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 @ 12:19 pm
I don’t like them. There, I said it. I think they are pretentious crazy making things. And expensive as all get out. When we put in our kitchen two years ago I didn’t have one put in. When I had one, I never used it and I cook daily. The smell never bothered anyone. Yesterday I was making soup and the furnace guy came down to tell me he was done and, oh, by the way, what was that amazing smell?
No one is the boss of you but you. Who cares what everyone else things? It’s up to you and the husband.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:20 pm
Well, I have lived WITH vents that vent to the outside and with vents that run the gunk through a carbon filter and back into the house. Personally, I found that the ceilings stay cleaner and the kitchen is cooler when the vent runs to the outside. As far as filters go, that’s just one of the choices in life. Do you want to periodically clean a filter or every few years or so, wash down your ceiling and walls? Your choice. It’s like cleaning / replacing the filters in your vacuum cleaner and FAU. I know people who run their FAUs without filters and their vacuum cleaners without filters. they just have to dust more. Your choice.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:21 pm
You don’t need one. I grew up in France and we never had them in any house. Heck if you ever went to the Biltmore in Asheville NC…they don’t have one either. Ok so the kitchen is in the basement and the servants used it so I guess no one cared for them but I think this whole hood thing became just another item to force people to buy. Since you don’t HAVE to have one…don’t.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:21 pm
Victoria, do what you want. You have our permission. I design remodels for a living and my mantra is “Your home should give you joy!” I have not had a vent hood for 23 years…so what? My house does not smell like cooking odors. (My guess is that woman cooked fried foods every night of her life) As a matter of fact, people often enter my home and say “It smells so good in here.” Our home is OUR sanctuary….your home should be yours. I recently had a client that was so worried because he wanted a bead board ceiling in the kitchen and his family and others told him it would be awful. I kept telling him we would make it work, and we did! It is beautiful! Everyone that walks in loves it, including me. I want my clients to walk into their home everyday, sigh contentedly and feel joy. Follow your gut sweetie, it has led you in the right direction so far. And remember, if you find you want a hood later you can add one. A great big monster of a hood…..Paul will understand.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:21 pm
OMG I love you. Seriously, you should NOT put in a hood vent, what a waste of space and money. I have redone several kitchens and taken great delight in closing over the old vents with nothing to replace it with, other than a fabulously open ceiling with great lighting! I have never missed having one, unless I burn the bacon, and that my friend, is completely my fault for leaving it unattended in the first place.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:21 pm
I don’t really share your taste of all things Victorian but I read your blog because it’s fun. (Not really where I am going with the previous sentence or why I even mentioned it in the first place LOL). I reno’d my kitchen two years ago (on my own) and if I could there are things I would have differently:
1. I would have leveled out the floor but it’s different story, different topic for another day.
2. I would have bought the more expensive exhaust fan that has better suction and is less noisy.
I should have, most likely, given more thought to what exhaust fan to get, but I didn’t. I walked into Home Depot, they had 3 models (I think) and I thought the priciest one (with the best suction / noise specs) was too much money…. because it was just an exhaust fan.
I regret it now (it was only $125 more than the middle-of-the-range model). First of all, just like you I live in northern climate (I am in Canada). It is not much fun to open all windows to get the smell of salmon (I think that one dwells the longest) out of the house when it’s -2o Celsius. So think about all the above pics – although lovely – where they came from.
If I lived in Spain or in Cali, I would just open the door/windows but we have tons of mosquitoes in summer and really crappy cold weather for 5 months of the year.
I am guessing the woman in the nightgown (to me it looks like a nightgown) but maybe it’s a summer dress doesn’t have to worry about weather as much as I do.
Also, the last pic, with all the utensils hanging right above the stove/the open shelves – I really can’t imagine that people cook real food there without getting the kitchen grime on everything. Maybe it depends on what kind of food you make. Or how much take out you get. Sometimes I suspect that some of those kitchens are just for show (because they sure are pretty).
