Kitchen Cabinet Guide

You can cook without a hood or a vent, but moisture, grease, odors, and heat from cooking on a cooktop can damage the rest of your kitchen.

Also, steam from cooking condenses on windows and walls, and in some cases carbon monoxide from the burning of gas can build up.

A range or cooktop hood or vent will remove most if not all of the above problems.

Hood Styles

Hood choices range from basic ductless wall-mount units, to systems with lights, timers, and easy-clean surfaces.

You can buy hidden slim-line hood designs which are concealed under cabinets which slide out when in use. Another kind can be used as a shelf for microwaves with the venting fans underneath. Yet another kind can incorporate a wall-mounted microwave above the range.

Hoods come in many styles, stainless steel, tile, or paneling that matches the cabinetry, for example.

The hood or vent should be at least as wide as the range top.

Hood components

Most hoods have a fan which moves stale air from inside the hood to the outside through ducts. There are two types of fans; axial, which have blades similar to ordinary fans, and centrifugal, [...]

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