Do you need a hood in the kitchen or can you do without it?

The kitchen is one of the most difficult to decorate rooms in an apartment. There are special conditions and high temperature air containing particles of fat from cooking and water vapor. In addition, many necessary elements need to be placed in the kitchen, which you cannot do without: stove, refrigerator, sink, furniture set.

But this technique is desirable to have, but you can do without it: a microwave oven, a dishwasher, an oven and all sorts of little things (grill, coffee maker, toaster, food processor, meat grinder). The hood can also be attributed to this. Some cook without it all their lives.

Appliance manufacturers offer an abundance of useful appliances for daily or occasional use. But the room is not dimensionless. A large number of items, if they are rarely used, will only clutter up the kitchen. Therefore, it is useful for everyone to prioritize: do you need a hood in the kitchen, or you can refuse it.

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Ventilation over the gas stove is directly related to the preservation of the health of the inhabitants of the apartment. As a result of the combustion of gas, harmful substances are formed that must be removed from the kitchen. And it is the hood that does this.

Advantages and disadvantages

A kitchen without a hood has its pros and cons. The advantages include:

• A more attractive view of the kitchen, since there is no bulky device above the stove, in the very center of attention.
• The lack of an exhaust device is welcomed by the owners of a too small kitchen. This way it is possible to free up at least some free space for an additional cabinet.
• Some people prefer the original design, which does not fit the standard hood very well.
• Another argument of opponents of the hood is the loud noise that this device emits during operation.

The disadvantages may not be felt immediately, but they are more significant:

• The hood removes small particles that enter the air during cooking: oil, moisture, soot. We do not see them, but they do not disappear from the kitchen. Over time, they will show up on walls, ceilings, furniture surfaces in the form of a layer of oily plaque, which is difficult to remove. In some places, it eats in so much that it changes the color of the surface: the walls, the ceiling acquire a yellowish, dirty tint. And you can only get rid of it by making early repairs.

For those with a cooker hood, it is easier to clean and clean the kitchen, as less plaque builds up. First of all, you should thoroughly wash the filter of the device, as well as the surfaces closest to the stove. Most of the rest of the items remain clean.

• The hood removes odors, otherwise they are absorbed into kitchen textiles and furniture. This is of particular importance in houses and apartments where the kitchen is not separated by a door from the rest of the space. And this is very common in modern design: kitchen-studio, kitchen-dining room, kitchen-living room. It is not very pleasant to rest, smelling the food being cooked, especially if something is burnt at the same time.
• The issue of excessive moisture is being resolved. Since for most interior items this is harmful and leads to premature deterioration of the material, this is also a significant disadvantage.

Types of kitchen hoods

The answer to the question whether an extractor hood is needed in an apartment over a gas stove is unequivocal - yes. The benefits of a cooker hood when using an electric stove are also obvious: less moisture, odors, and cleaner all surfaces in the kitchen. There are many varieties of this device:

• built-in and suspended;
• island and wall;
• dome (fireplace) and recirculation.

Home appliance manufacturers are struggling to cope with the drawbacks of a cooker hood. Modern models make less noise, if necessary, you can find very quiet devices. The large dimensions of this device are also not required, but in a classic interior or on a large area, you cannot do without a dome model.

Circulation models are an alternative to continuous hoods that remove air with waste particles outside. They look very modern, small and fit perfectly into any design. They look like an inclined or horizontal surface, almost flat, take up little space. With limited space, they can be the right solution to the problem.

But these models are not without their drawbacks. They are less efficient at handling odors. To remove it, you have to open a window. The filters in them are of the carbon type. They cannot be washed and put back, as in flow models. Each time you will need to buy a new one, which is not economically viable. Also, their power is usually lower than that of flowing ones. They are not suitable for large rooms or where there is a lot of cooking.

Purpose of the hood

Before you plan to buy equipment for your home, you need to understand why a hood is needed in the kitchen. And this is primarily in order to improve the microclimate in the kitchen. It is pleasant to be in a room with odorless air, excessive humidity and clean of oil impurities, and there are health benefits.

Provides the function of cleaning a simple mechanism: the motor turns on the rotation of the fan. The air from the kitchen is drawn into a pipe and enters the street. Circulating hoods provide air purification using carbon filters and return it back to the room. Understanding what the hood is for, everyone concludes whether he will buy and install this device or not. For example, there are people who cook little. It makes no sense to impose an extra item on them in the kitchen.

Do you need it in your kitchen?

After a person decides whether he really needs a hood over the stove, you can start choosing a product and a method of fixing it. Flow hoods better purify the air, cope with large volumes, but they are noisy and lead to heat loss from the room. Circulating ones are less effective in the fight against fat and do not help to remove the smell at all, but they are more compact and look aesthetically pleasing, and retain heat in the house.

A cooker hood over an electric stove will extend the life of all coatings and materials in the kitchen, keeping the kitchen clean and pleasant for longer.

The hood for a gas stove will protect from damage to the respiratory system, headaches, fatigue, removing harmful products of gas combustion.

When you can do without a hood

If you order food at home, there is no need for a cooker hood. There are houses in which a centralized ventilation system is organized with a powerful fan on top. In such cases, you can also do without additional installation of the hood in the kitchen. But this only applies to cases with forced ventilation. Conventional shafts are not designed to purify the air in the kitchen at the level that is needed. They simply facilitate the exchange of air inside and outside the home.

Some people regularly ventilate the kitchen at any time of the year, so that enough air enters the apartment through the window. If the room is small in size, or rarely cooked, the hood can be abandoned even in the kitchen with a gas stove. However, such cleansing is fraught with drafts, colds. If you are in doubt about why you need a hood above the stove, think about what exactly does not suit you in this device. There is always a solution for every problem.

Compromise solution

If the appearance of the hood is embarrassing, but a person understands the unconditional benefits of using it, there are many options for how to hide it. The built-in models are not as noticeable. The appliance is located inside the cabinet, which harmoniously fits into the kitchen along with the rest of the same furniture elements.

If you need to hide the pipes through which air escapes into the mine of the house, there are also many ideas: built-in, insulated under a hinged, plasterboard or stretch ceiling, covered with special covers.

Combined hoods can be installed: they can operate in 2 modes, as circulating and as flowing. They can be adjusted, as needed, including one of the modes (one quieter, the other more powerful).

To give up the hood to save space is also ill-considered. After all, cabinets and interior details cannot be placed above the stove. Above the hood, it is quite possible to organize a storage space for kitchen utensils that are not used very often.

In general, the cooker hood improves the air quality in the kitchen, reduces the degree of contamination of all materials, and removes the smell of cooking food. By saving on the installation of the device, you can lose more money during subsequent cleaning and repairs. In order to aesthetically and beautifully decorate a kitchen with a hood, you may need to look at more models, stay on more expensive options, or contact a designer.