Kitchen

Reply to: Whenever you're picking an island hood fan you want to make sure the fan you are picking is one size bigger than your stove as island hoods need to be able to capture any smoke and steam that would otherwise escape from the sides of the hood. As for how strong you should go, the way we like to determine what you need is what the maximum BTU's of all your burners is. Every 10,000 BTU's you want to have 100CFM, for example if your stove produces 50,000 BTU's you'd want 500CFM or more. If you require more than 600CFM then I would highly recommend using an 8" duct in your home and on your hood, as a 6" duct can typically only produce a maximum of 600CFM without creating unnecessary noise. You mentioned that you only cook about a dozen time a year so it does not sound like you need anything fancy or overly powerful, but when buying cheaper units you need to be careful as in most cases it is cheaper because the parts on the inside are cheaper. A unit that's $200 may produce the same CFM as let's say a $1000 unit but the $200 unit more than likely will be much louder, less efficient and have more plastic parts in it and if you have a gas stove you should be very weary about the amount of plastic in your hood as it may break down on you in the future because gas stoves tend to be hotter. Also, what people are saying about glass hoods is true, they do get dirtier faster and require more cleaning. They also have a much smaller surface area where the steam/smoke can enter compared to a pyramid still range hood so that is also another thing to consider.

Q