Cooker hoods come with a variety of extraction rates, up to and including 1000 cubic metres per hour. This fact alone makes it easy to see why cooker hoods are considered by many to be an essential kitchen appliance. Cooker hoods also come in a wider variety of shapes and styles than most other kitchen appliances.

With many available options such as glass canopies, timers and filter monitoring, cooker hoods become much more attractive to every kitchen. If you have a large cooking surface, you may be interested in the option of installing cooking hoods beside each other. Some manufacturers also offer the option of canopies that can cover dual cooking hoods, giving them the appearance of a single cooking hood. Many of these canopies are also available in a glass composition.

The filter is an essential part of the non-ducted installation, which we will discuss a little more later on. Although not as essential on the ducted installation, many manufacturers still include filters on these models. The most common type of filter for these appliances is a metal filter.

As I alluded to earlier there are two different types of cooker hoods. There are the type that use ducting to expel the extracted air outside. These are pretty much universally called ducted installation types. The other type of cooker hoods are the ones for those who don't want to install ducting, usually found in areas where the kitchen range is on an inside wall and extravagant amounts of ducting would be needed to reach outside. These are called ductless or recirculating cooking hoods.

An additional benefit that is gained by use of most cooker hoods is extra lighting. This is a common feature of many cooking hoods, but it is worth ensuring that your cooking hood comes with lights. Lights in a cooking hood are much closer to your range or other cooking surface than ceiling lights and therefore can make use of a lower wattage. Many cooking hoods also offer an added feature in the use of warming lights.

With the inclusion of automated delayed shut off and the optional timers, it is possible to have your cooker hood shut off up to ten or fifteen minutes after you are done cooking. This increases the efficiency of your cooking hood, and makes cleanup much easier. Any lingering grease or odours will be extracted and therefore will not settle onto your kitchen surfaces as they usually do.

If you have avoided using foods with a strong odour in your cooking to avoid the smell soaking into everything in your house, then you will definitely enjoy the added benefits of a cooker hood. Especially noticeable with the ducted type cooker hoods, is the removal of all cooking odours during cooking, and as mentioned about timers, up to fifteen minutes afterwards. This allows much more flexibility in your cooking.

Cooker hoods while being functional, can also be visually attractive and stylish. One point to remember when choosing your cooker hood is that it needs to be installed. Therefore it may be more efficient to purchase a better cooking hood and only need to pay for installation once.