Do I really need a range hood?
SEE OUR FINISHED KITCHEN HERE!
I need to tell you my deepest darkest kitchen secret:
I do not like a range hood.
I hate them all.
I particularly detest the massive monument-to-wasted-space that has become a bizarre status symbol; like mounting a Range Rover over your stove.
Sure, you can choose one that is low-profile, but that would be in direct opposition to the opportunity to install an oversized jet-engine, directly in the place your face goes while standing at the stove.
Although obviously, (like any sensible person) I would trade a good portion of my soul for this kitchen.
Those sentences above areĀ the beginning of a post I started months agoā¦ Back when I thought I could withstand the scorn of the internet if I chose to not waste money and space onĀ an appliance that I will never use.
However.
I have since begun to fear the wrath of the Appropriate-Cooking-Evaluators: a band of angry militants who patrol the internet for violations which offend them personally; and who believe that forgoing a direct-vented range hood is akin to voluntarily injecting yourself with Ebola virusā unbelievably stupid.
Like this kitchen below– so terrible! Let’s take a moment to reflect on how badly we feel for these people that their kitchen is so subpar!
Iām practically BLIND FROM HOW HORRIBLE THIS IS.
So whyĀ would I considerĀ an about-face from hood-denier to herd-animal; when my preferred response to scorn and judgment is always to dig in my heels and run forward towards the executioner?
I guess the internet has broken me.
Specifically, a particular element to the internet that pervades every single topic that people can possibly form an opinion about: the mindset that there is ONLY ONE GOOD ACCEPTABLE WAY to do something that has zero impact on anyone else’s life.
The ONLY ONE GOOD ACCEPTABLE WAY people believe ONE THING, and then that is ALL THEY BELIEVE and they make it their lifeās work to make sure anyone not doing THE WAY is immediately disqualified from life, clapped in irons, and dragged to the town square to be flogged for idiocy.
Which, upon reflection, is the source of all human conflict through history: your own opinions are fine, but other peopleās are moronic and intolerable and deserving of the flaming cannonballs with chains.
Unless they happen to agree with you, in which case they are well-informed.
The ONLY ONE GOOD ACCEPTABLE WAY peopleās initial input is well-meaning! (If bordering on didactic and unhinged.)
But if you fail to PROPERLY HEED THEIR WARNING AND APPRECIATE THEIR WISDOMā¦they become enraged.
WHY! Why would someone WHO HAS BEEN WARNED!! Fail to instal a direct-vent range hood???
Look at THESE IDIOTS! Living without a range hood!
Imbeciles!
Ā
I am thinking specifically of a kitchen-chatboard thread, where a woman explained that it was IMPOSSIBLE to direct-vent her range hood. And she wondered if (seeing as how she couldnāt direct vent,) could she just skip the questionably-effective-substitute-which-is-essentially-just-a-fan and install a light fixture she had fallen in love with.
It was the light fixture of her dreams! A design element that would bring her peace and joy and goodwill towards all! A lamp that would improve her very existence on earth and she could die happy because SHE HAD THE BEST LAMP.
The responses variedā¦ but there were an ALARMING number of respondents who were EXTREMELY BOTHERED by the fact that this woman was not gutting her kitchen to the studs and reconfiguring everything towards the goal of direct-venting the range hoodā¦ and she should probably just go out and rent a bulldozer THAT VERY NIGHT and knock it all down to the ground while flagellating herself for having considered any other option.
Ā
They basically went on to suggest that she was a filthy, squalor-dwelling subhuman moron.
And as I read on and on and onā¦ I have to tell you that I was AMAZED at the PASSION total strangers were bringing to disparaging this woman and her lamp… I mean, who has time for lengthy screeds decrying other people’s DESIGN CHOICES?
And then I was EVEN MORE AMAZED at how these people do not realize that they look like flaming lunatics.
My FAVORITE response was from a woman who wrote:
This one time, we didnāt have a range hood, and we had to THROW AWAY ALL OF OUR BELONGINGS INCLUDING THE FURNITURE after one monthĀ BECAUSE THEY SMELLED SO FOUL AND HORRIBLEĀ from non-vented cooking odors.
I donāt know about youā¦ but that does NOT sell me on a ventā¦ it DOES, however, make me wonder WHAT THIS WOMAN IS MAKING FOR DINNER.
Anyway. All of this is to explain that I do not want a range hood.
But that I am thinking about it anyway.
Because of the internet.
And I am mad about it.
The way Iāve decided to deal with this irritating anxiety that MY kitchen in MY house designed to MY preferences might draw the ire of some random stranger on the internet is to turn it over to you.
Here’s what you need to know: our township construction code does not require one. I will not have an eight-burner stove outgassing 67 billion btu’s/therms/whatever other specs.
Ok! GO FOR IT!
This is your chance!
I WASH MY HANDS.
And if you fail to draw me out from the cave and convince me of the shadows on the wall, then you must return to your war room and inform the other ONLY ONE GOOD ACCEPTABLE WAY-ers that your method is flawed.
