There have been some heated threads on this controversial subject. The basic gist is that some say your kitchen will be coated in grease if you don't. Others say they don't and theirs isn't. I can't see how it could be good not to have ventilation, but unless it's code, you just have to clean more grease off various surfaces including the ceiling. I will be interested to see how this thread proceeds after my rather clever and succinct summarization of the points of view, lol!
Lisa

Lisa, Thanks for your summarization:-)

I just wanted to chime in that I never had one and didn't think I needed one based on my experience in my old kitchen. However, with the new range (with much more powerful burners), I find that the place gets smokey pretty easily. I am glad I put in a vent (and actually wish I had put just a little more thought into it since it sounds like a jet engine).

This is just my two cents and I hope is helpful.

I have the Electrolux all gas 36"range which I believe is similar BTU to the GE Cafe....

I'm not sure we have the "cafe", but we have our GE free standing gas range for over five years now and really like it. However, I would recommend one thing: if you are considering an all-gas range (ie, cook top AND oven), I'd say consider one with an electric oven instead.

There are two things wrong with the gas oven. First of all, unlike the cook top, you cannot use the oven when the power is out. And second, the range uses a heater bar - essentially an electric glow plug - to ignite the gas. This unit has tendency to burn out and is quite expensive to replace. Ours lasted only three years.

With very few exceptions, you can't use a downdraft vent with a slide-in range. The exceptions are Dacor - but only with a dacor range and the in-built ones in some Jenn air ranges.

AFAIK, all other downdrafts can only be used with a cooktop.

I think it depends on what you cook, your cooking techniques, your climate, and your tolerance for cooking odors in the house.

Simmering, braising, boiling, steaming, sauteeing over low heat, etc with foods that don't have much odor - I think you could get by without additional ventilation, just open a window and clean a lot. For example, boiling water for pasta, simmering sauce from a jar, and steaming some veg. Really mild and bland stuff like that.

Anything that involves high heat or oil. like frying, searing, woking, browning, or anything that has a strong odor, or roasting and broiling - I think forced ventilation is necessary. Unless you want a houseful of smoke, smoke detectors going off, grease on surfaces, and upholstery that smells like bacon, curry, fish and what have you.

You will really notice a difference when you cook fish or bacon -- probably the most often cooked smelly things, but I was totally convinced when I had to make more than 60 bags of popcorn for a school event. I had 2 large pots going on the stove and used the micro too because I got squeezed on time. I turned my hood on and worked under and near it. I delivered the popcorn to the school and came home, turned the vent off and realized I hadn't smelled any popcorn when I walked back inside. DH came home and wondered if I had done it yet.

For me, it's not so much about greasy stuff -- its the smells that aren't so enticing a day or two later.

I love the smell of bacon in the morning...

LOL weissman!! Me, too! And coffee!!

carriepe, I just purchased the GE Cafe Dual Fuel and my contractor suggested changing my recirculating vent to an outside vent. I feel better about that, too, since the range uses gas. I also bought the GE Cafe OTR Microwave and Im hoping that it has a strong enough vent. I do have a friend who has both and has no issues.

Personal opinion: OTR microwaves are almost worthless at ventilation. A box fan in a window will do better.

Am I the only person on the planet who doesn't have a vent over their range? We built our house 12 years ago, put the range in the island, and have never had a problem. It is electric, and we don't do much frying. We are considering replacing our appliances, just to upgrade, and I was hoping to get by without installing a overhead vent. Any suggestions?

The three day old smell of scallops in my temporary entry level college style apartment is enough to remind me why sufficient ventilation is an absolute must.

A lingering panang curry runs a close second.

I am remodeling a kitchen in a house that DID NOT have ventilation in the kitchen for 70 years over a gas range.
I am still amazed the +20 year old range still works. Everything is still standing, no mold/water/smells issues. Note there were no upper cabinets over the gas range.

I did notice food splatter on the backsplash which I am told will be reduced/eliminated in our new kitchen with a microhood (sorry but I don't have room in my 9x11 kitchen to have a hood and a separate micro). I am skeptical on the benefit of a hood after living without one but think a microhood is better than a micro on a countertop and if it reduces food splatter I am all for that.

Pancakes! Salmon! Burnt toast!

The air pattern in our house drags kitchen smells to the upstairs level and leaves them there for the rest of the day.

Your results may vary.

