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 @ 12:59 pm
I don’t know what is happening on this page, and maybe it is me or my computer, but it keeps automatically scrolling back to the top. It is clear I how much I love you that I repeatedly scrolled down again and again and again to continue reading until the end. Anyone else having this issue?
On the issue of hoods: never had one, never will. I open windows to air out the house when necessary. I recently bought an air purifier for a stuffy upstairs and it does wonders. If I needed, I could haul it downstairs for a spell.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:00 pm
I’m totally with you on this! I will join you in your cave and I can use spit balls against the naysayers.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:03 pm
You should have what you want. End of subject.
PS: I live in a 1940’s bungalow and I have no vent Hood above my stove only original cabinets. We do, however, have a fan.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:06 pm
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the option of a fan mounted OUTSIDE your home, so your kitchen is quiet. Really quiet. I HATE the jet engine sound, and our town requires a fan. Maddening! But at least it is possible to have an almost silent fan, and have the intake either mounted really high, or vertically, flush into the wall.
On the subject of odors, about once a month I pull out the huge old cast iron fry pans my brother gave me (do you know about Griswold?). I fire up all the burners and caramelize a whole 10# bag of onions till they are a lovely deep mahogany brown. I stash the onions in dedicated, re-used ziploc bags in the freezer, flattened to about a half inch thick. For the rest of the month, whenever I need onions for a dish, I just break off a chunk. And for days after I do the onions, everyone who walks through the front door sniffs enchantedly and wants to know WHAT I am cooking!
December 14, 2016 @ 1:12 pm
I think it depends on what kind of cooking you do and how often you cook, as well as the floorplan of your home. When we bought this house, there was a lower-end gas cooktop with one of those “fake hoods” that are really just recirculating fans installed above the cooktop. My kitchen is located in the center of the house and it has a vaulted 2-story ceiling, open to the family room, dining room, living room, as well as the upstairs hallway leading to the bedrooms and the stairway to the 3rd floor where my husband’s home office and our gym equipment is located. If I was browning garlic and onions, my WHOLE HOUSE smelled like onions and garlic. Now, I don’t cook anything that smells bad to me, and even browning onions and garlic smell yummy WHILE YOU ARE COOKING. But the next day, first thing in the morning when I step out of my bedroom and all I want is coffee, getting smacked in the nostrils by pungent, stale, day after onion and garlic cooking smells, is kind of icky. This is not my idea of an aromatherapy “home fragrance.” So when we remodeled the kitchen, we put in a Viking gas cooktop and a Viking range hood that vents outside, with in-line ventilation and a vibration silencer kit so the hood is practically silent. You can read more about this here, if you are so inclined: http://cheekycognoscenti.blogspot.com/2011/02/meet-hood-that-could-suck-small-child.html
I am glad we did the hood for several reasons:
1. I do use it every time I cook, and it really does help prevent the whole house from stinking like onions and garlic in the morning.
2. I also turn it on when I’m running the self-clean cycle on the oven, or if I’ve burned something in the oven and the kitchen is smoky. It helps get the smoke and stink out of the house faster than just opening a window because it is actively sucking the air out, with a STRONG motor that, in my husband’s words, “could suck a small child out of the house.”
3. We did not replace our cabinetry, and replacing the existing fake hood with a functional one worked better with the cabinetry than nixing the hood altogether.
4. My kitchen is actually not that big. It feels bigger because of the vaulted ceiling and being open to the family room, but I don’t have an incredible amount of counter space or cabinets and needed to stay with the smaller 4-burner cooktop for space reasons rather than going with a monster 48″ range with double ovens, which I would dearly have loved… When you have a small kitchen and a smaller cooktop, the stainless steel hood helps to make a bigger deal out of the cooktop visually so that it’s still the focal point in the kitchen. And I wanted it to be the focal point, because I love to cook and wanted my kitchen to be a place that is about making and sharing food with family and friends.
