My current home is equipped with a electric stove and no range hood. I am partial to gas ranges for cooking and am considering switching over to a gas range. Do I need to install a range hood with venting to the outside of the home? I'd like to install a range hood for additional lighting and to help with my sometimes smoky cooking, but can I install hood than does not vent outside? I've lived in homes and apartments for many years that had no hood whatsoever for the gas ranges, but now I'm reading that it is important to have a vented hood with gas. Is this true? I was under the impression gas burnt clean enough not to require such ventilation.
I've always had gas stoves and I've never had a range hood that vented outside. I'm not aware of any requirement for an outside vent and when the kitchen was remodeled, the inspector saw that the hood didn't vent outside and had no problem with it. If you are concerned, check with your local building department and see what they require.
If you're switching over to a mega-btu, restaurant quality range you should vent the hood to the outside. If it's a basic gas range, outside venting is nice but not necessary.
The hoods that vent inside...how shall we say....they don't vent. They move steam & smoke over your head and into the room. I guess that serves one purpose - getting the stuff out of your face. And, since they're usually mounted to a wooden cabinet, their presence (even if they're turned off) protects the wood to an extent. Other than that, they're useless if you tend to make lots of smoke when cooking. All it does is redirect it, and if it's greasy smoke....well never mind.
This doesn't address the issue of local requirements, obviously.
Just for grins, I thought, I read the responses to this post and was pleased to find correct answers. And a little surprised since the answer isn't obvious without a fairly thorough knowledge of the facts. Someone, in one of the posts, mentioned local regs, so, again, just for grins, I called our local CEO. Sorry, Code Enforcement officer (we only have one - rural village area). To my surprise, he said NO! He said he didn't have time to fiddle around with silly questions, just don't do it. Hmm, says I to self; that was rude! So I called a nearby city about 10 miles from here. He said no too, BUT he bothered to explain that in most union areas around here, the unions insist there be a ground for every hot for "continuity" of "facilities", I think he called it. I wasn't quick enough to ask him about 220, 240, etc. and so on, being rather surprised, but finding the answer usable. I thought about calling the local IBEW I think it is here, but thought better of it since I was starting to make a mountain out of a molehill. Only, the more I think about it ... oh well!
I guess the moral is: Check your local codes! They're likely to have no problems with it, but if you're perchance not to code, it leaves other liabilities; like fire insurance for one. Now's the time to find out.
Stupid stuff, but nobody promised us a rose garden, eh?
A range hood is not required for a residential occupancy, it is for a commercial kitchen, but that was'nt the question. Would I recommend it, yes. IMHO recirculating range hoods are useless, but they meet code for residential.
Methinks that many in this thread need remedial cooking lessons, they seem to burn the food and create so much smoke.
As to odor, well, maybe again it's your cooking that leaves something to be desired. Little surpasses the odor of frying bacon and eggs on a weekend morning to urge you to rise and stumble salivating to the kitchen for cholesterol injection. Or, the smell of fresh-baking or
-baked bread wafting gently into your home-office and drawing you to break it while still warm. Or, the down home earthy fragrance of a slow-cooking pot of pea and ham soup announcing that you should start your gastric juices aflowing. OTOH if your culinary skills are more in the nature of boiled cabbage maybe you do need a super-exhausting range hood .
Grease is another matter. I have a large commercial range hood with 2" thick aluminum filters (as opposed to the 1/4" home version) which is vented (poorly) to the outside. Very little grease is deposited inside the range hood behind the filters. They, OTOH, require at least monthly dishwasher-ing, otherwise they begin to drip. IOW as long as there's sufficient air flow the filters will pick up almost all the grease regardless of where the venting is to.
As to smoke, like grease it too is particulates carried in the airstream but the filters seem to do nothing to remove it. I wonder if the activated charcoal type would do something here? Alternatively isn't there some form of electrostatic filter similar to what the coal generating power stations use to reduce their particulate emissions?
The problems with venting to the outside are that
- you're throwing out all that air you've paid to heat
- high level exhaust fans are very expensive
- there are regulations relating to proximity to windows, neighbors etc which result in the to-the-roof eyesores you see exiting restaurants
Just as a summary. It depends on local codes. Businesses always have codes for venting ranges but households are left up to local codes and are not grandfathered in to newer codes.
It is not sufficient to check just the code, you must also check the installation instructions for the particular gas stove you're installing. High BTU gas ranges can burn so much gas that you have to provide venting, not because they produce toxic gas, but because they eat all the available oxygen, and raise the temperature in the kitchen to unacceptable levels.
"IMHO recirculating range hoods are useless, but they meet code for residential"
I agree. And if they work so well, and save energy, how come all the commercial kitchens at bars/restaurants vent theirs outside? A recirculating one is better than none, but a long way from getting the foul air outside. If I have to use an indoor one, I'd make sure to get the best one I could find, with a charcoal filter.
As for blaming this on food cooking technique, that's just silly. Try making a dish like blackened fish, or pan fried fish, without fouling up the house.
Even just boiling a huge pot of water for spaghetti, it's sometimes a good idea to vent outside. On days when it's warm, but not too hot to turn on the AC, why fill the room with steam?
I don't know about specific code issues but I would never have a range without a good quality (you will feel like you are in an industrial area with the fan noise from a cheepo unit) vented hood. We prepare meals and like food that is cooked so often you will get a little smoke or odor. A non vented hood or no hood at all won't work in that situation. Since burning gas does deplete oxygen the consideration may be to pull in air because of the negative fan pressure.
They work fairly well if the range is on the outside wall. If on an interior wall they don't draw enough to very good clearing, but anything is better than nothing. Of course ducting a hood from an interior wall is not easy either.
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