Technical Know-How When Choosing A Hood Fan For Your Kitchen

Installing a hood fan in your kitchen may not be the most glamorous remodeling idea but it is one of the most important. Among the discomforts you may encounter while cooking are the grease, moisture and odor that comes during and after it. A hood fan can minimize the effects by providing your kitchen proper ventilation.

When choosing a hood fan, Ines Hanl of Houzz suggests we first explore the technical side before looking into the fan’s physical attribute. She is considerate enough to provide us a guide, so we’ll know what to look into and consider when exploring the technical aspects of the equipment.

Identify the amount of power our fan needs to have by looking into Cubic feet per minute (CFM). The higher the number of the CFM, the more air our fan can remove per minute.

Know how much noise our fan can make. We can identify the sound output by looking into the appliance’s sones.

To minimize the noise we can also look into the blower options. An inline blower can be added to the main blower to strengthen the benefit of lessening noise. Although more expensive, an external blower can lessen noise as well provide complete ventilation system when combined with compatible fan products.

Look into the make-up air system. A make-up air system can replace the air that is let out by our home’s exhaust system, allow the exhaust system to work efficiently and replace air that can be adjusted to suit our living environment.

Identify the mounting height of our hood fan. The fan’s mounting height is the distance between the hood and the burners on the range below.

Know the capture area. This is a term used for the range hood’s footprint.

Look into the appliance’s grease filters. In the appliance store, try to remove the filters of the vent models and see if they are easy to remove. An easy to remove filter, is easy to clean.

Finally, check the model’s re-circulation kit. This can clean air by trapping cooking by-products with its carbon filter.

It seems the process of searching for the right hood fan allows us to look into attributes other than design. In Ines Hanl’s next post, she promises to share the  different kitchen ventilation fans.  via [Houzz]