December 14, 2016 @ 12:22 pm
Hoods are directly related to how and what you cook, and the type of range you have. I cook a lot on a commercial level range, and without the hood my house would stink and I’d be constantly setting off my carbon monoxide alarm. But if you make mostly scrambled eggs, and don’t have powerful BTU burners, you likely don’t need one if you don’t want one. I do recommend running power to the location in case you decide later that you need one, or for resale value, but it is your kitchen. So as long as you aren’t planning weekly fish frys or installing a jet engine for burners, you’ll likely be fine without.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:22 pm
Victoria! I have not had range hood in my last two kitchens, not really on purpose, and i have gotten rid of absolutely nothing due to foul food odors. My contractor messed up the first vent, and my current kitchen has a down draft that I rarely use. It would be wise to have some kind of venting fan in your kitchen, but it certainly doesn’t need to be over your stove. It could actually be unobtrusive! Since you’ve brought this up, I now hate vent hoods too! Never again!
December 14, 2016 @ 12:23 pm
I don’t have a vent hood. I haven’t killed my family in a cooking fire yet. I haven’t sickened anyone with the smell of food yet. I have a brick arch around my cooktop with a wood shelf above it. There are electric cooktops you can get with built in fans in them. Maybe all the internet trolls are not aware of these. Maybe they should all get a life.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:23 pm
During the 70’s I lived in some houses without a vent. I guess they just weren’t considered a necessity back then. But once I got used to having one I wouldn’t want to be without. I think it all depends on what you cook. If you never sear meat or fry bacon or have anything fragrant, spicy, or steamy on the stove for any length of time I suppose that would work for you. Even with my vent, I sometimes smell the meals I’ve cooked for a day or two afterwards and I don’t like that. I’m only 5’2″ so my hood is never in the way.
I suppose if I had an appliance that was always in my face and irritated me I wouldn’t use it either. One of my neighbors has her stove right below her kitchen window …which has 2″ wood blinds. She hates it because it’s incredibly difficult to keep the glass and blinds clean.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:24 pm
I recently had the same experience – I had 14 foot ceilings in my historic remodel. Do I really need a hood? We are vegetarian not really cooking fish or turkey. Also, I hate how loud they are! And unless they actually vent outside they don’t seem to work. However it is building code where I live, so these were our solutions. 1) telescoping downdraft vent. – look it up. It pops up from behind your hood when needed and then disappears back into the countertop! 2) you can get direct vent ranges where the fan/ blower is actually installed outside the house. So it’s super quiet. Therefore having a chance to actually get used! Hope this helps.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:24 pm
No hoods for me. In fact, no stove or oven, either. Dumped the dishwasher, too. FREEDOM from food! Ah, the simplicity and HEALTH of being a raw vegan!
December 14, 2016 @ 12:25 pm
“To thine own self be true” – William Shakespeare
December 14, 2016 @ 12:26 pm
You are right in that the national codes do not require a hood – I learned that from Fred, the guy who knows all the codes on the Houzz forum. If you do have a vent – then there are regulations about air flow rate and air uptake requirements if you have the big stove top / range. If you have a smaller range – like most people, the hood regulations are mostly about being high enough up that it doesn’t catch fire if its wood.
All those fancy kitchens have the fancy stove / range. The fancy stove /range in my opinion is where the real question starts. I personally do not want or need the fancy range. I say that about all things I cannot afford:) I cook a family dinner for six just about every night and rarely need more than two burners and I can’t imagine needing six. Of course, everyone who owns the big range comes home from work and side by side with spouse prepares gourmet dinner while children, if any, do homework at the huge island. As you said once in a post – advertising 101 – this could be your life if you just buy…
So I have the ordinary 30 inch range and a 30 inch hood (and now over on Houzz they are saying it is best for hood to be bigger than the range…) I like my little wood hood which is not high enough, but grandfathered in because I have an older kitchen. I do use it. I do think it helps keep grease off my cabinets which I spent 6 months refinishing. I do not have any cool island made out of a piano and my little wood hood adds to the vintage look of my kitchen – which has oak cabinets, embraced as you suggested, and also a Whitehaven sink:)
The vent is supposed to be something that makes your kitchen work better, not a status symbol. Do whatever you wish.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:27 pm
We don’t have one and even though we are fixing up the house to sell it we have no intention of adding one. My convection oven tends to set off the smoke alarm if I turn up the oven to 400F+ but my house doesn’t smell like food (heaven forbid). Any potential buyer who comes through my house, pearls clutched at the sight of my non-existent hood, is more than welcome to add one.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:28 pm
It is so hilarious that you made me remember about my grandma’s issues with this “kitchen appliance”. She was absolutely against range hoods in kitchens, all kinds of them. Not because of the space they steal from you, or the noise, or aesthetics, I have never understood the reason why.
