Cooker Hoods - Buying Guide.

Why a cooker hood?

An efficient cooker hood above the hob is a must for removing lingering odours and grease (contained in steam) from the air. A cooker hood (or extractor unit) can be housed in a unit to match kitchen furniture, a slimline telescopic pull-out or a feature hood - like a chimney hood or an island hood.

Extraction or recirculation?

If you don't have access to an outside wall, you will need a recirculation hood, which passes the air through charcoal and grease filters before returning it to the kitchen. However, they are not as effective as ducting air away to the exterior source, which extraction hoods do.

It's important to choose the right size extractor for your hob and your kitchen, and there's a simple calculation to work this out. Just multiply the volume of your kitchen (length by width by height in metres) by ten (the minimum number of times per hour the extractor will filter the air) and you will arrive at a figure which gives the minimum extraction rate, expressed as cubic metres per hour (m/h). All manufacturers provide this figure. Also pay attention to what the hood looks like. It will usually be the centrepiece of your kitchen and you don't want to buy one that looks like it belongs in a chip shop, as some of the cheaper options invariably do.