I do like the kitchens with hidden hoods, especially when paired with a gorgeous Aga or La Cornue range that has more of an antique, vintage appeal. Although the stoves with mirrors above or pots and pans look great in pictures, we had our pots and pans hanging just NEAR the stove in a previous home and found that every time I took a pot down to cook with it, I’d have to rewash it because it would be coated in a film of cooking grease, dust and dog fur. Yuck! And when my husband cooks, God help him, there’s bacon grease and spaghetti sauce splattered all over the backsplash behind the stove. So I would never put a mirror or a painting there, or anything that couldn’t be quickly wiped down with a shot of 409.
It’s totally your kitchen; do what you want. I should also point out that anyone who doesn’t actually cook — no judgement here! — doesn’t need a hood. People who usually eat out or bring home takeout, or whose cooking is more microwave than cooktop, can and should do their kitchens based on whatever makes them happy to look at.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you decide.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:14 pm
I have read estimates of grease/oil particulates passing from the home cooktop into the air as high as six quarts annually, depending on the habits of the cook. Without a vent hood this material lands on interior surfaces. But why would anyone care what someone else wants in their kitchen?
One of your no-hood example photos is a little misleading; the Aga range in the image titled “saddest kitchen ever” may not have a visible hood, but the appliance is connected to a chimney or flue to vent the interior, where much of the cooking takes place. An Aga cannot be installed without that connection. The flue can be behind a wall, or even under the floor, but it is there.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:15 pm
We have a large range hood in our open-concept kitchen. I cook a lot, and use it all the time. Even with it, there is still a minimal amount of grease and odor to deal with. Without it, my kitchen would be a disaster. It has a flat front and a mantle-like shelf, so it can be used for decoration (it gets a wreath and garland for Christmas, but could have a giant fancy mirror or humongous portrait instead).
That being said, it’s YOUR kitchen, not mine. Your style, your cooking habits, your cleaning routine, etc. I think you should do whatever feels right to you, and ignore the haters. Haters gonna hate no matter what you do anyway. Can’t wait to see what you choose!
December 14, 2016 @ 1:15 pm
I think if you don’t need it, don’t get it.
We did not want a range hood because in order to put it in where the range is, we would have had to put a hole in the roof which we did not want. But, we also didn’t like setting off the smoke alarm which happened more often than you would think before we got it (possibly, we cook wrong but there you go). So, we got a downdraft from Sears Outlet – they have lots of them at super low prices (I know you like a bargain). Also, when you activate it, it rises up out of the counter top like something out of Star Wars so how could I not want that? It did cause issues with placing the range but isn’t working out the problems part of the fun?
In retrospect, I think we could have lived without it since my husband always forgets to activate it but he really wanted it (I know – so confusing) and since he was the one who had to do all the work, I was cool with it. May the force be with you whatever you choose.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:16 pm
I just have one of those fan range hoods. It is fine!
December 14, 2016 @ 1:17 pm
Apparently the woman who threw away all of her stuff has never heard of fabreeze! I have an above the stove microwave/vent situation that I don’t often use because it’s so loud. And even when I do use it, it doesn’t work very well. My house smells fine š Do what makes you happy!
December 14, 2016 @ 1:21 pm
You absolutely crack me up! Personally I only use my vent for when we are cooking ridiculous amounts of crab and honestly, we still need to open all the windows to let out the steam and the house still smells like crab anyway! AND the best part of your post, for me anyway, is we just bought a house where the previous owner did not hook up any of the appliances including the brand new direct vent. I’m checking our city codes tomorrow and if that thing isn’t required I’m ripping its sorry excuse for anything right off my wall! Yay!!! I say NO VENT FOR YOU Miss Victoria!!