I just seasoned three cast iron skillets that were part of a set that were wedding presents to my grandmother. They produce a lot of smoke. We also do a lot of wok cooking, and sear meats. Not having a hood would mean that our kitchen would often be smoke-filled.

It really depends on how you cook, I think.

I have an induction cooktop in front of a window so I do not have a regular hood. I did put in a grill housing in the ceiling with a Fantech inline fan and a variable speed control. I use it more than I thought I would, especially to remove steam and humidity.

Since I put it in I have come across a ceiling vent made by Serius with a remote control. You might want to check it out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Serius island series SUT 951

I think it really depends on what and how you cook. I'm in my first house after being a life-long apartment dweller and renter, and have never had a vent/hood in any of my apartments. We've had gas, electric, lots of windows, no windows, galley kitchens, and every combination possible. It's never been a huge problem to not have a hood, except the one apartment where the smoke alarm was in the kitchen -- it was always going off. I'm renovating my kitchen now, and am putting in a hood, but only a really small wimpy one that I got on clearance. It will be over a gas range.

We have an old gas range and no venting. We do a lot of stir-frying and hot cooking. The horizontal surfaces that we can reach easily, we of course clean off and they are fine. But the top of the refrigerator, the tops of the tall cabinets, the tops of the doorframes are gross. And not just dusty gross, but dust stuck to grease gross.

in a word - Y E S !!!!!!!!!!!

either directly above - or vented to the side via side draft or periscope -

GROSS cabinets are just that - G R O S S !!!!!!

hth

kevin

I find it interesting we all, me included, have to have hoods today. Yet I remember growing up and loving the smell of my moms cooking. Is it age, the hype or justifying the expense we all buy into? I am going with age, today there are many cooking odors I want out of my house immediately.

I am in the minority- I don't have a hood. I've always had hoods (they were old- not a real test of good ventilation), but never used them. I had never heard of people having issues with grease on their cabinets from lack of ventilation until this forum. I'm sure it happens, but it's never happened to me. I cook all the time, I saute, wok, even fry things, so who knows.

The other often mentioned reason for ventilation is for cooking smells- I love them. This morning I made muffins and they perfumed my house, I love when people come in for dinner, they know it's getting ready because of the smell. We live so much of our lives through our nose. This is not to say all smells are good, they aren't- and in those moments I do wish for ventilation- but for me those moments are few and far between and didn't seem worth putting a hood in. My stove is in the middle of the kitchen and putting in ventilation would have been tough.

I have a GE Cafe dual fuel, I love it. My only issue with it is cleaning it. My last stove was a GE gas cooktop with a glass surface. Cleanup was a snap, you pulled out a razor blade and went to town. Cleaning the stainless steel top isn't as easy. This is more my issue than the stove's and I'll figure it out at some point.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Has anyone ever found a correlation between ventilation/no ventilation and age of house? Perhaps smells don't linger in old, leaky houses so lack of ventilation isn't as much of a problem?

This thought occurred to me yesterday when I was paging through the latest issue of Fine Building, Kitchen and Bath planning. In the article about ventilation, they cautioned that highly powered vents in new, airtight homes could create negative pressure and draw in unhealthy air from sources such as a chimney to make up for all the air being sucked out by the vent.

I have woken up to the smell of bacon in the middle of the night. DS1 loves to cook for his friends and teen boys always seem to want bacon at 3am. And he never uses the vent. It's one thing to smell bacon cooking in the morning (at a reasonable hour, that is) and another to have it penetrate your dreams. LOL

For the past 11 years we have had a useless re-circulating fan. BLTs tonight and we will smell it for 2 more days. My ceiling is peeling from all the pasta we've made over the years. The brick wall is disgusting with "stuff" collecting on the ridges and extremely difficult to remove. It depends on how you cook but I would highly recommend a real vent. I'm getting 1600 cfm vent for my red 48" Bluestar - delivery on Monday!! I can't wait.

Lisa- I had to laugh at your post, I was wondering the same thing. My house is from 1898, and although it's not as leaky as some, it's far from airtight. Smells don't linger at all- maybe if we do eventually plug the leaks I'll be singing a different tune!

I've spent the last three weeks cleaning and painting my rental house since the tenant moved out. They didn't use the vent and not only did the kitchen have grease everywhere, but the laundry room, the bathroom at the other side of the house, every baseboard, etc. I had to take off the return vent for the A/C and degrease it and repaint it. Its a 1950's house. Even the ceiling fans had greasey dust on them. Its disgusting.