I have always thought it was because the housemaid always broke something off this thing when cleaning it every.single time. at her place. After changing the range hood like 4 times (at least this is what I remember), she decided to leave the spot empty. So she had none for years and years, until she passed away.
Last year I could know the actual reason why she never bought that again and why she hated range hoods so badly: it was because she was so deaf she never heard anything whenever she was cooking with this on. I admit that she never had grease or stinky issues when cooking. Despite the fact that her kitchen was small as a punch in the face, if you are lucky to have a well-ventilated area, it should be OK!! Thanks from Barcelona for this post!! š
December 14, 2016 @ 12:29 pm
Don’t do it!! Please yourself!
December 14, 2016 @ 12:30 pm
Pros: It vents smoke and cooking odors from the kitchen.
Cons: 1. It’s in your face
2. It requires CONSTANT cleaning (even if you just boil water beneath it).
3. Those ^&*(^&* light bulbs are expensive and tough to reach.
4. They become the inadvertent focal point of the room.
5. They require CONSTANT cleaning. (yes, this deserves to be noted AT LEAST twice.)
6. I really only need them if I am frying smelly food. (NB I never fry smelly food.)
7. I’m Italian, so I ENJOY the aroma of what I cook in the kitchen. As do my family and guests.
8. If you do want to get rid of unpleasant cooking odors (and really, is there even such a thing? If so, WHAT are you eating??? ) Anyway, if you do want to get rid of odors AND the hood isn’t vented outside, they are completely useless.
9. If they do vent outside, I have to check for bird’s nests and the like. Often.
10. If my kids accidentally burn the stove top popcorn I can easily open a window for a few moments.
11. I HATE them. (This is not an idle expression of dislike. This is a full blown, ‘I am not buying this house because of the vent hood’ hatred. I have endured them in spaces I have rented the way the Count of Monte Cristo feverishly chipped his way out of Devil’s Island, and I will not have one in MY kitchen.
I could keep up this list indefinitely, but I think eleven reasons is more than enough to skip the hood. So I did. And she lived happily ever after. So there, internet!
December 14, 2016 @ 12:32 pm
Unless you fry a lot, not necessarily deep-fry, but things like bacon, or sauteeing chicken in oil, you probably don’t need a range hood. We have one of the down draft kinds. Whatever you do, don’t get one of those. The food falls in, they’re IMPOSSIBLE to clean, and we still have to open a window to ventilate the kitchen. Frankly, we’d be better off with a fan blowing towards an open screened window. In our configuration it would be impossible to add a range hood, but if we ever get a new stove top, I will skip the downdraft or any kind of “hood” at all.
And, whatever you do, do NOT carpet your kitchen. We live with my parents, and the carpet is impossible to keep clean. The whole kitchen is, really, but the carpet is the worst.
December 14, 2016 @ 12:32 pm
we have a Jenn-Air with a built-in vent………and while I do not use it very much, boy oh boy my husband HAS to………..high-fire-all-the-time Paul
so, vent or no vent……………who does the cooking? and what do you cook? and no offense Victoria……..are you a sloppy cook? No? you are a wonderful, careful and don’t-burn-the-crap-out-of-everything kind of cook? well then no vent for you!
p.s. vents are for the smoke one can create………not the grease………..I use portable/foldable things to surround the bacon cooking to prevent grease spreading throughout the kitchen