This is my 1st *pro* grade range hood.

Overall, while a little bit loud, it has keep the kitchen smoke and oil free so no complaints on it's doing it's job.

FWIW, it's a best K260 hood with the 600 CFM fan.

Couple things I've noticed here and there but let's start off with my question and then my gripes.

How CLEAN should the hood be. The exterior for whatever reason, does accumulate some oily dust over time, but I've kept ontop of this with regular cleaning.

On the underside of the hood, I just use a very mild damp cloth and some grease cutting cleaner and it seems to go it's job well. I generally do this after a long hard cooking as the hook itself is warm and the *oil on hood* has softened up.

The grates I run them every 1-2 weeks in the dishwasher.

However, I've noticed a couple things about my Best Hood that lead to the overall *cleanliness & operation* of it as well. Dunno about other brands.

On the 2 lamps, etc on the underside of the hood, they are notoriously oil stricken. This is due to the design as from internally, the area where the hood lamps are, etc is not sealed so the *air intake* is also drawing air inwards from the lamp area, etc. I verified this when grilling as you can see the smoke from the front grates go up the path of the small perimeter hole where the lamps vents are. Also in the same area, which is hard to describe without pics, there is 2 *+* shaped cutouts that you cannot see from the exterior frontside, but it is there on the backside of the lamp area. I've put a paper against this hole while the hood was operating and air is being drawn though there was well.

The inner rail on my hood is not properly aligned ever so slightly to the effect that the oil grates do not sit 100% flush when seated in the hood. I did not really notice/pay attention to this until I stuck my head underside the hood (not a comfortable position with the stove under it)and analyzed the fit and finish.

What prompted me to examine this in such manner was moreso that I noticed *crud* on the frontside of the hood where the seams are. This is a weak spot so to say where oil that is being drawn in does not effectively get drawn out the hood duct.

With that said.....I thought the *premise* for a hood was to move air in and out ---- granted proper duct vent design as well. With that said, I expected the *path* to be more sealed and these 3 areas that I'm pointing out I guess lead to more *cleaning* maintainence on my part.

Love to hear your feedback or does all hoods have these basic design flaws...