Cleaning Kitchen Air

December 13, 2004 12:45 PM

Well, our new old apt (it's new to us, but it's old) has no range hood. Looks like the previous owner decided to make a HUGE pass through. What solutions/options do I have (besides some sort of bizaare way to hookup an ordinary rangehood). Do the somewhat reviled ionic breeze / ionic cleaners work well enough to clean the air? It's a 600 sq ft apt.
posted by eurasian to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

The place we just moved into also has no range hood. (It used to have an over-the-range oven, but we have new appliances, and they didn't bother putting in a range hood.) We haven't found it to be a problem yet. Are you experiencing a problem with odours/particulate, or are you just anticipating one?
posted by mendel at 1:03 PM on December 13, 2004

what's a pass through? we don't have a range hood and it's not a problem, but our appartment is bigger (i think, 140m^2?) and we can have windows open all year round (to be honest, even in places where we have had these things, i don't think we've ever used them). we don't have an ionic anything, either.
posted by andrew cooke at 1:13 PM on December 13, 2004

Range hoods are common now for situations where a vent to outside isn't possible. They just suck in the air, push it through a filter, and blow it out into the room again. We have these and they work fine. You have to replace the filter every 6 months or so.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:23 PM on December 13, 2004

Response by poster: mendel : No, not having them, just anticipating them. There are no windows from the kitchen area to the outside. Caution: crappy ASCII art coming:

_________________________
doorway | Kitchen |
| |
| |
------pass through--
|Living/Dining Room |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|window |
-------------------------------------

AC: a pass through is just a fancy term for a huge hole in the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Keeping windows open all year round is not really an option.
posted by eurasian at 1:38 PM on December 13, 2004

Response by poster: Augh, sorry about that, I previewed that ASCII diagram a few times, looks like preview and post don't display the same.
posted by eurasian at 1:39 PM on December 13, 2004

I live in an old 600 sq. foot house with the kitchen in a hall. The range has no hood. This hasn't bothered me. I roast coffee inside, so it can get fairly smoky in the winter.

When I do need ventilation (I made charcoal in the coffee roaster, decided that Sculpey smells bad when baking or wasn't watching dinner), I use a big fan on a stand to blow smoke down the hall to the back door (which I open). This happens once or twice a winter.

It never occured to me a range hood is something I should have. Maybe because I tend to live in old housing with lots of natural ventilation (like lack of insulation).
posted by QIbHom at 2:01 PM on December 13, 2004

I have no direct experience with this, but my aunt's kitchen has no ventilation, and she uses one of those ionic breeze machines to get rid of cooking fumes. She also has one of those oreck air cleaners, although those are much more expensive.
posted by TheIrreverend at 2:51 PM on December 13, 2004

Range hood?
Pass through?
Ionic breeze?

I don't know what any of these are! Is this post from the future?
posted by painquale at 3:34 PM on December 13, 2004

Are you serious painquale? You need to get out more.
posted by Doohickie at 6:24 PM on December 13, 2004

I have never, in thirty-{mumble} years lived in a house with a range hood, and I can't imagine what problems could be caused by not having one, except that sometimes the house smells like bacon for hours.

And that's not a bad thing.

Live without one for six months, then see if you need some other solution. I think you'll find that you get along just fine.
posted by anastasiav at 10:03 PM on December 13, 2004

You can get hoods that hang from the ceiling instead of mounting to the wall. They'll start around C$200 but any decent hood fan will set you back that much anyway.

Things to look for when shopping is the quietness measured in sones (smaller is better) and cfms (bigger is better)moved.

The big problem with no hood in a heating climate is the humidity regular serious cooking will dump into the house. If your relative humidity gets to high it contributes to mould growth. Also wooden objects like doors and furniture can excessively change shape causing doors and drawers to bind.
posted by Mitheral at 8:58 AM on December 14, 2004