Range Hoods and Induction Cooking: What You Need to Know

If you have, or want, an induction range, this article will help you figure out what you need to know to get the right hood. Beginners start here!

A range hood is basically an exhaust fan you install over your range or cooktop that pulls air through it when running. This accomplishes several things:

• It removes cooking grease to keep your kitchen cleaner.
• It removes cooking odors so your kitchen smells fresher.
• It removes hot air from the stove top and oven, keeping your kitchen cooler.
• A ducted one (one with a vent that pulls air outdoors) will also help reduce condensation and moisture that collects on the cooktop.

Finally, in doing all of this, range/cooktop hoods perform another very important function: a good hood greatly improves indoor air quality. And this is true regardless of what type of cooktop you own.

Range and cooktop hoods are interchangeable terms, as you use the same venting technology for both ranges and cooktops. These hoods come in a huge variety of styles, prices, and power levels. We discuss options here.

Shop best prices on range hoods on Amazon now

Another way to buy a range hood is when you buy your range or cooktop. By buying together, you may get the cooktop hood at a discount. Also, if the cooktop or range has Internet connectivity, buying the range hood that goes with it ensures they will work together.

Our full-sized induction cooktop and range reviews tell you where to get the best package deals online:

Read our Full-Sized Induction Cooktop Reviews

Read our Induction Range Reviews

back to top

Do You Need a Range Hood/Cooktop Hood with Induction Cooking?

Some induction range and cooktop retailers will tell you that you don't need a hood with an induction cooktop. Induction cooking creates less ambient heat than either gas or electric, so it's true that your kitchen will stay cooler with an induction range or cooktop, so a hood is less important for purposes of removing cooking heat.

However, removing heat is only one reason to use a range hood. While you can get by without a hood with any cooking technology, you should look at both sides of the argument before you decide. 

Reasons Not to Have a Range Hood with an Induction Cooktop

They Produce Less Heat: One of the great advantages of cooking with induction cooktops and induction ranges is that they produce less ambient heat than gas and conventional electric ranges. So for purposes of keeping the kitchen cool and comfortable, the hood is not as necessary with induction.

They Don't Produce Toxic Fumes: And unlike gas cooktops, induction tops don't produce any toxic fumes like carbon monoxide. Therefore, you could argue that ventilation isn't as necessary for induction cooking as it is for gas cooking. 

Habit: Maybe you're just accustomed to not having a range hood. I grew up in a house without one, and my mother was an avid cook. She pan-fried food almost daily, and never once asked my father to install an exhaust system for her electric stove. If you've lived without one, you may have adjusted to not having one and won't miss it.

If this is the case, put another check in the Advantages of Induction Cooking box.

Noise: Some people hate how loud exhaust fans can be, so much so that even if they have one, they rarely use it. And it's true: adequate ventilation can produce a lot of noise, making it hard to hear anything going on beyond your kitchen. If you're one of those people who's bothered by ambient noise, or if you have other reasons for needing to be able to hear what's going on in your house, you may choose not to use a ventilation hood (even if you have one). 

Reasons TO Have a Range Hood/Cooktop Hood with an Induction Cooktop

Your Cooking Style: Whether or not you need a hood can really depend on your cooking style. Frying and searing produces a lot of grease and cooking odors, and if you don't have a hood to suck up all those stray, sticky particles and their residual smells, they'll linger in your kitchen. So if you do a lot of stovetop searing and frying, a hood is a useful thing to have. It will help keep your kitchen cleaner, and it will greatly reduce cooking smells. 

Even if you don't do much frying, you'll still be happy to have a hood on those occasions that you do. Without one, you'll have messier cleanup and smells that can linger in your home for days. (And as one commenter said on a thread about this topic, you will always do more frying than you think you will.)

Safety: An exhaust hood makes cooking safer, there's no doubt about it. It keeps cooking grease concentrated over the stove top and pulls it out of the kitchen. Less splattered grease means a safer working environment--less chance of fires, less chance of falls and spills, and fewer germs spread around the kitchen.

Indoor Air Quality: As stated above, a good range hood or cooktop hood--one that exhausts air outdoors--plays an important role in indoor air quality. Hoods remove not only cooking odors and grease, but also toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxide. Granted, this is more significant with gas cooking, but it does apply to a lesser degree to all cooktop types, because all cooking produces some measure of unhealthy fumes.

Building Codes: Check the building codes in your area. Some residential zones require ventilation for cooking. This may be as simple as an open window, or it may mean a fully ducted range hood. Be sure to find out what your local laws are before making a final decision.

Aesthetics: Maybe one of the most compelling reasons to have a hood with your induction cooktop is aesthetics. A stylish hood is a great-looking addition to a kitchen.

If you've watched any house makeover shows on HGTV, you understand what we're talking about.

