A cooker hood is a great addition to your kitchen, and they come in many forms. Having a cooker hood in your kitchen allows you to get rid of fumes and grime directly from your hob.
However, the different types of cooker hoods add some confusion to how they work and what is required for them to work.
Today, we’re looking at whether a cooker hood needs a chimney to work, as well as a few other cooker hood confusions that need to be answered.
Do You Need a Chimney for a Cooker Hood?
No, you don’t need a chimney for a cooker hood. Most cooker hoods have ducting that is installed either into a false cabinet above the hood or into a metal cover that blocks the ducting from view.
The cooker hoods with the metal cover are called “chimney cooker hoods”, which is likely where this confusion comes from. While these resemble chimneys and act a bit like a chimney, they don’t need a chimney to work. In fact, no cooker hood needs a chimney to work.
How Do Cooker Hoods Work?
To explain why you don’t need a chimney for a cooker hood to work, we thought we’d look at how hoods function.
A cooker hood basically sucks up steam, water vapour, fumes and grime into filters that clean the air. Cooker hoods come in two main types:
- Extraction – The air is expelled out of your home via ducting.
- Recirculating – The air is cleaned and through filters before being reintroduced into the home.
All extraction cooker hoods have ducting, but have different ways of disguising it. So, a chimney style cooker hood has a metal U-shaped ducting cover. This makes it look like a chimney, but all it does is block the piping from view.
Other cooker hoods can be installed in false cabinets above the hob. These are called visor hoods or canopy hoods. The cabinet hides the ducting from view.
So, the cabinet is functioning much the same as the metal U-shaped ducting cover of a chimney hood. It has no function other than to hide the ductwork.
Which Cooker Hood Type Is Better?
Extraction cooker hoods suck the air up through filters and then push it, via ducting, outside of your home. All extraction cooker hoods work in the same way whether you use a chimney cooker hood or a canopy hood; they just offer a different style to your kitchen.
Alternatively, you could choose a recirculating cooker hood. These force the air from your kitchen through filters that clean the air. These then recirculate the air back into your kitchen.
Recirculating hoods are often noisier because they are working harder to clean the air. These don’t have ducting and do work in some applications. However, many people prefer extraction models because they are quieter and tend to clean the air more efficiently.
Conclusion
We hope this look at cooker hoods has been helpful. To recap, you don’t need a chimney for a cooker hood; some models are just called chimney cooker hoods.
Don’t forget, Chef’s Pick has loads of cooker hood articles if you’re trying to choose the best hood for your kitchen. We also have everything else your kitchen needs to turn it into a cook’s paradise.
Scott is a writer and a passionate home chef. His passion for cooking began when he was 10 years old. Scott has been writing professionally for over five years now and loves to combine his passion for cooking with his day job.
