From the home-cooking aficionados to the time-seasoned chefs, making a mess in the kitchen is inherent in the craft. It’s in the air, no matter how careful and precise the culinary artist — grease, fumes, gases, and of course, food splatter. That is where the always-useful range hood comes in to save the day.
Range hoods are a vital component to every kitchen, removing odors, smoke, and harmful particles from the air you breathe as you cook. Using powerful fans, the air around the cooktop is pulled through filters or into a duct to send out of the house. Smoke, heat, moisture, microscopic food particles, and other impurities are filtered out or removed from the kitchen entirely to prevent it from contaminating the air, or your food.
The short answer is: Yes, you need a range hood. The more debatable questions are what kind of range hood will work for your space, and how big should one be for the cooking that happens in your kitchen?
There are a few basic but important considerations for homeowners when planning to include a range hood in their kitchen update:
Range hoods make for a beautiful kitchen focal point and provide the practical necessity of pushing smoke and smells out of the home. But do you know which type of range hood is the best fit for your kitchen? The choice comes down to layout, function, and aesthetics. Our Austin architects have broken down the top 7 range hood styles to help you better decide the best fit for your kitchen. Plus, we reveal the one type of range hood we’d never use in a project!
Before we get into the various styles of range hoods, let’s review the functional difference between vented and non-vented hoods.
Vented range hoods are also called ducted or external venting hoods. These hoods exhaust air to the outside through a duct system, eliminating smoke and odors from the kitchen.
Non-vented range hoods are also called ductless or recirculating hoods. Instead of exhausting air to the outside, these hoods pull air through a filter and recirculate it back into the kitchen. While the filter captures some of the smoke and odor, it is less effective than redirecting it outside through a vent.
Our Austin architects recommended vented hoods over non-vented hoods because they can better manage smoke and odors. Make sure to plan ahead in your design to accommodate a vented hood, especially when renovating an older home that might have more architectural constraints.