The advantages of ductless hoods are that they are inexpensive, easy to install, and take up a minimal amount of space. The primary disadvantage is that they simply don't work very well. Some people are skeptical enough to say that they don't work at all. However, if you look at the filter in a ductless hood that hasn't been changed in awhile, you can see that they actually do trap quite a bit of cooking grease. Yet that's pretty much all they do--moisture and heat do get recycled back into the kitchen.

Check out best prices on under-cabinet mounted range hoods on amazon

Wall Mount

A wall-mounted range hood is one of the most common types of ducted hoods. Most look something like this: 

Downdraft hoods are most often used in island or peninsula setups where it is not possible (or cost prohibitive) to vent upwards. The fan itself usually sits inside the island, or can be installed beneath the floor in the basement, where the vent is exhausted to the outside. Downdraft hoods can also be ductless (i.e., no venting to the outdoors). 

Basement-installed fans tend to both quieter (because they're further away) and more powerful (because there's more room for a bigger fan) than those installed in the cupboard below the range. However, they're usually more expensive, too.

Downdraft hoods are notoriously poor at venting cooking fumes and grease because they're fighting against the natural rising currents of hot air. They often don't have enough power to properly pull grease particles and cooking odors downward and out the vent. However, some models have greatly improved in recent years, and they could work well with the lower demands of induction cooking.

Advantages:

• Easier, less expensive solution for island and peninsula cooktops.
• Cool aesthetics.
• May work well with induction, which has lower demands than gas cooktops.

Disadvantages:

• Pulling air down usually isn't as effective as pulling air up, and downdrafts fans have a bad reputation for not working very well.

check out best prices on downdraft range hoods on amazon

Check out our Full-Sized Induction Cooktop Reviews (with range hood options)

Check out our Induction Range Reviews (with range hood options)

back to top

How Do You Know Which Type of Range Hood or Cooktop Hood You Need?

If you're putting in a new hood, you can install pretty much any type you want. Contractors can make just about any-shaped ducting work--you just have to be willing to pay for it.

(This even goes for ceiling mounts in a 2-story house--ducting can pass between the floors if that's the look you're after.)

However, if money is an object for you, then you're limited by your existing kitchen layout and/or the budget you've designated for a hood. If you have cupboards over your range or cooktop, an under-cabinet mount is probably the cheapest solution. If your range/cooktop is on an outside wall, then you can install an under-cabinet or wall-mount with outdoor venting pretty easily.

If your cooktop is on an island, then you'll have to go with a ceiling-mount or, less ideally, a downdraft.

You also want to think about usability, durability, and longevity. Ceiling mounts are very popular range hoods right now, and they look great. But many of them aren't as powerful as wall-mounted hoods. Many of the currently stylish ones don't offer a lot of exhaust power, largely because the farther distance up through the ceiling creates the need for more powerful motors, which are more costly.

Wall-mounted hoods offer the most options in terms of power and durability. If you want a robust exhaust at a compelling price, a wall-mounted range hood is your best bet.

back to top

What Size Range Hood Do You Need?

Ideally, the hood should extend a few inches around each side of the cooktop. For example, if you have a 30-inch cooktop, your should have a 36-inch hood, which provides 3 inches on either side of the cooktop. This configuration ensures the best possible coverage and most efficient exhaust.

However, the vast majority of kitchens are designed for the hood to be the same size as the cooktop; if you have a 30-inch cooktop, you may only have room for a 30-inch range hood (at least without some expensive remodeling).

It's not the end of the world. The hood will still work. However, if you're in this situation, you want to get a more powerful hood to ensure adequate ventilation (that is, a higher CFM rating--see below for more on this).

Of course, island cooktops avoid this problem entirely because they're not encumbered by cupboards. If your range or cooktop is not encumbered by upper cupboards, then you're free to install whatever size hood you want. 

back to top

CFMs: How Much Power Should an Induction Range Hood/Cooktop Hood Have?

Because induction cooking is inherently cooler than other types of cooking, you may be able to get away with a less powerful hood than you would need for a gas or electric stove. However, before making this decision, you should know a bit about how power is measured in range hoods and what those measurements mean.

Power in range hoods is measured in cubic feet per minute (CFMs), and it is a complicated issue. You need to take a lot of factors into account when deciding how powerful your range or cooktop hood should be.

Here are some important considerations:

Ducting: The more ducting to the outside, the less the CFM rating means. So if you have a lot of ducting, and if it has a lot of twists and turns, you need a more powerful exhaust to compensate for that. The Home Ventilating Institute recommends at least 100 CFM per linear foot of range for range hoods installed against a wall, and 150 CFM for island hoods. So if you have 6 feet of ducting, you need a hood motor rated for at least 600 CFM.

Duct diameter: Be sure to use ducting of the diameter recommenced by the hood's manufacturer. If your ducting is too small, this will negatively affect the hood's ability to ventilate your kitchen properly.

