Dishwasher? Check. Refrigerator? Check. Microwave? Check. Oven and stovetop? Double-check. You’ve got all your kitchen essentials nailed, but you might be forgetting one critical piece for keeping your space clean and safe. That’s the range hood. A powerful yet often overlooked appliance, the range hood is in charge of sucking away noxious fumes and odors. The result is a better-smelling, better-looking kitchen.
In today’s article, we break down exactly why a range hood is so essential to every kitchen. You’ll learn its purpose, benefits, and variation in types.
Why Not Having a Range Hood Puts You at Risk
What’s the risk of not having a range hood? Cooking is known to produce irritants and even chemicals that produce carcinogens. It can also expose you to gas fumes like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and formaldehyde.
Without a range hood, those harmful fumes will only linger and pose a risk to your health. These fumes will seep throughout your house. Regular exposure to such fumes can lead to irritated skin, coughing, asthmatic symptoms, nausea, headaches, dizziness, and even lung cancer.
Why Every Kitchen Needs a Range Hood
1. Clean Air Leads To Better Health.
Range hoods improve the air quality of your kitchen and home. As the air is extracted, it removes pollutants and freshens the air. By using your range hood on a regular basis, you can purify the air and properly ventilated your kitchen for a healthier home. You’ll find less buildup in your kitchen, which will cut down on the potential of growing bacteria or attracting unwanted pests due to leftover debris, residue, grease, and dirt.
Cooking also creates high levels of smoke and steam. This is particularly true if you cook at high temperatures. Steam and smoke can linger on soft surfaces and affect your breathing. Extracting these fumes is especially important for people with asthma and allergies.
2. It Protects Your Investment In Your Home
There are other benefits of range hoods to be aware of. If you’re interested in maintaining your kitchen, you’ll want a range hood. The appliance will trap grease and other residues produced by cooking. This grease can stick to your cabinets and drip down to your floors. Scrubbing grease off cabinets isn’t most people’s favorite household task. Plus, over scrubbing or using the wrong cleaners can lead to discoloration and ruin your cabinets or newly remodeled kitchen. Range hoods can help cut down on your weekly cleanup time.
You can also make your range hoods to highlight the design of your kitchen. These appliances have come a long way in recent years. Whether you want a large island range hood or a small, simple model, you can find a design that suits your style, space, and budget.
3. It Prevents Annoying False Alarms.
How many times have you been cooking and excessive fumes trigger the smoke alarm? You have to stop what you’re doing, try to shut off the alarm, and quickly fan out any fumes. That’s definitely not a fun way to begin a meal!
With a range hood, you can quickly suck up any fumes and odors, making for a more pleasant cooking and dining experience.
4. No More Lingering Odors.
Who wants to wake up the next morning smelling last night’s hamburger? Without a range hood, you’ll find that you can smell every meal for much longer than you’d like. These odors will linger and settle into your home. A range hood will prevent those odors from staying around.
5. Reduced Levels Of Smoke And Steam
Cooking creates high levels of smoke and steam. Not only do smoke and steam trigger smoke alarms and cause odors, but they also make the kitchen an uncomfortable place to eat. No one wants to eat dinner in a steamy, sweltering kitchen. Range hoods remove steam and heat for a more comfortable dining experience.
6. Cook With Confidence
Whether you like to cook every day or just every now and again, you probably enjoy trying new recipes from time to time. With a range hood, you can enjoy steaming, poaching, stir-frying, and everything in between. No need to worry about lingering smells, smokey fumes, or messy cabinets. Instead, you can cook with confidence! You’ll love experimenting with new cooking styles, ingredients, and flavors. With some range hood models, you can even make use of the delay shut-off function, so you don’t have to remember to dry it off.