December 14, 2016 @ 1:22 pm
Well I like having a hood that vents to the outside. Never thought the ones that don’t are of any use. However I have also just opened a window when I had no hood. And really I can’t understand why people get so worked up over things like this…people have been living and cooking indoors for a looooong time prior to hoods even being an option. Do what you want, you pay the bills.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:23 pm
I’m with you! I too detest the fan hood. I think the negative feelings stem from the lack of hoods in old homes. Sure, the old wood stoves were vented (duh) but look at some kitchens from the turn of the century…no hood. Unless you deep fry on the regular I don’t see this as being an issue. Now, since you’re dealing with naysayers, maybe a compromise? My plan is to install a direct line fan in either the wall or ceiling but use one of those gorgeous ornate Victorian cast iron grates as the cover. Old, fancy, and practical. Win.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:27 pm
I’m with ‘Grandmas House DIY’ – it depends on what you cook. When my husband cooks, he uses olive oil very generously. When I cook, I use it sparingly. He uses our vent fan when he burns something, and I never use it. Part of the answer depends on how high your ceilings are, too. Our 1952 Cape Cod has ceilings that are only about 8 ft high, and the kitchen is the very opposite of ‘open concept’. That said, you would think we would use the vent/fan more often, but I find myself cleaning it about ten times for each time we actually use it.
Readers who have a tantrum about your decision – whatever it is – should be fired from YOUR blog.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:28 pm
Victoria don’t cave in to the crowd over a cliff mentality! My mom was a fabulous cook with a enviable range. She not only cooked for us but ran a home catering/bakery business. The delicious aromas swept through our home everyday with an open window above the sink on warm days. Not a range hood in sight!
December 14, 2016 @ 1:29 pm
The range with a MIRROR behind it?? Lol -sure, if all you do is make tea up there.
I went 10 years with no hood. The room has to be biggish- my 11ft ceilings worked great!! – and whatever is behind the stove should be easily scrubbed. I love the Tyler Florence pic the best. Totally practical.
Then, we remodeled and I went with a hood because I was putting cabinets above and around the range. It keeps them cleaner. Like a cabinet defense system.
Also, I had the unit installed 6 inches higher than recommended. It still works and keeps things not-claustrophobic. I highly recommend installing it high.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:29 pm
Do whatever you want. Our opinion matters not.
2016 – the year when everyone was offended by everything. (Except me, cuz I don’t care what you do.)
Love your blogs – makes me want to cruise CL!
December 14, 2016 @ 1:30 pm
Don’t do it. I hate (almost) all of them too. And unless you’re an awful cook, or one that likes to sit and watch an entire episode of Wheel of Fortune in the living room while your food is cooking, you will only need it like twice in your life in this house. And if/when you find you do – open a damn window. š
December 14, 2016 @ 1:37 pm
I love this post so much, because I’m constantly amazed by the amount of care and obsession place on other people’s design decisions. I have enough to think about. So I really don’t give two flying flocks what you do in your home.
As for a hood, I’ve lived without them in every home and we somehow survived. And the only reason I installed a direct vent hood in our current home is BACON. Which my husband makes every Saturday and really does stink up our entire house and makes me crazy.
But that’s pretty much the only time I use it. Well, bacon and the times I burn things and would like to avoid the smoke detectors. Which actually happens far more often than I care to admit.
I actually feel like the inspiration image of the big fancy thing around the stove is meant to be your kitchen. Now you just have to find all that woodwork beauty, which seems like an easy mission for your Craigslisting prowess.
December 14, 2016 @ 1:37 pm
Seize the opportunity and get a Giant Fancy Hood. We remodeled our kitchen this summer, and I got The Hood of Glory and I LOVE it. The gorgeous wood hood I love holds the Vent-a-Hood that my husband wanted to get rid of all the smells from all the cooking (I cook big meals most nights, and I bake a lot). Start looking at GFHs. (I am curious about where all the smoke/grease/whathaveyou goes with no hood…Ick?)
BUT! If you don’t want a hood, go on with your bad self and put up the lamp of your dreams.