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 are the beginning of a post I started months ago… Back when I thought I could withstand the scorn of the internet if I chose to not waste money and space on 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 virus— 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!
I’m practically BLIND FROM HOW HORRIBLE THIS IS.
So why would I consider 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 life’s 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 people’s 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 people’s initial input is well-meaning! (If bordering on didactic and unhinged.)
But if you fail to PROPERLY HEED THEIR WARNING AND APPRECIATE THEIR WISDOM…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!
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 couldn’t 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 varied… 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 hood… 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.
They basically went on to suggest that she was a filthy, squalor-dwelling subhuman moron.
And as I read on and on and on… 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 didn’t have a range hood, and we had to THROW AWAY ALL OF OUR BELONGINGS INCLUDING THE FURNITURE after one month BECAUSE THEY SMELLED SO FOUL AND HORRIBLE from non-vented cooking odors.
I don’t know about you… but that does NOT sell me on a vent… 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 I’ve 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 like— WHY IS THIS THING RIGHT IN MY FACE?
Until eventually I was like– Plague of nonsense, BE GONE!
p.s.— save some outrage for the post where I explain how I’m thinking of not having a freezer.
xoxo,
VEB, squalor-dwelling subhuman moron, esq.
Katherine Andrusco
December 14, 2016 @ 12:33 pm
You so do NOT need a venthood. It is an absolute fact that people cooked for centuries before venthoods were invented and it was fine. I’ll stand with you!!
Katherine Ingraham
December 14, 2016 @ 12:33 pm
Skip the hood! I use mine to redirect steam. If it fell off the wall tomorrow, I would not care one bit. Don’t let the internet shame you into something you don’t need. I think in a big, professional, restaurant kitchen – totally necessary. In a home kitchen where normal family cooking happens? Nope. Unless there is a safety concern, I really don’t see the point of the hood. Mine is thankfully higher than most I see but honestly, pointless on most days ending in Y.
PS – I love your blog, I love your style, and I wish we were friends in real life!
Anne Greene
December 14, 2016 @ 12:34 pm
If you don’t do a lot of cooking (or a lot of greasy cooking), and if you wouldn’t use it anyway, don’t bother. This is your kitchen and you’re not planning on moving anytime soon, so do what is practical for you. If/when you move, the next person can install a range hood if necessary.
When we bought our (new at the time) house, it didn’t have a range hood above the stove, just a microwave with a vent that blew the air back into the kitchen. But we cook a LOT. After a few months (and lots of smoke alarms), my husband ended up installing a duct above the microwave and installing a vent through the side of the house to direct the heat and odors outside. It’s not the greatest or most powerful system, but it does work better than nothing at all. Even so, there is a greasy buildup above the cabinets so I know it’s not venting all of the odors and gunk out of the house. When we get around to re-doing the kitchen cabinets that I’ve never liked, I’m hoping to get a discrete, built-in venting system like the one in your first picture. I’m also not a fan of the massive steel contraptions that came into vogue in the last decade or so.
Joann
December 14, 2016 @ 12:37 pm
Boo! Hiss! I hate range hoods and have successfully lived without one in my house for 40 years. Through 4 kitchen remodels. I have never succumbed. My furniture is fine. My walls are fine. My floors are fine. I am fine. Resist!
devon
December 14, 2016 @ 12:38 pm
Range Rover over the stove………….install an oversized jet-engine, directly in the place your face ……….Girl, you crack me up, i love it!! How is it something like a range hood became such a behemoth kitchen status symbol? I’m a member of the microwave-over-the-range exhaust system and it is only used when A. I fry bacon or sausage, very, very rarely B. some exotic stinky dish involving fish or a major combination of stuff where odor to air transformation will be occurring; (There us also C., i want to drown out any conversation someone is attempting to get across to me). In other words, unless that is something that you’ve always dreamed of and will somehow complete the look one is after, i don’t think they are the end all……… i just open the screen door or kitchen window, light a couple of candles and turn the ceiling fan on high. Oh, and remind myself not to cook something like that again until i forget the unpleasantries involved 🙂
Jeanne L
December 14, 2016 @ 12:38 pm
you don’t use it, then there is no reason to have 1. I don’t have a range hood, and while it would be nice in the summer when I am canning as we don’t have air conditioning either, I am glad we don’tt have one, it keeps the kitchen warmer in the winter. Especially this year, we are sub zero and it is only December here in North Dakota . Plus I like thee extra room for a cabinet. Yeah! more storage space
ayan
December 14, 2016 @ 12:39 pm
I would dearly love a direct-vented range hood in my kitchen – though it will have to be an OTR microwave with venting capability, because my kitchen is pretty small (14′ x 8′) and includes my washer/dryer and hot water heater. Also a massive bank of windows that means I have only one tiny wall cabinet on the non-stove side of the kitchen. The cabinets on the stove side are pretty greasy. The only reason I don’t have one yet is that 1. I’m broke and 2. there’s a charming 1950 Nu-Tone exterior exhaust fan above the washer that does a pretty good job of exhausting cooking odors if I open a window. However? We cook a lot. And we frequently pan-fry fish. Oven baking, soups, and sandwiches don’t really require a range hood; sautee’d fish does. I will note that the kitchens in your post are clearly owned by people wealthy enough to have a maid come at least monthly and clean residual grease from areas adjacent to the stove, and/or are rooms large enough that cooking odors won’t float to the adjacent (apparent) 20,000 square foot of living space. My SIL has never had a dishwasher and has ripped them out of every house she’s owned and has never had a problem selling her homes, so clearly bucking mainline wisdom works for some.
