When did you install your Vent-a-hood?

Over three years ago. But it's been cleaned since then. Not that bad!

Maybe every six months to a year. Not so good. But we've never had an "oh no" experience when we do take it apart. I think I will do it tomorrow! :-)

You are supposed to clean it?

LOL! Yes kitchenkelly, I'm afraid we are supposed to clean it. Mine is good as new now, but it took two runs in the dishwasher and some easy off fume free to the stainless in the insert. Trust me, learn from my example, and don't let it go more than six months ever again.

every 3 or 4 months...we should probably do it more often, but it's never been that bad. I wash by hand, not in the DW. I just let it soak a few minutes in hot soapy water and then wash. So far so good...

(We don't fry or saute, but I do brown ground meats occasionally.)

Also about every 3-4 months.

Early on I let it go for maybe a year. Ew. It was so gross I even dismantled the fans and cleaned them.

Anybody else take those off??

Um yes. Let's just say it was long enough that those had to come off, and be gross. And have to go in the dishwasher AFTER being messed around with by hand. And the hood insert itself had to be cleaned quite thoroughly, as well as the big cage thing, etc etc and so forth.

Yeah, no more than 3-4 months from here on out.

Thanks!

OMG, my post has disappeared. I was the 1st poster & it was there about an hour ago. What happened??

antiquesilver, i think you responded over on Appliances. And thanks!!

Admiring by shiny like new hood insert this morning. LOL. Never again will I go more than three months...just for good measure.

Ha-ha - I've never cleaned mine!! I've been thinking about it but I keep telling myself that I don't use it that often and when I do it's usually steam that I'm sucking up since I don't do any greasy cooking, smokey grilling, etc. How bad can it be? I guess I might be surprised to find out.

I will put this on my to-do list now - something to do when DH has another long business trip. Presumably I can get the thing apart by myself? I have a VAH - I remember hearing they are a bit of a pain to get apart.

Now that I discovered that the cages actually are unscrewed with an allen wrench and can be thrown in the dishwasher, I do it at least monthly. I have a grill that I use at least 2x a week, so it gets greasy quickly up there.

For 2 years, I actually used to actually disconnect the cages from the electrical and hand scrub them with a toothbrush while making sure the motors stayed dry. I never understood why people said the VAHs were easy to clean then. It's amazing what you can learn from reading the manual :)

Oh too funny. I definitely underestimated the amount of yuck that was going in there. On the one hand, this is a very good thing! I have open shelves and the stuff on them is always clean so the hood is doing it's job. But I do alot of sauteeing of onions and garlic, and browning chicken. So, I really should have known better. I do now.

I don't think it's at all easy to get the squirrel cages out. The allen wrench thing is a pita, frankly. But it does make it possible to get it all nice and clean.

nasty nasty nasty. never again.

We had a rebadged VAH (Viking) in our old house that was installed in 1995. When we bought the house in 2007, I'm not sure the VAH had *ever* been cleaned by the immediately POs. It was so nasty! And, when I "loosened" the pieces to wash them, I did something to the fan assembly. $600 later, I cleaned that thing every month and after that, I never even noticed that it really needed doing. And back then, when I had the BTUs I seared, sauteed, fried - you name it.

I'm taking the Fifth...

So by "cages" you all are meaning the blck and whte spinning thingies?

I do recall using an allen wrench to separate the spinning thingies from the electrical. And that it was hard to get then balanced afterward. (hint: loud noises = problem) I also was happy to get them plugged back in blind. I confess I've only done that part twice and I've had the VAH since 2000.

I am now tryng to convince myself that more frequent cleaning of the box, etc. makes taking the whole mess apart unnecessary....

I'll try it with you celticmoon. And we'll see. I also noted that only one of the two cages was dirty (although I did wash them both). It was the white one. It was pretty disgusting, it had to go through the dishwasher twice. Must be because I don't use the supplementary "boost" or whatever button. So I may be able to at least get away with only dealing with one squirrel cage. I wonder too, if I do it often, I can keep it relatively clean without taking it down? We shall see.

I also note that the paint came off the white one in the wash. Ah well.