I had a recirculating microwave/vent at my last house, and the pendants over the sink would get grease on them with dust stuck to that. Once you go greaseless you never want to go back!

Well, every kitchen I have ever lived in has had cabinets coated in grease, despite being regularly cleaned. My kitchen now, in use for nearly a year, does not. The venting hood is the difference.

My contractor laughed at my installing what he thought was an industrial hood (it's not), but I love it. I wouldn't want to be without a good venting hood, having had one. I still get good smells *while* I'm cooking, btw, just not after I'm done.

Another thing is that all the jars and plastic bags in my pantry (at the opposite end of the galley from the stove) have a film of stickiness on them that they didn't have when they lived in a pantry directly above my 48" Dynasty with the 48" Viking rebadged Vent-a-Hood.

Add that our poorly vented laundry is also in the kitchen and well...ugh.

I wipe everything down every week with cleaners I would never have considered before (409) and it's still sticky. I finally had to take down my favorite kitchen art because it was getting coated with sticky, dusty grease - and I wasn't willing to sacrifice it to "feeling at home" while we're displaced.

And this house was probably built in the late 1890's. And air tight? I think not.

Just to be clear, I wasn't talking about grease, I was talking about lingering odors.

Our range was on our peninsula for 21 years sans hood. We remodeled and kept the same arrangement.

We boil, steam, stir fry veggies, sautee, pan fry meat, roast, sizzle bacon, and bake. We've never had a problem with grease build up on anything. We only use butter and olive oil (I don't know if that has anything to do with it). We never heat our oil to smoking because it makes the oil carcinogenic. We don't sear that often, nor do we use the broiler much (we use our gas grill on the deck instead).

After 21 years our cabinets were perfectly grease free even the undersides of the upper cabinets (I never washed the undersides in 21 years) and we sold them on Craig's List. The buyers commented at how clean the cabinets were.

Our home is 21 years old and pretty tight with 6" exterior walls and top of the line Marvin windows.

I love having my stove on the peninsula without a hood obstructing the view into the dining area. I also love the smell of cooking food. I NEVER have lingering odors. I honestly don't know what why others do have lingering odors . . . but not in our home and we cook all the time. What I do notice and object to in other people's homes is the smell of their garbage can. Now THAT'S gross.

As far as I know, it is code that you have to have some type of ventilation...whether its vented out or a recirculating...as a KD, all of my inspections requires such and wouldnt pass without....if you have an existing set up without then it doesnt matter, but if you are remodeling or building new, then code says you must have some type of ventilation...doesnt matter what or how you cook.

Where I live, kitchen ventilation is now required on all new builds and renovations. Anything over 300 cfm requires make-up air, and over 600 cfm needs heated make-up air. It is considered an air quality thing, as well as a safety measure, since new builds must be very tight for energy efficiency. Older homes like mine have to be brought up to current code when renovated, although it's unlikely to ever get sealed up too tight.

I haven't set off the smoke alarm in over a year and a half since I installed a real vent.

We checked with our building inspector before we renovated and he said there are no regulations regarding kitchen ventilation for our town in Connecticut.

Cooksnews - Same with me about the fire alarm. I didn't even think of that until you mentioned it.

And when I said "coated in grease," I really meant sticky, as grlwprls described it. And the problem with this coating of greasy stickiness is that you don't seem to be able to remove it.

To get rid of the sticky, dusty grease, I moisten some baking soda with a little water and rub it on. It will get rid of the grease, but you have to rub and rub, and then rinse. Depending on how well you rinse, you may end up w/ a little dried baking soda residue on the cabinet or appliance. I don't know if I'd use baking soda on good cabinets, but mine are so nasty and old that it doesn't matter...definitely works wonders on the top of the fridge!

We recently got a better vent fan over our gas range (600 cfm...the old one basically did nothing) and it's much easier to keep things clean.

I have a friend who doesn't have a vent hood, and somehow her kitchen is not greasy. She fries more than I do. Houses are the same age - about 45 years. I don't know, it works for her not to have one, but I consider it a must.
For a kitchen with nice, new cabinets, I myself would not skip a vent hood.

I'm in the "yes, absolutely you need ventilation" group.

I live in Toronto, and up here, legally, you need ventilation for a gas range.