Lindsay
December 14, 2016 @ 12:40 pm
We have lived in our house for 4 years now and the family that built our very beautiful house did not put a vent hood on either stove we have in our two kitchens (sounds so fancy but not so much 😉 Anyways we have cooked a whole lot of food and not once have we ever had to throw our furniture away! I will admit we do have windows above one of our stoves so I suppose we have a way to vent some of the smells if needed but we really haven’t opened it very many times. In our last house we had a downdraft in our island cooktop which was something we were told was necessary by our builder but clearly not so much and living without any vent now I wouldn’t add one in in the event we ever redo our kitchen. I love the open view we have and I really love all the examples of kitchens shown without them! Please go with your gut, and hopefully that means going without, I doubt very much you’d regret not having one. People are so weird, if you want one or feel you need one then awesome but if someone doesn’t have one or need one then who cares. Not your house, not your choice.
Lindsay
December 14, 2016 @ 12:55 pm
I actually meant if someone doesn’t have one or want one then who cares. It was driving me crazy I made that mistake so I felt the need to edit my post! And also I noticed comments about fish but we cook a whole lot and definitely don’t have a 20,000 sq ft house and maids and the smell has never been that awful. I will admit that eggs are the one and only thing that really stick around and smell like farts for a little while after we cook but ya know I’ll deal with fart smell for a little while to not have a vent hood. The smell has never seeped into my furnishings and never lingers long enough that’d I’d have to explain why my house smells to a visitor 🙂 To each their own.
Laura the real laura
December 14, 2016 @ 12:43 pm
We have one. I think it cost $2000. And I’ve used it six times in ten years.
JFSinIL
December 14, 2016 @ 12:43 pm
First home, a townhouse, the hood vented into the cabinet over the stove. No vent to outside. Inside of cabinet got very greasy.
Current house (1906 four-square) did not have a hood when we moved in, so we got one, fits over stove/oven just under a cabinet. Has fan/grills we haven’t cleaned in years because rarely remember to turn on the thing. But we do use the lights that are part of it, I like being able to see what I am cooking!
I say, unless you make a practice of deep frying or burning stuff, you don’t need a hood.
Jenni
December 14, 2016 @ 12:45 pm
best range i ever had was a cooktop by Jenn-Air. the vent was between two removable “things” that had the burners on them. i could also switch out the burners for a griddle or even a deep fat fryer. i loved that thing. the vent drew the cooking orders down and out through a hole the vented out beneath the house or at the back of the house. it was not loud or growly and i tell you…it was thee best. i had a double range in one wall and that lovely cooktop that vented all cooking smells right across from it. check Jenn-Air and see if you can become a new owner.
Laura the real laura
December 14, 2016 @ 12:45 pm
But then I hung a vintage school clock on it…and it’s okay…I mean as a design feature. As a kitchen appliance its function certainly does not make up for the volume of space it occupies.
Gretchen M
December 14, 2016 @ 12:48 pm
Love your blog and love those kitchen pictures!!! We live in a 1910 house with a smallish 15×15 kitchen that has 4 doors and 2 windows. There is no possibly way to configure our kitchen to have a range hood. Oh well…if the occupants of our house have survived for 106 years without one so can I and I haven’t ever had any problems with the house smelling like food. I guess it just depends on how you cook.
Janet
December 14, 2016 @ 12:52 pm
We took our range hood out 20 years ago and never looked (or smelled) back…I must be a fellow squalor dwelling, sub-human moron! I asked my husband if he thought we should install, just because, you know THE INTERNET; his reply was that we actually DO have a direct vent range hood – it’s called a WINDOW.
Terrie
December 14, 2016 @ 12:53 pm
It actually doesn’t really matter what we, your faithful subjects, or the ignorant internet believes. It is YOUR house, YOUR kitchen and you live in it every single day. Design it the way you want and tell everyone else to take a flying leap. 🙂
Debbie
December 14, 2016 @ 12:54 pm
I had a Jenn-air with a built-in down draft in another house and I loved it. Out of sight but useful when I needed it.
SSK
December 14, 2016 @ 12:55 pm
You very clearly don’t want one, so don’t get one! Forget the nay-sayers! You are funny, creative and have a different way of doing things. Stick to it!!!
Julianne Dodge
December 14, 2016 @ 12:56 pm
DONT YOU DARE put in a range hood, you embicile!!! Ha ha! I don’t have one either and I cook a lot! The only time I miss one is when I’ve burned something to a crisp and thankfully that doesn’t happen that often. But guess what? Opening a window works just as well! So there! Down with range hoods!!!
Jessie C Uffman
December 14, 2016 @ 12:57 pm
Don’t direct vent, birds will build nests in it from the outside and slowly take over your house.
JS
December 14, 2016 @ 12:57 pm
I am of the “it’s your house” group and I think hoods are pretty ugly. But I used to be a chef and so cook with pretty high heat on big burners so was constantly setting off smoke alarms despite 2 large windows. When we remodeled, we got a hood that we built into the cabinetry (Vent a Hood). I also put it up high. Have your husband use some lovely of piece to build something fantastic, then you get both a hood and something pretty.