Please make a good argument! Definitely do not include information like this: you NEED a hood!
Because: SURPRISE! I do not!
I can prove that to you because we HAD a hood! It was direct-vented!
And I NEVER USED IT.
I never used it SO MUCH that I had Paul take it out.
Every single night I was likeā WHY IS THIS THING RIGHT IN MY FACE?
Until eventually I was like– Plague of nonsense, BE GONE!
p.s.ā save some outrage for the post where I explain how Iām thinking of not having a freezer.
xoxo,
VEB, squalor-dwelling subhuman moron, esq.
December 14, 2016 @ 3:46 pm
I have a Range Rover looming above my stove, wasting space where art could be. I never turn it on, even when I sear meat. Sigh. I wish I had thought about it being optional before we installed it. Please learn from me. Don’t put anything in your house for the Next People who will live there. Way too many things are done for the Next People. They will remodel or change what you have done anyway.
December 14, 2016 @ 3:47 pm
I never use the fan in my hood and rarely use the light. And, more importantly, it’s a royal pain to clean! AND my house does not smell like cooking. If it ever does, we open the doors and let the house air out! Ban the hood!
December 14, 2016 @ 3:55 pm
Code here requires a hood, so all the builders install recirculating fans. I have used mine approximately twice a year, at which times I am convinced it just sets off the smoke detector faster (and those odors are always caused by something bubbling over in the oven, not the stove top). I grew up in a house with a cooktop in the island and it was never vented. We cleaned the ceiling above every few year, but it never looked any dirtier than the rest of the ceilings. My mom cooked 3 meals a day for a family of 7 and I do the same for a family of 6, and while an occasional smell lingers for a couple of hours I’m pretty sure our houses don’t smell of unbearable cooking odors.
December 14, 2016 @ 3:59 pm
I don’t have a range hood or freezer and life is just dandy. I do have two cats, though.
December 14, 2016 @ 4:03 pm
I have a stupid microwave with a vent because of code. We only use it when hubby heats coconut oil and forgets about it. When the vent is on it sounds like a 747 in the kitchen. I hate it. Do what makes you happy!!!
December 14, 2016 @ 4:05 pm
you should pay absolutely no attention to opinionated nutters…. however it is good to listen to advice form sensible people (one of the joys of these forums). you then take the bits of advice that make sense and ignore the rest.
i love asian food and stir frys and my kitchen would therefore be awful without a range hood. i dont like them either so spent too much money on one you cant see and is easy to clean. as i have an open plan kitchen/dining/family room its fantastic. (qasar … but dont know if they have them in america. i am in australia)
only you know what you cook and what your tolerance level is for grease and kitchens smells so ignore us all!
i love your blog. i have renovated seven houses and thinking about number 8 so i can get a vicarious thrill from it.
December 14, 2016 @ 4:07 pm
My grandma never had a vent…..my mom never had a vent. I’ve had two of those worthless fan-vent things…..which do nothing but make alot of noise. I see zero reason for a vent. If it’s steamy or there are cooking smells….I open the window or a door. I don’t have a ton of grease or whatever to deal with, either, and I cook every single day! I don’t get all the venting “needs”, I guess.
You hate the vents….you’ve posted gorgeous pics without the vents….go with no vent, for heaven’s sake!
December 14, 2016 @ 4:14 pm
Well, I might as well step into it: I like range hoods… My other homes had them, BUT they have to be ducted outside to be effective. Our first home had one of those that “circulated the air” and spit it back out into the kitchen… Did a lousy job. When our other homes had ones that directly vented, it did make a difference. This home doesn’t have one, so for the past 19 years I’ve been living with cooking odors wafting upstairs, no matter how many odor candles I burn…
When we redo our kitchen, it will be a downdraft since the cooktop will be in an island..
As much as many want to make the kitchen look as elegant as possible, when it comes down to it, it is a utilitarian area. It can still look elegant, but when I’m finished, and it’s clean, the odors won’t be a tell-tale sign of what was cooked.
December 14, 2016 @ 4:18 pm
I’m so grateful for you right now, amid dealing with insurance/medical provider madness I saw an email from my favorite procrastinating dictator and am no longer pulling out chunks of hair! I’ve always had a hood, but frequently forget about them/never use them (I’m barely 5 feet tall, they’re practically in the stratosphere for me) and think kitchens look much airier without them (wow, this kitchen seems so open, what is it? I think there is something missing from up near the distant ceiling…) and even though I never use mine, I’ve never noticed lingering food odors in any of my homes. Stand strong, don’t waste money on something that is giant in a not-fancy manner!
Your fellow sub-human slob
December 14, 2016 @ 4:26 pm
Lord have mercy.
Why would you even consider getting something you don’t want?
Think of all the Semi-Giant Fancy Things you could use the space for and spend the money on instead. (Those glass and brass display shelves, for instance)
I don’t have one and I don’t miss it, or the cleaning of it.