I have a Viking hood with 1200 cm. It's loud if I crank it up, but I have no issues with cooking smells. I don't want to smell cooking smells, especially steaming broccoli that can linger for hours!

We bought a house recently that had no vent in the kitchen. I was surprised because the lady who sold the house was an immaculate housekeeper and I would have thought she'd freak at the possibility of grease buildup. There was no evidence of any residue. I was also surprised that the inspector didn't even mention it. I figured it must not be required by code there (Rochester). Even though the cooktop was just electric, we put a hood in right away.

Come to think of it, I have no idea how she managed without any lighting over the cook top. Maybe she never cooked....

I have the GE Cafe dual fuel range. I didn't think they made a slide-in, and I don't see one on the website. I would definitely recommend ventilation. I have the Cafe OTR Microwave vented to the outside, and think it works well. We love bacon and fish, so our fan is on a lot!

We're in the middle of a renovation, and I reluctantly went with an unvented OTR microwave. Previously we had an ancient Jenn-Air downdraft range, and the only venting solution (within our budget) in the new kitchen was buying another Jenn-Air. And the Jenn-Air ranges I looked at were very expensive and got terrible reviews.

Personally, I don't do a lot of frying (I actually make my bacon in the oven). I'm more into roasting and braising. I usually "steam" my broccoli in the microwave, and I've never noticed a lingering smell in the house. I figure I can always open a window in the kitchen. And the recirculating hood will at least cut down on the grease slightly when I do saute something. This isn't our forever house, and I didn't want to spend more on this remodel than the value of the house justified.

So anyway, I think venting is great, but I also think it's possible to live without it, depending on your cooking style.

I would definitely check the local code requirements. For a gas range I would think some type of exhaust ventilation would be mandatory since gas combustion is not always 100%, so you could have some nastly by-products in the air.

We are currently cooking on the old electric range during our remodel and the ceiling joists about the range have a film of grease on them. I can't imagine living without a hood. Those that say they don't need one... well, they must not cook much!

Excuse me, Ahem Tom . . . I am part of the "I never had a vent/hood and I have NO grease build up or nasty odors" camp. And it certainly isn't because we don't cook. Let's see tonight I made a pot of Pasta Fagioli with garlic bread. I roasted the garlic first in our new garlic roaster made by a local potter. Last night my DD and I made a couple of dozen chocolate cupcakes (NOT a box mix) with butter cream frosting . . . yum. Earlier in the week we made Shepherd's Pie, Chicken Parmagian, Chicken Enchiladas, etc. Tomorrow is either split pea soup or beef stew.

As I said before, we use our gas grill on the deck year round for steaks and burgers. We rarely sear meat inside at high temperatures and we don't use our broiler much. We do fry bacon using a cast iron bacon griddle with bacon press.

We also are careful never to heat oil on the stove so that it begins to smoke because it makes the oil carcinogenic. We only use butter and olive oil for frying and sauteing.

Maybe these are the differences?

I dunno....when I remove the casing and clean the Ventahood box, there is a good bit of grease accumulated there. Serious EW.

I don't want to go back to that being smeared on my walls and cabinets and other stuff.

Judy - those cupcakes look yummy! I'm in your camp. The kitchen we are remodeling had a old vented hood. In the 7 years I have lived here, I think I turned it on maybe 2 or 3 times & that usually involved a toaster incident lol...

I also cook plenty but like you, don't deep fry or sear/broil very often & use just small amounts of olive oil or butter when needed and not at high heat. I never had a problem with any grease build up or other gunk & I don't really find food smells offensive (well except when I was pregnant, but those days are over).

This time around, I'm going with an OTR micro, b/c my counter space is limited & I hated that the big clunker was taking up so much of my precious counter space. (I'm now trying to figure out where I can hide my toaster oven for the same reason). I'm guessing I won't use the vent much this time around either - When we sell in 10-15 yrs - our kitchen will probably be getting to that "outdated" state anyway & will be redone again - the venting to outside is in place if they want to change back to a hood - but for me, this is just fine...

If it is new construction check the code in your town. It is required in Massachusetts! Our new kitchen has very high ceilings and I didnt like the idea of using exposed hood extensions. I want a warmer (wood) farmhouse look so we are forgoing the matching hood for Bertazonni range and bulding the wall out to frame the range and installing a vent insert. We are covering the frame with shiplap and adding a salvalged wood beam shelf.