You cannot live without it: the extractor hood gets rid of the odours, steam and smoke when you cook, but for it to work efficiently, you need to mount it correctly with the best possible ducting. Read our advice right here on how to get the tubing right when installing your new cooker hood.
A recirculation hood filters the air (more or less efficiently) and sends it back into your kitchen. The advantage with this kind of hood is that you can install it where you want, without thinking of air extraction, ducting and holes in the wall.
If you prefer to extract the filthy air out of your kitchen, an extraction cooker hood is the right choice for you. Where to place the hood and how to install the duct system thus becomes the key question.
5 TIPS ON HOW TO MOUNT THE TUBING FOR YOUR EXTRACTOR FAN
- Aim for a short exhaust duct. In order to preserve the extraction capacity of your hood, install your stove and thus your hood close to where you will make the required hole in the wall. To put it simply, for every extra metre of duct, the hood loses approximately 25m3 of extraction capacity. That’s enough to have an impact!
Avoid bends and angles in ductwork (again) with the purpose of preserving a maximum extraction capacity. A 90 degrees bend has the same negative impact on the airflow as one metre of extra ducting!- Choose a smooth (and round) tube as opposed to a flexible one. The latter gives more resistance when the air passes through, which diminishes the actual airflow and increases the noise. Furthermore, the flexible tube is often thinner, resulting in greater heat loss and an increased risk of condensation. Drops of water from the hood might be the result, especially if there is no return valve mounted on the outside wall in order to prevent cool air from entering the duct system.
- Opt for a wide exhaust duct. An optimum airflow performance is assured by a wide enough diameter, which also keeps the noise at a low level. In other words: if your hood manufacturer recommends a diameter of 150mm, do not choose a tube which is narrower than that - It will affect the performance of your hood negatively. Furthermore, if you use a ducting pipe reducer (e.g. from 150 to 125mm), then cut off the unused part (e.g. the part of the adapter that could make a reduction from 125 to 110mm).
- Consider insulating your duct in order to minimise condensation and noise. If you are acquiring a wall mounted cooker hood, you could also consider attenuating the noise by adding insulation around the chimney. You could also consider the relatively simple solution of simply building a chimney cover in plasterboard to be painted in your kitchen’s colours.
