself.
A lot of the time, the type of cooker hoods you select is based on the look, style, colour, your preference and budget.
But some key things to look out for regardless of your kitchen design are:
Decibel levels (dB) – this is the noise level of the extractor hood. The lower the number, the quieter the hood. Most hoods are around 60-70dB. 70dB is equivalent to the sound of a washing machine.
Power – we all want an extractor hood that is very powerful. The motor power is calculated as m3/h which means cubic per hour. Have a look at the settings of each hood to see what power it has. Anything around 600-1000 m3/h is classed as powerful. Siemens are quite powerful.
Ducting – if you can duct the extraction to an external motor, this is far more powerful than a recirculating hood. However, the longer the duct and the more twists and turns the ducting has to do to connect to an outside motor, the less powerful the extractor will become. So be mindful how far your external wall is in relation to your hob.
Size – Always allow the extractor to be wider than the size of your hob or same width.
If you want to browse different designs and understand the difference between the island and wall options, these websites are pretty good as a starting point.
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