Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one?

Don't you ever cook?

Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie

>Hmmmm... let me see.....

I cook......

I burn things.......

I turn on vent......

I open up windows and turn on whole house fan up to attic.......

You're right, why do I need a hood vent, the whole house fan does a much better job of removing the smoke after we put out the flames ;)

Happy Woodworking!

Re: Don't you ever cook?

Ted Wong

>Maybe you don't need a vent hood. I like having one to help get rid of greasy cooking odors. Some inevitably get past and smell up the house anyways. Some vent hoods are merely recirculaters that do nothing more than recirculate the fumes anyways.

However, before we replaced our vent hood I was cleaning up the top of the cabinets one day and there was a substantial film of dust and goo that I suspect was from grease laden air setlling on horizonal surfaces.

Re: Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one

Glenn Madsen near San Francisco

>Are you against venting, or against listening to another shop vac screaming?

With the better cooktops, you'd likely pair a better, probably quieter vent fan. The one we just installed, about $375, is quiet enough that we often forget, and leave it on, because we don't hear it. That was never a problem with its predecessor.

I would make certain that one was installed. Your using it is up to you, but the likelihood is that someone, possibly the executor of your estate, will one day need to sell that house.

Re: Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one

Bob Fawcett

>Don't know if you need one or not.

I have one of those downdraft hoods. The kind that lifts up out of the counter and mounts behind the cook top. Mine is a GE and was purchased separately from the cooktop. I see no reason it wouldn't work with any other cooktop. Mine is 30" wide which seems to be a common size. It takes up about 2" space behind the top. I think you can get them in other sizes too.

Oh, and I almost never use it.

Re: Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one

Kirk (KC) Constable

>We don't have an exhuast fan or hood, and I've got an upper cabinet directly above the range. Almost every time something is boiling and steaming, I think I probably should've put one in... but I can't see any ill effects on the underside of the cabinet after 9 years.

KC

Re: Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one

wilbur

>Two things to consider:

First, the absolute need for a hood/vent depends a lot on the type of cooking you do. My family is Chinese, so we stir fry probably at least 3 times a week. The rest of the time we cook things that require sauteing. Both cooking techniques spew out a lot of flying oil and steam. For this type of cooking, a vent is very useful.

On the other hand, if you do a lot of stew, braises, and soups, and a lot of oven based cooking, a hood/vent probably won't be of much utility.

Second, you may want to consider resale value if you ever decide to sell your house. Given that you're looking at installing a 36" 5 burner range, I'm going to guess that whoever might want to buy your house will likely be someone who would want to do a lot of cooking, in which case not having a vent of some kind would be a negative for that potential buyer.

Re: Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one

Bill White

>Whethter you need a vent is a moot point until you want to get odors/heat out of the kitchen.

There are pop-up downdraft vent systems available (GE for one)or island hoods that hang from ceiling.

Since your system is alredy vented for downdraft, why not just use it. Ventilation systems are rated for sound in "sones" not db. Look for the lowest sone rating you can find.

Bill

Re: Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one

Ryan Stagg - Cincinnati

>I installed the 1200 CFM hood and requisite makeup-air system in our new-ish home, so I'll share some of my over-research with you.

(I am assuming your vent ducts to the outside. If not, and you can't duct to the outside, what I'm saying here is moot. You might still want to install for code.)

Get a vent. Maybe for code, probably for resale, definitely for health and welfare. If you get a high-performance 5 burner cooktop, and you use it very much, I don't think you want to circulate all that extra heat and vapors into your house. (I'd be more concerned about unburned gas and CO2 than CO, btw)

If you *must* do a downdraft, look for one of the telescoping models. The sensors for the piezo ignitors on modern cooktops are *very* sensitive, and the downdraft pulling the flame away from the sensor often makes the ignitors "click click click" as you're cooking. This will wear out your ignitors quickly and drive you mad. The telescoping models minimize this effect. I can't imagine you could reuse your current one - the new cooktop probably won't have grates in the middle to accomodate it, and putting it anywhere else will be really inefficient.

Don't worry about 'sone ratings' for vent hoods. Manufacturers work a lot of mojo into those figures; the motors on any good hood are nearly silent. The noise is generated by the air going through the ductwork, and the amount of noise depends greatly on the efficiency of the routing (length and turns).

Just buy a good model. It'll be relatively quiet, assuming your duct isn't a 100 foot twisted run. I've heard good things about Broan and Bosch, but I probably wouldn't hesitate to go with GE, either.

Re: Cooktop hood thread hijack - why do I need one

Lee Gordon

>Different strokes for different folks. I have had a Jenn-Aire in my center island for 22 years and I grill on it all the time -- so much so that I don't even own an outdoor barbecue.

The downdraft ventilation is absolutely essential for me at one other particular time during the year: when I'm boiling down sap to make maple syrup. If I didn't have it, just making one quart of syrup would steam all the wallpaper off the kitchen walls, and maybe in the entire downstairs.