How To: Choose A Vent Hood

Shopping for a new vent hood? Finding the right vent hood for your kitchen will depend on more than just looks. Use this basic guide to help you find a vent hood perfectly suited for you.

Ducted Vs. Ductless

The first thing you need to know when choosing your vent hood is whether it will be ductless or not. A ventilation system works by sucking up smoke, steam, grease, and odor created from cooking, filtering it, and exhausting it back into the air. Vent hoods with ducts move the air through a line of ductwork and releasing the air outside. Ductless vent hoods don’t have any ductwork and simply filter the air and release it back into the kitchen. If your kitchen isn’t set up with ductwork already, you can either choose for a ductless vent hood or choose to have ductwork installed by a contractor.

Choosing a Style

Once you have determined whether you need a ducted or ductless vent hood, you can then choose the type of style you like best. Which style you can choose will first be determined on the location of your cooktop surface. For example, if your cooktop is located in your kitchen island, clearly a wall vent hood is not a viable option, or if you have upper cabinets above your cooktop, a canopy hood is not feasible.

How Many CFMs?

CFM stands for cubic feet per minute and represents how powerfully your vent hood will be able to exhaust air. How many CFMs you need rely partially on the size of your cooktop, such as width and how many burners you plan on using at once, and partially by the location of your cooktop. You can use some basic calculations as a guide such as 100 cfm per linear foot for a wall hood and 150 CFM per linear foot for an island hood. So a 30" wide range should have a hood rated at 250 CFM and the same cooktop in a kitchen island would require a hood rated at 375 CFM. If you plan on using 5 burners and a griddle at once, then you will likely want a higher CFM. When it comes to vent hoods, it’s better to go too big than too small.

Additional Features

Some additional features to consider when purchasing your vent hood include LED lighting to light up your cooktop, the number of decibels of the fan, fan speeds, thermostat control, exhaust timer, remote control, and so on. In general, it’s best to choose a vent hood with at least 2 fan speeds, low and high, so you can adjust the vent hood as you need.

Microwave Alterantives

Over-the-range microwaves offer a multi-functioning to your venting needs. These microwaves have a light and a fan underneath and can either be ducted or ductless. While whether you can have one or not will depend on your kitchen’s construction, a few manufacturers like Whirlpool have designed over-the-range microwaves slim enough to fit where typical under-cabinet vent hoods fit. However, it should be noted that the typical over-the-range microwaves offer 300-400 CFMs while most range hoods are 300-695 CFMs for a standard gas range. Additionally, these microwaves cover less area with a common depth of only 16 inches while the average hood is 24 inches.

Shop every style of vent hood from a wide selection of brands, including Bosch, KitchenAid, GE Appliances, Jenn-Air, Whirlpool, and many more!