Extractor Hoods

From the slim horizontal hood to the island canopy:

the flat horizontal hood is the cheapest and the commonest: a shallow steel box fixed under a wall cabinet, with washable aluminium mesh filters and a light. A chimney hood mounts on bare wall with a telescopic cover running up to the ceiling to hide the duct, and moves more air with less noise. Island hoods hang from the ceiling over a cooktop set into a central counter. An over-the-range microwave with a fan and filters underneath does both jobs at once and frees a cabinet in a narrow kitchen. Whirlpool and Drija are the brands most often on the label.

Matching a hood to the stove and to the building:

the hood should be at least as wide as the cooking surface below it, and a size wider over a broad range or a stove that fries every day, so measure the stove or cooktop first. Then the duct. In a house in Chimaltenango or Villa Nueva, running a duct through the wall is a morning’s work for a builder, and a ducted hood carries away smoke, heat and steam. In the apartment towers going up across the capital, the kitchen often has no outside wall and cutting through the facade is rarely an option, so the hood runs on recirculation, pushing the air through the grease mesh and an activated-carbon filter and back into the room. Carbon catches smell, not heat, and needs replacing every few months, and each filter fits particular models, so check that the one for that exact hood can still be found. Home cooking here fries a lot, refried black beans above all, and that grease matters more than the fan’s rating: a strong motor pulls little through clogged mesh, so pick a hood whose filters come out easily and fit in the sink.

Where the money goes between a slim hood and a chimney hood:

a new horizontal hood in the usual 60 or 76 cm widths costs around Q900 to Q1,000 at its ordinary price, while a steel chimney hood starts around Q2,000, with glass, touch controls and a 90 cm width pushing it towards Q2,500. That low entry price is what squeezes a used horizontal hood: a buyer weighs it against a boxed one costing not much more, so only a clean, recent unit finds a taker. A chimney hood holds its value better, because steel and glass do not wear out and the motor is the only part really ageing.

Pulling the filters out of a used hood:

amber, sticky mesh can be degreased, but oil dripping from the fan housing means years without cleaning. Run every speed: a wobble, rattle or grinding on high points to a worn motor bearing or a bent fan. Check the lights, and on touch-panel models press every button, because a dead control board is harder to replace than a bulb. On a ducted hood the small flap at the outlet should swing freely; on a recirculating one, ask whether the carbon filter is fresh. Dents in a chimney cover show from across the room and do not come out.

Taking a hood down to sell it:

photograph it running with the lights on while it is still up, then list the brand, the model from the label behind the filters, the width, whether it ran ducted or on recirculation, and whether a carbon filter goes with it. Buyers of chimney hoods will ask the height range, because a cover that stops short of the ceiling looks unfinished, so measure it fully collapsed and fully extended. Tape the wall brackets, screws and duct collar in a bag inside the canopy. Wash the mesh filters and refit them before anyone comes to see it: a clean filter says more about how a hood was looked after than any photo.