Your Cooker Hood Is Not Removing Odours Or Venting Properly

Is your extractor hood switching on okay but failing to remove all the odours from your kitchen? There are various possible causes for this common problem. Here we explore and take a look at these with you.

THE POTENTIAL CAUSES FOR THIS PROBLEM:

• The hood has not been installed correctly

• The impeller is not tightly screwed on

• The carbon filter is saturated with grease

• The ducting hose is blocked

WARNING
Before you do anything to your appliance, make sure you disconnect it from the power supply.
There is a risk of electric shock.
Wear suitable protective gloves if you need to dismantle anything.
There is a risk of getting cut or injured.

The hood has not been installed correctly

It is important to install cooker hoods properly and in the right position. If you have an open-plan (American style) kitchen, we recommend going for a ducted extractor hood rather than a recirculation type if at all possible. Ducted extractor hoods should actually not be switched on in completely closed-off rooms (with all the windows and doors shut), as this can create a vacuum effect, preventing the hood from extracting properly. In closed-off kitchens with just a door, a recirculating extractor hood can be installed. This will filter the air in the room up to ten times per hour and reduce the odours produced by cooking. Note: ducted extractor hoods filter only the grease from the air they evacuate, whereas recirculating type hoods are fitted with both a carbon filter and a grease filter. These filters do of course reduce the hood's extraction power to some extent. To keep things working efficiently, the carbon filter should be replaced once every three months.

The impeller is not tightly screwed on

The impeller is the part that actually sucks the air. It screws onto the motor spindle and will normally be made from plastic. If there is an issue with the impeller, this can cause the hood to lose extraction power and thus reduce its ability to rapidly remove odours. Inspect the impeller and check that its bolts/screws are properly tightened.

The carbon filter is saturated with grease

Active carbon filters (as used on recirculating type hoods) should as a general rule be replaced once every three months, whereas grease filters simply need to be cleaned regularly. If carbon filters get saturated with grease, your cooker hood will struggle to work properly and won't be able to remove cooking odours efficiently. Important: if you have a ducted extractor hood rather than a recirculating one, don't forget to remove the carbon filters from it. Also remember to regularly clean the metal grease filter; most are suitable for washing in the dishwasher.

Purchase a carbon filter for the extractor hood

Purchase a metal grease filter for the extractor hood

The ducting hose is blocked

The hoses on ducted extractor hoods can sometimes get blocked from the outside, such as by a bird's next for example, or due to getting kinked or bent over time. The extractor ducting is therefore something to check. Reminder: the ducting on an extractor hood must take as short a route to the outside as possible and must be as straight and free of bends as possible so as not to impede the evacuation of the air.