I do occasionally set off the smoke detectors on Taco Tuesday, but I consider that a plus, since it means they’re functioning.
DO NOT give in to the pinch-faced scolds who are apparently too lazy to clean their kitchens on a regular basis.
Simply put, do not let the assholes win!
December 14, 2016 @ 4:28 pm
We don’t have a vent or even a microwave/fan over our stove. Just a stove on a wall, with a picture of Julia Child above it, for good juju. We cook quite a bit – and after we do, our house STINKS. We have a 1200 sq ft railroad style apartment with the kitchen in the back, and when you walk in our front door, DAYS after we’ve cooked fish or seared meet, the smell hits you in the face. Even if we cook with the windows open. The grease isn’t so bad, though. I would definitely tile behind the stove – we just have paint, and it gets gross and is tough to clean (we rent). I hate the look of range hoods, but hate walking into a smelly house at the end of a long day even more.
December 14, 2016 @ 4:28 pm
We remodeled our 1895 Victorian three years ago. As part of the remodel we installed a 1950’s O’Keefe & Merritt oven/range against a brick fireplace wall with no hood of any kind. It works for me. But my husband does have a habit of grilling his steak and sometimes catching it on fire which does fill the kitchen with smoke. To deal with this we have doors that we can completely close (including a swinging door to the dining room) so that all the smoke is contained within the kitchen. And I have a back kitchen door and two windows in the kitchen that I open to let all the smoke out. I, too, do not like hoods so I don’t miss one. I do have a light installed over my range that is mounted beneath a stainless steel floating shelf that is mounted above the range. I like the light and use it a lot. Because smoke and heat does sometimes pour out of the oven vents that are at the rear of our range (they vent from the oven part) I have considered running a duct from the back oven vent into the fireplace vent which our oven backs to. This would vent some of the smoke and heat and keep the kitchen cooler while cooking in summer. This, of course, would be a passive system – no fan etc. I haven’t done it yet but would like to. If you are able to do something similar with a passive venting system it is a good compromise in my opinion.
December 14, 2016 @ 5:00 pm
I cook every day and I don’t have a hood. My house hardly ever smells like the food I cook, and I very rarely ever set off the smoke alarms. It would be very difficult to install a hood and it simply isn’t worth the trouble. At the end of the day it’s my kitchen and the only opinion that matters is mine, frankly!
December 14, 2016 @ 5:05 pm
I thought I had a direct vent that went through the microwave over the stove and nothing changed my thoughts about that until I bought a new microwave and during the instillation I learn THERE IS NO VENT!! What? The guy who built this houses vented everything but not this?
I figured if I hadnt needed it in the first 6 years of living here, I was good to keep the status quo except the guys who installed the new microwave directed the internal cooling fan to blow out against the aforenemtioned wall with no vent causing the microwave to overheat & burst into flames which made me cry.
A new microwave with the fan facing the right way solved my problem and Im still not vented. I want to hug the woman who wanted the light fixture over her stove and the person who threw her furniture away was a lunatic
December 14, 2016 @ 5:08 pm
When I remodeled my kitchen I thought I had to have a direct vent! Why you ask? Because everyone has one, I finally am going to have my dream kitchen, so I want one too! My builder talked me out of it (after asking how I cooked) as that was the biggest complaint he received from homeowners. He told me there were almost always problems with them. As I did not generate a lot of smoke when cooking we did not need venting to the outside. Sooo, I conceded when he said he would come back & put one in if I was unhappy after using my kitchen. I do not miss a direct vent, but I do wish I had put a pretty light fixture above the range instead of the pseudo vent I ended up with! Do not cave!! Stand your ground! Fight to the death!
December 14, 2016 @ 5:32 pm
I have done it both ways: in my first house there was no hood and (surprise!) I still cooked like a normal person. My next house had a vent hood – the crappy kind built into a microwave – that never worked, setting off the fire alarms every night in a delightful sequence of cacophony that went throughout the entire house. I’d say, don’t build a hood and 1. see if it brings about the apocalypse and 2.see how you feel. You can always build one later if you change your mind. But personally I vote for a GIANT FANCY GILDED MIRROR over your range because it is beautiful and will make you feel awesome.
December 14, 2016 @ 5:32 pm
I have one and never use it. Do what you want it is your kitchen!
December 14, 2016 @ 5:47 pm
I have a range hood hidden behind a cabinet door front that you yank out to use. I’m vegan so seldom use it except for frying onions etc. Husband has to do his cooking of fish etc in the garage where he has a microwave, mini hob/oven and halogen cooker, radio and freezer. It’s too cold in the UK here to open the windows, doors in the winter, but I expect that would work well to destink the house if no hood. I don’t have a dishwasher, or waste disposal unit. They are for sissies ! xx
December 14, 2016 @ 5:56 pm
You do not need a range hood.
December 14, 2016 @ 6:03 pm
DO NOT get something you don’t want and will never use. You will hate it everyday. That’s my argument.