Every serious cook knows the necessity
of having a high quality range hood in their kitchen. A high quality range hood
will remove the smoke, odor, heat, and grease from the air in your kitchen, so
you and your guests can breathe easier, and you can cook in comfort. But with all
of the options available, selecting the right range hood can be a
daunting task. In this video, we're going to show you exactly what you need to
consider when selecting your new range hood. Now this video is for indoor range
hoods. If you're going to be mounting your range hood outdoors, your needs are going
to be a little bit different, so click on the link below. There are several
important questions you need to ask. What size range hood will you need. How will
your range hood be mounted. What type of ventilation will you use. What type of
grease filters do you want to have. How powerful of a blower do you need. How
quiet do you want your range hood and last. how tall do you need your range
hood to be. to mount it in your kitchen. At any time during this video, you may
skip ahead to any section by clicking on the corresponding link below. Now, in
order to use this feature, you must make sure that your YouTube annotations are
enabled. First, you'll need to decide what size range hood you'll need. For hoods
that are mounted against a wall, you will want to have your hood be equal to or
just larger than your cook top so it overlaps three inches on each side. So if
your cook top is thirty inches, a 36 inch range hood would overlap three inches on
each side. For an island mounted range hood, you'll want it to be a little bit
larger because it's going to have to compete with the cross breezes in your
kitchen. Make sure any island hood overlaps three
to six inches on each side. It's important to have this overlap because
the larger the canopy area of your hood, the better it can trap unwanted grease,
heat, smoke, odor, and vent it out of your kitchen. Second, you need to decide how
you're going to mount your range hood. Now, there are four basic types of range
hoods: an under cabinet range hood will mount directly under an already existing
cabinet above your cook top. Typically your ductwork will either go out the
back of the hood through the wall or through the top of the hood and be
hidden by your cabinets. A wall mounted hood will mount against the wall above
your cooktop and your ductwork will be hidden behind a chimney. An island range
hood will hang down directly from your ceiling over an island cook top in your
kitchen. An insert or liner range hood will mount up inside a custom hood that
is already installed in your kitchen. These custom hoods are typically made
from copper, stone, or wood and the insert or liner inserts directly inside
those. Third, you'll need to know how you're
going to be venting your hood. It is always best to duck the grease, heat,
smoke, and odor out of your kitchen and having a hood that vents outside allows
you to have the most options with respect to the type of blower you can
use and how powerful it can be. But you may not have the option of putting duct
work through your walls or ceiling. Say you live in an apartment or a condo,
without access to the ceiling directly above your kitchen. If this is the case
you'll have to pick a range hood that can be ductless or recirculating.
Ductless range hoods pull the air up into the hood and through a filtration
system which removes the grease, smoke, and odor and then recirculates the air
back into your kitchen. Fourth, you want to decide what type of grease filters to
use. Noe there are two basic types of grease filters: you have baffle filters and you
have mesh filters. Mesh filters trap the grease in the actual mesh and if they
are not cleaned frequently enough, they can be louder than the baffle filters and
they restrict the airflow. Baffle filters catch the grease and then trap it in a
removable grease cover tray or in the filter itself. Both types of filters are
dishwasher safe and easy to clean Fifth, you'll need to decide how powerful
your range hood needs to be. A range hoods ability to move air is measured in
cubic feet per minute or CFM. To determine your needs, you'll need to
consider what type of stove you have and what type of cooking you'll be doing. If
you have an electric range top, you'll need 100 CFM for every 10 inches in
width that your cook top is. So, if you have a 40 inch wide cook top you're going
to need 400 CFM. Now, if you have a gas cooktop you'll want to take the max
number of BTUs and divide that by a hundred. So, if you have a 65,000 BTU
stove, you'll need 650 CFM. Every situation is different
regardless of your stoves output. Some people will need a professional level
hood, which is at least nine hundred CFM. In order to have a professional level
hood, you need to vent the hood out of your kitchen. Recirculating or ductless
hoods typically cannot handle professional level needs. Professional
level hoods need to move so much air, that you have to change your filters
every few weeks and it would get very expensive. You'll want to consider a
professional level hood if you: frequently do a lot of frying or wok
style cooking, if you grill on your range top, indoors or outdoors, cook spicy, fishy,
or other more pungent foods, mount your hood outdoors, have a range top with a
very high BTU, have ducting that runs over 10 feet with multiple 90 degree
bends, or you position your hood higher than 36 inches over the range top. Sixth, you'll need to decide how quiet
you want your range hood to be. The volume of the range hood is typically
measured in sones. The lower the number of sones, the
quieter the hood. As a reference, one sone is approximately the equivalent of
a quiet refrigerator while it's running. The majority of the noise from a range
hood is created by the blower but you'll also get noise in your range hood
created by the air moving past the filters. Local blowers, or fans that are
installed directly inside the range hood, can be very quiet but you can lower the
noise level over your range hood even more by using a remote blower, which is
located away from your kitchen, in your attic, in line with your ductwork, or on
your rooftop. The last thing you want to consider is to make sure that your range
hood will accommodate the height of your ceiling and the height that you want to
mount it over your cook top. Whether it's an island, insert, wall, or under cabinet
hood, you will want to mount your range hood so the bottom of the hood is 28 to
36 inches above the surface of your stove top. Every situation is different
but the average cook top is typically 36 inches above the floor. So, with some
simple math, we can determine how tall the range hood needs to be. Simply take
the entire height of your ceiling and subtract the height of your cook top then
subtract the height which you want the range hood to be mounted above your
cook top. So, let's say you have a standard 8 foot ceiling; that's 96 inches and your
cook top is 36 inches tall. You want to mount your hood 30 inches above your
cook top. You take the 96 inches and subtract 36 for your cooktop and
subtract another 30 for the space between your cooktop and the bottom of
your range hood and you are left with 30 inches. So your range hood and chimney
need to be 30 inches tall. Most of the chimney sold with our range
hoods will adjust to accommodate ceilings of 8 to 9 foot tall. If your
ceiling is taller, we do offer chimney extensions. For
shorter ceilings, we can custom cut the chimney to fit but you will need to
check the minimum chimney height on the hood to see the lowest it can be trimmed
down. So now you know everything you need to know to pick the perfect range hood.
At Proline Range Hoods, we have hundreds of range hoods to fit your needs. Thanks
for watching! If you have any questions, visit our
website or give us a call.