Recently i have come across a fair number of people doing kitchen Reno's' who have no way of venting the hood externally - i therefore decided to write a few sentences on the topic to try and help them out.
No way of venting or not allowed to vent
I guess the first question on most peoples minds is -
Why should i vent the hood in the first place - this article will help you with that question. Typically folks with this kind of problem are in condo environments where they are not allowed to punch a hole into the external wall or even go up through the roof. They really only have one option - they must re-circulate the air. This entails sucking in the air via a
range hood that firstly captures the grease and
moisture with the grease filter, it then ideally passes the filtered air through a carbon filter and then returns the cleansed air back into the kitchen. So as you can see this is a two stage process of removing the grease and moisture from the air and then the carbon filter removes the odors. So when planning or purchasing your range hood ensure that the hood has at least 5 layers of fine mesh grease filter to collect the grease and
moisture and an optional carbon filter - I am sure you have seen those grease filters that have big gaps in them - this will not do the job and is typically found on the lower end of the range hood scale. The grease filter must be washable - i
recommend placing the grease filter (which is typically layers of aluminum mesh with a stainless steel frame) in a dishwasher weekly depending on cooking style. The carbon filter is a replacement item that should be replaced after a month or two depending on cooking style. The most important thing in the grease/carbon filter relationship is washing the grease filter otherwise the grease ends up getting sucked into the carbon filter and negating its value.
If anyone has questions or needs advise please feel free to visit me at:
http://www.customrangehoods.ca/
go to the
Contacts Page, send me a question or just post a
response to this blog.