Room size: A smaller kitchen will need less ventilation than a larger one.

Insulation in your home: If you have a tightly insulated house, you must be sure to have a proper system of make-up air (MUA). If you don't, the hood will create a negative air flow (a vacuum), which will cause it to not function properly.

This caution may also apply to any house in the case of a very powerful range hood (typically, 600 CFM or more). You may have to create a source of MUA in order for the exhaust fan to do its job (for example, opening a window).

In some areas, MUA requirements are regulated by law. Make sure you know the building codes in your area.

Fan Type: Centrifugal fans tend to do a better job suctioning and exhausting air than flat fans even if they (the flat fans) have the same rating. Flat fans are very stylish right now, and they also tend to be cheaper. Thus, if you go with a flat fan hood style, you may want to choose one with a higher CFM rating.

Having said all that, most residential cooktops do well with a 300-600 CFM range hood. Go below 300CFM, and you risk having a noisy appliance that doesn't do much. Go above 600CFM, and you may be spending more than you need to.  

Here's an excerpt from the Lowe's website about how much power a range hood should have:

back to top

How to Select the Right Range/Cooktop Hood

Selecting the right range hood or cooktop hood can be a difficult process because:

1. It has to be, above all, functional--yet ideally without being too noisy or hard to operate.
2. It has to fit with your kitchen design and the aesthetic you're looking for. If your hood isn't "pretty," it will detract from your daily kitchen experience.

You can't make the mistake of buying only for design, because the hood may be worthless, and thus a complete waste of money. Conversely, you can't just pick the one with the most powerful fan because you may not need it and it's expensive (and noisy).

Once you've decided on the type of hood (e.g., under-cabinet, wall-mount, ceiling-mount, or downdraft) you want and figured out how powerful it needs to be, you've gone a long way toward making a decision.

HINT: You may want to consult a professional for help in selecting the most efficient hood for your kitchen.

Here are some other considerations when shopping for a range hood:

Noise: A sone is a unit of loudness used to measure range hoods. One sone is about equal to the sound of a refrigerator running. Normal conversation takes place at about 4 sones, and light traffic is around 8 sones. The higher the CFM of the range hood, the higher its sone rating will probably be.

The sone rating is usually measured at a range or cooktop hood's highest fan output. This means that at lower speeds, it will be quieter. In general, a 300 CFM fan will have a sone rating around 4 (a conversation). At lower speeds, the sone rating can go down as low as 1 (a running refrigerator).

In general, more powerful fans are going to be noisier. Before you decide to buy a super powerful hood, make sure you can live with the amount of noise it produces.

Lighting: One great advantage to hoods is that they can provide direct overhead work lighting--and lighting is an extremely important thing for optimal kitchen working conditions.

Most cooktop hoods and range hoods have lighting, but make sure before you buy--unless you have another source of good lighting over your cooktop, you want a hood that offers it. 

A range hood should ideally use LED lighting, which is cooler and more energy efficient.

Adjustable lighting--a dimmer switch--is also a nice feature if you want ambient lighting when not working in the kitchen.

Fan Speed: You want to have at least two fan speeds. Hoods running at full speed are loud, so you'll be happy to have a slower fan speed for light duty jobs.

Ease of Installation: Unless you're experienced at duct work, you should have a ducted range hood or cooktop hood installed by a professional. If you want to do it yourself, try to select a hood with a fairly straightforward installation procedure. (You can thank us for this advice later.)

How do you determine the complexity of the installation procedure? Look at the manufacturer's website, which usually has PDF downloads for the manuals that come with their products. Download the Installation Manual PDF. 

This advice doesn't apply to ductless hoods, which are easy to install.

How Much Do Range and Cooktop Hoods Cost?

Hoods come in a huge price range. They start around $100, and you can spend thousands on a high-powered, state-of-the-art model. As with most purchases, your sweet spot will probably be somewhere in the middle.

shop best prices on range hoods on amazoN now

Check out our Full-Sized Induction Cooktop Reviews (with range hood options)

Check out our Induction Range Reviews (with range hood options)

Also see our Induction Topic Archives (including several brand reviews)

back to top

Final Thoughts

Even with an induction cooktop or range, a ventilation hood is a necessary investment for most people. You have many styles to choose from in a wide range of prices. Under-cabinet, ductless hoods are the least expensive and easiest to install. Ducted hoods of any type are harder and more expensive, and their specifications are going to be unique to every kitchen. Unless you are a seasoned DIYer, we recommend consulting with a professional installer to be sure you get the right configuration for your kitchen. 

Downdraft hoods aren't as powerful as other types of hoods, but may work with induction ranges and cooktops, which produce less heat than gas or conventional electric.

Armed with good information, you can make a smart choice about which one to buy.

Thanks for reading!

back to top

Help other people buy wisely, too! Please share this article: