If you are Italian, and you fry meatballs and sausage every Sunday- there is nothing worse than going to church smelling like fried food- I can't live without it- however with that said - we are living without one currently- can't hook it up until our homeowner's insurance pays us for the tree that fell on our new roof over the kitchen and did $6,000 worth of damage! DH has to live w/ his meatballs unfried- oh dear! The rest of the week- I'll probably just use the lights.

I never use mine either. My husband made me get a new downdraft for our remodel. My good friend bought a house with downdraft in the kitchen but it was broken. She didn't "need" it for 2 years so when she got a new stove she got a regular one-no ventilation anywhere. You are not alone. And don't worry I got scolded for using a handy man and for not (yet) putting electric in my island.

Not a problem-- my sicilian grandmother used to cook them and the sausage right in the sauce and skim off the grease afterward!! :-)

That said, I was starting to think we were strange!! Any time my wife or I cook, that fan is on.

I confess - I don't use mine - because it doesn't work!

Its just a junk OTR hood, and it makes a lot of noise, but it doesn't remove any air at all. (No air comes out of the vent outlet on the outside wall.

Also, I have a generic electric range, and only two burners work. Even so, I suffer without the hood. My smoke detector goes off every time I try to brown something.

I will have a a better range and a hood in my new kitchen, and I will use it.

My parents have never had one and I can say...they should! The sides of the cabinet & wall on the sides of the range, the underside & front of the above range cabinet, the wall behind the range, and the ceiling above the range are all discolored and "greasy". My father does fry bacon and hamburgers occasionally, but I think it's the general lack of a hood that's the culprit. I always hated trying to clean the walls, cabinets, etc. growing up and I will NEVER be w/o a fan in my home!

They've been in their current home since 1960 and they've always had a gas range--but a basic residential range, nothing fancy or pro-style.

Even though it's quite noisy, I use mine whenever I cook any kind of meat, cook with oils, or cook high-odor items. However, if it's dry in the house, I don't use it when boiling water...which is most of the winter. In the summer, I use it just about every time I use the top of the range. It's not as effective as I would like, but it does help. I will be getting a much better (and hopefully quieter) hood with our remodel.

Well I've never had one either. And, frankly, have never missed having one. It is only now, while involved in a first time remodel of my 40+ year old kitchen (and simultaneously soliciting and/or eavesdropping on the fierce opinions of my fellow TKOS) that I've begun to think seriously about getting a duct, vent, hood system for the first time in my middle-aged life! Meanwhile, here in NYC, where code most definitely does NOT require such, both my designer and architect keep telling me that it's simply not necessary.

Now, all that being said, Mindstorm: what vent do you have? :)

I have to laugh! We covered our original, 47 yr. old vent grills with plastic bags, yes ugly, so the cold air would not come into our already cold kitchen. (That answers our question whether it is vented to the outside.)
As for bacon, what do you think they made microwaves for? A plate, paper towels, and hoo-wee, cooked bacon!!!
I, and most of our friends, like to come into a kitchen where garlic and onions have cooked. Smells good. It's proof, as if I needed to prove anything about cooking, that we didn't order out!!!! Dream kitchen? vending machines and 4 microwave ovens. Do you suppose I should include lead aprons for protection from all the waves? lol

Cook the bacon, then fry the meatballs in the bacon grease! Now we're talkin'!

A hood is a must in my house too.:-D Just wish mine didn't sound like the engine compartment of an aircraft!:-(

I don't use my hood either. When I was growing up, in spite of my mother's hood, we could always smell dinner cooking and it was wonderful. My kids feel the same way. The smells don't stay. When I walk into my house it smells clean and fresh - until I start cooking again. But I love that by the time dinner is ready, all the kids have been coming to me asking what smells so good, is it almost ready, they're starving.

In the past I've only had microhoods and the 2 I've had have been lousy and loud, so I've always dreaded using them and have done so sparingly.

We installed one in the new house and I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. It doesn't sound half as loud at full speed as my old one does on low, so I plan to use it lots more. We'll see..

I remodeled without a hood, and have been happy with it. Since then I have become a low-fat vegetarian and I never cook with oil, just cook in non-stick pans and braise onions in water or broth. We have high ceilings, I have never noticed a problem when boiling pasta. I cook a lot more than I used too, I used the vent for a few things, but not all the time. This is the first time I have seen so many people willing to confess.

It totally depends on how you cook. And how you're meeting building code ventilation requirements. And what your resale plans are.

We're putting a reasonable hood--300cfm--in our new house's kitchen. So my half-Italian husband can make his "gravy" again without me having to roll in the big air filter to remove the sauteeing onion in oil smell (triggers my asthma). For years all we've had is a recirc hood, which is totally useless.

If you get a hood, don't size up unnecessarily. With a HRV and a 300cfm range hood we figure we're covered. Because as to other "cooking", I'm just over it, too. I mostly assemble salads and steam veggies in the microwave.

I'm in real estate. I can't tell you how many times I've toured a home where it was obvious they had improper ventilation. The cabinets above the cooktop get this layer of thick gunk on them, and they almost always get discolored.

A proper hood was the MOST important thing on my list.

I have an OTR hood, it's actually the first one I've ever had so I am not used to using it. I really only use it when doing something that generates smoke, and only to prevent the smoke detector from going off. Most of the time I can use a little window fan that blows out, and I prefer that. The window is right next to the range, and it works great.

I personally like to smell what I'm cooking!

And polly, I'm Italian and I don't fry meatballs anymore...I bake them in the oven. It works great! You can make them all at once, no messy paper towels to drain them on, and no grease spattering everywhere.

For sausages, I use my big deep pot that I make gravy in for Sundays. I brown the sausages, remove them and then make the gravy, adding the sausage the last couple hours of simmering.

I cooked for 12 years without a hood in our old kitchen. There were no cabinets over the (gas) stove and I kept nothing on the wall behind the stove. When I started packing up the kitchen prior to remodeling everything near the stove was coated with an invisible, sticky yech. When we pulled the ceiling down over the stove it was positively yellow (granted, there had been many years of cooking going on prior to mine- you could see grease splatters on the ceiling that bled through the paint & primer). The wall & backsplash behind the stove were absolutely foul. The first thing on my kitchen list was a good hood.

I use my new hood every time I cook and it's one of my favorite things about the kitchen. I'm sorry, but I don't find the smell of yesterday's hamburger or fish at all appealing and I don't miss the smell of old grease one tiny bit. You can still smell food cooking while the food is on, you still get the whole "mmmm, what's that?" experience, you just don't have to keep on smelling it once you're finished. And I can spend all afternoon frying struffoli & walk away from the stove without smelling like old oil.

The underside of the hood gets sticky but since it's stainless I can scrub with impunity. The internals come apart & go in the dishwasher. My cabinets are not covered in an invisible haze of ick. My cabinets don't get steamed when I'm boiling water. And while my hood isn't silent it's quiet enough that sometimes I don't realize that I've left it on until I sit down to dinner.

On the other hand the hood in my mother's kitchen is useless & turning it on is a noisy waste of time & electricity. It never gets used, even by me.

If you're happy going hoodless then you should continue. But I'll never be without one again.

Nina

mindstorm - your post is so funny. We have a great vent hood, too, for our gas range, and you can't smell the food inside the house, but you sure can smell it OUTSIDE walking up the driveway! Then you walk in the front door and...nothing.

We've lived in 7 houses in the past 15 years (military). Although we've always cooked, we started really cooking in the last three houses, although we rarely fry. The MD house had a glass cooktop and recirculating micro-hood. Every time we made blackened salmon, we set off the smoke detectors. It was so bad one Christmas Eve, cooking for 14 people, several batches worth, we had to fling open all the doors and windows, and it was well below freezing outside, but we couldn't get the smoke out to stop the alarms.

The CA rented house had a gas range with recirculating micro-hood. The house was about 15 years old - kitchen cabs around the cooking area were coated with thick greasy goop. The hood helped a little, but completely inadequate for our cooking (we refrained from blackened salmon for a couple of years).

With our current Wolf AG range, I turn the hood on every time I turn on a burner just to keep the gases moving out. It's so quiet that I often forget to turn it off, but we have a pretty noisy household, with dogs barking and parrots squawking and kids running. And we've had blackened salmon twice since the kitchen has been up and running, with no smoke alarms!!!

Shortly after I remodeled my kitchen (with a 600CFM hood) I was having a dinner party and doing some wok cooking. Suddenly my smoke alarm went off. One of my guests said "A lot of good your expensive hood does!" I said, "Well it would if I had remembered to turn it on!"

Evaperconti: I can tell you are Italian because you called it gravy not sauce: LOL- DH prefers meatballs fried- when he's not home I sneak and bake them- he has no idea when I do it. SHHH don't tell :)
Oh- and I set off the smoke alarm last night frying the leftover macaroni from Sunday- can't WAIT to get that hood hooked up!

Replacing my old downdraft with a good vent hood was the biggest functional improvement in my remodel. Now I'll never be without good ventilation again. Perhaps this is one of those "you can't miss what you've never had" scenarios.

Mine works well but definitely isn't quiet...I wish I'd bought one like Mindstorm's :-)

Wow, thanks for all the responses...and they were all nice, too! I don't feel nealy as stupid. Couple of things about this lake house, the cooktop will be electric and kinda on an island. Hard to explain. Unfortunately, the ceilings are only eight feet so that could be a problem. Already checked and there is no code issue. We hope to enjoy this place till the funeral home folks come and take us out on a cart, so no real issues about resale...I guess. I did enjoy all the stories about your hoods. Made me think about the one we have at our house. It is a down draft system, and in the winter I keep tin foil on it to keep the cold out! I'd have to take the foil off to even use the darn thing. Oh well, even with the threat of grease, I think I am goin hoodless at the lake. Mabye if someone notices crud on the ceiling I'll just direct their view to the beautiful lake and they'll forget all about it. Thanks to everyone...I've already learned soooooooo much from this group. I hope to learn more. And I was just kidding about the nice thing. People here seem to ALWAYS be nice and very willing to share. Thanks again!

Sometimes I wonder if once we buy into things i.e. a good vent hood, we then find ourselves justifing it. For years we all loved to come home to the wonderful aromas of home cooking and now we spend a fortune to rid ourself of the same. I do use my Thermador for steam & odors daily but for years I didn't use my JennAir. It was noiser and didn't do a really good job. I can honestly say my cabs did not have a grease residue on them nor my ceiling. Oh I will say I am more sensitive to the aromas now. I love smelling them when I am cooking but when dinner is over it is over and I don't want to smell anything.

puppy

The 8' ceilings should not be a problem. I have 7 1/2' ceilings and I am putting in a VentAHood Euro Island hood. The hood itself is 18" high. With the recommended 30" spacing of the hood above the range, I end up with about 6" between the top of the hood and the ceiling. (Joy - I'm having to pay >$350 for a custom duct cover for that space. But it would be more $$$ for more space.)

I SURE wish I could find a message I posted on this subject about 4 or 5 years ago. I tried to find it via Google but no luck. I'm not near the TKO I was when we were in the midst of our kitchen remodel so I couldn't replicate the passion if I tried (lol) At the time, we'd live in our house for 16 years without a vent. Twenty one years total but the thing flaked out on us after 5 years and we never replaced it till we remodeled the kitchen. I'm not a big time/high heat cook. I don't fry a lot. I didn't realize how much difference a vent made until the kitchen remodel. I don't even have a super duty sucker upper. I think it's a little greater than 400 cfms. You don't realize that odors that get trapped in the house and furnishings because you live in it. The odors of the steam embeds it's self in household dust particles...it's everywhere. Just like you might not realize the pet odors you could have if you have indoor pets but others will. Steam from boiled pasta, boiled chicken to salmon patties..steam from just about anything you cook will have some oily type film that will, after time, build up on cabinets (along with the dust the steam trapped). Then there's frying...oy! In the message I posted years ago, I included a picture of the bottom of my sink AFTER I'd hand washed my vent's mesh screen. Hummm, wonder where all that black gunk goes when there's no method of drawing it up and out of the house??? Yes, they make a big difference. The recirculating ones make much less difference but it's better than nothing at all. I will never again be without one. My only regret is that we'd gone with more cfms. Would like to some day.
Monica

No cabinet concerns, no resale concerns, no hood! Enjoy your view. Just remember the lighting!

I don't mind most food smells, but fish I can't stand (I don't mind it when I'm eating it). That goes on the grill whether I have a hood or not.

Well, as I see it, there are people who donÂt have a hood, people who have a poorly engineered hood for their kitchen, and those who have a properly engineered hood for their kitchen. I think that those who donÂt have a hood fall into two camps; those who really donÂt need a hood, and those who rationalize they donÂt need a hood. A hood should remove excess heat, and smoke/grease/odor. If someone only cooks on one burner, and doesnÂt fry/sear/wok, they might not need a hood. If someone doesnÂt care if the smoke detector goes off, that they need to open windows and doors, and that they have grease building up on the walls and cabinets, they donÂt need a ventilation system.

People who have a properly designed/engineered kitchen ventilation system always seem to love it. It works and isnÂt too noisy.

The problem area shows up in peopleÂs comments when they have a poorly designed ventilation system. From my experience, it appears easy to end up with a system that doesnÂt work. I havenÂt run into very many contractors or appliance sales people who seem to understand that a hood is a functional appliance, not just a decorating addition. Most of them seem to be anxious to show you how you can save money by going to a smaller hood, smaller ductwork, and/or smaller fan. A good ventilation system needs to be engineered to address the amount of heat likely to be generated, the CFM required to clear the smoke/fume/grease from the hood, the "capture velocity" needed to keep smoke/fume/grease from escaping into the room, proper size of the ducting, proper size and location of the fan, and making the required amount of makeup air available at the right location. All of this costs money. I think when you try to economize on the engineering of the system, the result will be something that doesnÂt function as you expect. Smoke detectors go off, the noise makes the unit unusable, it only works with a window open, you can only use the back burners, or you give up on the grill and only use it as a landing area.

I've never HAD a hood in a kitchen.

Of course, I've had kitchens that get a little on the greasy side. But they also haven't been THAT bad.

I do notice a bit of a difference even w/ only my incredibly loud microhood.

If I *could* have a hood that vents outside, I think I would. But I'd want the quietest setup I could get.

We had never had a functional hood in any home or apt. til a year ago. We have always stir-fried and I have always scrubbed the cabs/walls/everything twice a year to stay ahead of the grease.

A perfect hood was the 1st thing I was going to have no matter what. I got it and I can't believe the difference. Those that say the HOGS are the reason for a hood are correct. Heat,odors,grease and steam. I have a 1400 cfm Tradewind liner. We have baffles. This hood is really quiet and the high setting isn't even necessary for the stirfry. The price was very good also. I run the baffles in the dishwasher every Sunday night and they NEED it. I cannot believe the grease that adheres to them. We stirfry and deep fry and lots of other types of cooking too. Just for fun I didn't wipe the wood mantle hood at all for 3 months after install. I can tell you honestly there was not one speck of sticky stuff nothing but some white dust. So I will never be without a great hood system again. Just my story . c

I've had hoods but none vented out. Bleh. I cannot wait to vent my new hood. it's lovely when the whole house smells of cookies baking but not so lovely when the house smells of potato kugel for a week after you've made it.

I'm doing a bit by bit remodel and can't wait to replace my range. In the meantime, it loves me. Its a whirlpool with double oven (one at the top) and the vent comes on automatically when needed. How cool is that?

Mindstorm:Did I miss it somewhere or what kind of range hood do you have? I would really like to know because I'm in the market for one right now. westsider40: I'm still laughing my head off about your dream kitchen. I used to want glazed block walls and a cement floor with a drain and a hose with a spray nozle so that when my kids were done making a mess at the table I could just hose it down. I still think that was one of my better ideas.

netski, marthavila (sorry for being so long to get back), I have the Gaggenau AH140 or something like that (sorry but it's been two years and I no longer recall the number). It is a 480CFM hood and is plenty for my drop-in 4-burner Wolf cooktop. I got a 36" unit to go over the 30" cooktop so that even with the rectangular capture, it has the full span of hte cooktop covered.

Few pictures of the hood:

Actually I think the last may actually be a better view of the cooktop than the hood.

netski, Babes, I'm moving in with you. A kitchen with a cement floor, a drain, hoses!!!!Perfection.
All you TKO's. Fess up now. What's worse, crumbs or cooking smells? IMHO, crumbs are ubiquitous, ever present, in every corner, hiding and in-my face, under my feet, everywhere. Even cooked pasta in my house makes crumbs. I don't know how you can have crumbs from cooked pasta, but I do have crumbs!!! And noodles are a mother's best friend...Picky eaters I know only eat pasta. Gourmet or gourmand pickies have sauce. Non gourmets have butter and when adventurous, some parm cheese. Or my teen dtr will make her specialty, any kind of pasta, butter, marg or oil and any kind of sticky, stringy mozz type cheese. Oops, back to topic.
Fish is ALWAYS on the Weber outside, in snow, rain, whatever. Re-used throw away pans lined with foil-to keep my options open. Should I now toss the alum pans or are they good enough for another time? Depends on whether anything drips.
Rarely, once a year, do I fry--except for stir frying twice a year.
Raynag, If, a big if, I do kugel, it's in the oven, not the stovetop.
Very little oil or fat or grease. Cholesterol. I spray everything. Also, lazy. Pam type sprays make clean up easier. Most often, but admittedly not always, I rinse ground turkey or beef after draining it, into a junk garbage container, not the sink. Go ahead, call me anal. I can take it.
Our 47 yr. old, NON self cleaning broiling section of the oven, flames, BiG FLAMES, if I broil indoors. So it's the Weber for me. I never thought much about the need for a vent, but they are pretty. We just don't have the space for a pretty one, when we do our remodel/reno.

I use my hood! When the smoke alarm is going off, ha! It rarely occurs to me to turn on the fan, only the light. When it is cold outside and the house is dry, the steam from the pasta pot is a feature not a curse.

Westsider- I have no problems with crumbs. I have a large dog. She's like a roomba, only stickier. And she never misses one. So as my 4yo son crumbs along or I slob my way through preparing dinner the dog is right there.

Now dog hair is a problem...

BTW- even my remodeled and expanded kitchen is tiny and my hood takes up 48" of prime kitchen real estate that I could really use. It isn't even an undercabinet hood but a massive slab of stainless. And I don't regret a single, sacrified inch of storage space.

Nina

Sigh, I do , I really do like your solution for crumbs! Very funny...and so true. Our crumb slurper of 13.5 years of age died a while ago.

You have made me rethink my veto of a space gobbling hood. Beauty over function. But I fear that I'd have to keep our everyday dishes in the basement and rent a storage spot for fancy china.

It raises the question as to why I feel it necessary to keep every single, free, advertising, and dollar water bottle ever given to my daughter from every activity, sports, drama, blah,.. to keep in prime storage? and no room for dishes? Our priorities? When I look at everyone's storage plan,... why don't they allocate space for the swim team water bottles? and the bank's, the library's, Does Ikea make water bottle dividers?

westsider- regarding the hood, I look at it this way: There's a reason that Yankee Candle doesn't make an "Old Fish" or "Last Week's Hamburger" scent.

And you have a very valid point! In my careful space planning I never once considered where I'd put the plastic water bottles, the free with 4 box tops Spiderman cereal bowls, the infernal sippy cups and their annoying lids & valves, the travel cups and their more lids than we have travel cups (none of which are interchangeable) or my husbands ridiculously tall beer steins ("do I have to keep these in the cabinets?" "yes" "Can't I just put them in the barren wasteland under the sink?").

If Ikea doesn't make water bottle dividers they should! How about one of those "charming" old wire milk bottle carriers ala martha stewart? This way you can leave them out, call them "decor", save your storage space & watch them collect dust & crumbs.

I'm always thinking...

Nina

I think the importance of a hood really depends on your climate.
I live in South Georgia, and anything that is messy, I cook outside.
Also, I have a gorgeous new hood now, the VAH excalibur. I just love the halogen light. I use it all the time, so you might love being able to see what you are doing so much that it makes the hood worthwhile anyway.
I am noticing more and more in the upscale magazines that the hoods are otional. If you can get a copy, see for example p. 62 of the August issue of House Beautiful. Obviously, money was no object, but there is no hood over the Viking.

Gabeach -- How's the Excalibur for noise? For cleaning ease?

I love everything about the Excalibur.
It is very quiet. I got the 18 inch tall, 42 wide size.
They are so pretty if you love a farmhouse style.
And you cannot beat the price for the look.
I think it is easy to clean.
You just undo these little suitcase latches and put it in the dishwasher. Better if a DH takes it down for you.
It is sorta high up inside the hood.

I completely forgot I had saved this picture. Even if you never used it, I'd give ANYTHING to have this in my kitchen!!

I've never been a big "hood" user. DH was always coming in a turning it on, I'd forget to. I have a 600 cfm waiting to be installed, I picked it because it was pretty and has great lighting. DH liked it because it was functional. Beauty and function, together at last lol. I plan on using this one. I recently loked up into the non-operative hood over my cooktop and EWWWWWW! Gross. There are things growing up there and it's not normal. I'm kind of creeped out cooking with that above my food. Oh well I suppose it can't be any worse than drywall and plywood dust ;-)

I also cook all fish outside, if I have to fry hamburgers or bacon it goes outside on the electric griddle. Hamburgers usually go on the grill and bacon is pre-cooked from Costco, warms in the micro. Sometimes I'll stirfry some shrimp inside.

LOL! We've gone full circle. First people cooked outside so the fire smoke and smells wouldn't pollute the cave. Then they built fire shelters, and started sleeping in them where it was warm. Then they built separate living quarters to keep out of the smoke and smells. Modern houses (where the kitchen is the smallest not the largest part) were built with the kitchens separate to keep the smoke and smells out of the rest of the quarters. Then they developed good ventilation so the kitchen was a cozier and pleasanter place to be. And opened it up to the rest of the living space. So now we take the food outside to cook to keep the smoke and smells out of the house!

I cook plenty and use my OTR microwave hood maybe once or twice a week, at the most. Cue the admonishments from the purists that I dared to build a house without a "real" vent hood. I guess if I did more frying, I'd find it useful, but I seem to manage without just fine. They are pretty to look at, though!

I know this is a really old thread that's been bumped up but have to say it surprises me how many people don't use an exhaust hood in the kitchen. Makes me wonder if they feel the same way about the one in the bathroom!

Do those of you who don't use a hood actually *cook*? If so, do you have smoke detectors?

Before I did my kitchen over I had a crappy builder hood. It seemed to do little. (When it was ripped out we discovered that the vent wasn't connected to outside.) I used to routinely have my smoke detector going off. It was really annoying.

Now I have a good hood. I use it a lot, but not always. Sometimes I have to be reminded that I ought to have it on, because I am generating too much smoke.

It is also good if I'm doing something like boiling down stock in the winter. Without the hood all the windows fog up.

Positioning has a lot to do with how annoying the smoke detector is, as does brand. I've always been stuck with useless recirculating hoods, but having had a chance to spend a month cooking in a house with a good (not great, just average) vented hood, I would always want a vented hood if it were an option. Even for things like softening onions, it's really nice not to have smell them for an hour afterwards.

re exhaust. Makes no difference to me what other people choose to do, but here is a cautionary tale.

We just redid our 7 y/o kitchen top to bottom and wall to wall. We have been in the house about a year. The prior owners had a recirculating thing. When we took it down, it was nasty filthy. On close inspection, the pendant lighting, the cabinets and their hinges, above the cabinets, and the ceilings were dirty and grimy. Icky, ick, ick. I had to take the pendants totally apart and clean every little piece. We painted the ceiling and walls with some blocker paint after scrubbing it all and before repainting so the grease won't come through the new paint.

FWIW - I don't think they cooked much and we didn't knowing the hood wasn't really a hood and we didn't want our house smelling like dinner. One advantage of not having proper ventilation for me personally was that it forced us to learn outdoor grilling and BBQ.

I have one and use it all the time but everyone around "these parts" has a OTR microwave and they cook and survive just fine with it.

I'm going through a remodel right now in a narrow DC rowhouse and just can't fit a hood in over our peninsula where the cooktop is going. Considering we've been cooking in the house for 5 years with no ventilation other than the occasional open window I'm not exactly sweating over it. I am curious though, for those who have a downdraft system (we plan on installing the Best Cattura) what your noise levels are like for 600 CFM internal blowers compared to the 1200 CFM external options?

Justin, we recently remodeled our kitchen and installed a Broan. It's 500 CFM with an internal blower. Ours is rather loud, if you ask me. But, it seems like most of the sound is air flow, not the motor. Our local code requires a vent, otherwise I would have been fine without one.