Are stove fan hoods really needed?

Factual Questions
1

Please excuse the banality of this question, but I am renovating our little kitchen today.

We removed the 20 year old fan hood. We didn’t use it much. Now, I can see that, if you had a gas stove with one of those small charcoal grills built in, or if this was a restaurant, you might want to vent your stove to the outside.

The question is, for a normal small household kitchen, is a good fan over the stove really necessary?

Based on our decision we will (a) install a simple splatter shield, or (b) buy a -cheap- stove fan hood, or © buy an -expensive- fan hood, and/or pay a lot of money to cut a hole and vent the fan outside.

I told my wife a Doper, a professional chef, a venting engineer, a home builder… might have some rock solid advice for us.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

2

Check the local building codes, it may be required for fire prevention. Better to have that grease fire that accidentally started be contained in a metal hood rather than a wooden cabinet.

3

There’s also the matter of collecting excess cooking odors and venting them outside the house as well. Fry up a few plates of onions in an efficiency apartment and you’ll come to appreciate that fan.

4

Thanks Padeye, I won’t even check the codes, I know I should have something there, so a range hood it is.

As for onions, and bacon, liver… Most stove fans don’t vent outside anyway, particularly in apartments. So the remaining question is, does it have to be a good one if it doesn’t vent outside? I think not.

5

Personally I’d want one with enough power to suck the hair off a cat!

When I lived in military housing, not only did we have a hood, but it had an automatic extinguisher system. Comforting.

VB

Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.

6

A good range hood will also cut down on the amount of grease that accumulates on your walls and ceiling. At least that’s what I’ve been told.
Peace,
mangeorge

Teach your kids to bungee jump.
One them might have to cross a bridge someday.

7

When we did a to-the-bare-walls kitchen renovation, we put in a super-dee-dooper stainless range hood with turbines (not fans). We had it vented outside–the works.

And I love it.

It just sucks everything right out. It sucks out food smells. It sucks out smoke. It sucks out that nasty smell that’s left when we go away for the weekend and forget to take out the garbage. And it would probably suck the hair off a cat, but I don’t have a cat, so I wouldn’t know.

8

Oh, man, get the hood if you can. MHO.

I desperately want a fan [or turbine!]hood over my stove but don’t have one because there’s no way to vent it to the outside. Currently what I do have [above said stove]is a microwave with an intake vent beneath and an exhaust fan at about, oh, face level. This, of course, vents any cooking steam, smoke, or aromas STRAIGHT INTO THE KITCHEN. Which sucks, no pun intended. Especially if, like me, you have an electric stove [suck] and you ever spill anything on it. Smells like the death of God when it cooks off the burner. Get the hood w/fan if you can at all. You might not notice it when it’s there, but you’d miss it if it were gone. It also does save on ceiling gunk.

My parents remodeled to a Jenn-Air glass cooktop; there’s a fan on that which sucks steam, etc DOWN. No clue where it goes to.

9

GreenBean, I am with you. Nothing less than a hood vented outside with a powerful fan. I hate kitchen smells and, as has been said, much better send the greasy fumes outside than have to wipe them off the walls later.

A hood that recirculates the air is close to useless.