Extractor Fan - Ducted or Recirculating?

sapper

Hi - we are planning a kitchen renovation in our semi-d involving moving the kitchen to the other side of the room, from being along the external wall to being along the internal wall. We've been surprised by the quote coming from the builder for the cost of creating a duct for the extractor fan across the ceiling to the external wall, so we are thinking about just getting a recirculating extractor fan with charcoal filter etc

Its not even something the builder suggested but to me it seems like the obvious solution cost-wise. We're not big users of the extractor fan anyway - only when something is really smelly , and a recirculating fan can deal with that.

Has anyone else moved to a recirculating fan? Is there a reason not to go with that in our situation?

Calahonda52

re-circs fail the most important role of a extract fan, (the clue is in the word extract):
They don't extract the water vapour inherent in cooking.

The carbon filter may deal with smells but will clog with fat in no time

A long horizontal duct back across the room will be a disaster as the grease will congeal on the walls of the cold duct, as well as the water vapour will condense.
if the slope is wrong it will flow back into the fan or else down the outside wall.
Redesign the kitchen.

Markcheese

If at all possible use an extractor, and one with decent filters... There should be some way to run the ducting... If it costs it costs..

irenastia

we have done exactly what you are planning to do in August last year - moved kitchen from external wall of our semi-d to internal wall, and created an island with the hob and recirculating pendant hood over it. In our case it was not possible to run duct through the floor due to position of the joists, other options were also not viable.

based on personal experience I would not recommend going for recirculating hood, here is why:

- our recirculating hood is the best on the market yet it does almost nothing to extract fumes/smells. and as any recirculating hood it does not extract condensation/moisture at all - we are having to open windows while cooking, even if it is freezing outside! otherwise the whole kitchen steams up.
- it is very very noisy - ours is in the middle of the room and I would not attach one to internal wall - you might have issues with your neighbors due to noise levels during cooking!!!
- if you plan to have ceiling hood like ours, be aware that these have to be attached to a wooden beam/joist of the first floor, it will almost certainly cause some level of vibration due to wood natural flexibility. In our case vibrations are quite strong and I try to only use lowest speed setting because if it, for the fear of damaging the plaster of the ceiling.

if I could go back now, I would redesign kitchen to locate the hob where I could have ducting installed - it was an expensive mistake!mind you, I don't know if you cook on the hob a lot or not - perhaps you rarely use it altogether in which case it shouldn't matter all that much...

MossM

Has anyone experience of recirculating hobs like the Elica or similar to deal with this and avoid extract fans / ducts altogether?

rampantbunny

I'm in the minority on this thread, but we fitted a re-circulation hood to a new build and happy with it to date.
In the house about 8 months. Dinners are cooked in the evenings for 2 adults, and 2 kids. No problems with steam accumulating on windows. Am keeping an eye on the surroundings to see if residue is starting to build up on ceiling/surfaces but nothing yet.

Sure, the unit is noisy but coming from a house with a ducted extractor I don't see any real increase. We don't notice smells permeating throughout the house either. Kitchen is open plan and large 2m + sliding door into hallway is usually open when cooking. This is probably helping vent the excess steam etc. as the hallway is open all the way to the attic roof. But I haven't seen condensation or other residue on the attic velux windows either.

Best litmus test; wife hasn't complained once