11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all,

we're trying to buy our first house, saw one last weekend, within our budget & meeting our requirements ,(atlast!). But the hob is in the centre of the kitchen, something like an island, but there is no exhaust hood on top. Asked the agent, who asked the vendor, and it seems they never had any problem without the exhaust hood. The kitchen is a new extension part of the house, so there is a skylight on top of the hob, but i don't think u could open/close it easily.

any thoughts ? i'm concerned that since it's open plan living, kitchen, the entire house will start having grease deposits. (since the area on top of the hob in the house we're renting now requires a lot of cleaning regularly)

In years past there were never extraction hoods and we all seemed to manage. Failing that, if it really is your dream house and this is the only thing worrying you, you could always have one installed.

Thanks snowdrops, that's what i'm thinking too.

Our cooker and hob are abandoned on an island in our kitchen, designed by the previous owners, and in 15 years we've never had a problem with not having a hood thingy.

Any steam just gets wafted around the kitchen but a small window, opened a smidgeon, seems to help dissipate any burning smells (that's my cooking! ).

Any fat splats I clean up with Lakeland Limited's 'Oven Mate' cleaner - miracle stuff!

I know you can buy paint that is especially for ********* and bathrooms - maybe you could consider sloshing that on the walls and ceiling if you are concerned about condensation, as the paint can be easily wiped of moisture.

Happy viewing and buying!

We have a cooker hood and it's a devil to clean, especially at the top where no one can reach; it makes a noise like an aircraft taking off and it doesn't get rid of smells as well as an open window. Plus I keep banging my head on the corner of it. If you like the house, this should not be deal breaker and might even be a positive asset.

I think it all depends on what type of cooking takes place.
If one is frying onions all day long for a large family then clothes and bed linen don't half stink with the smell of fried onions if an extractor is not utilised in my experience. Fitting an extractor don't half help then.

I do a lot of cooking and wouldn't like to not have an extractor fan, but that's my preference.

If you are thinking about installing an extractor, check what the distance would be from the rear of the first floor of the house. Building regulations may prevent an extractor chimney being installed, although depending on when the kitchen was installed, it may have breached building regs then by not having an extractor.

We rented a house once with an island and no extractor above, but the hob had a built in extractor at the back. We're not great fryers and it worked well for us.

I'm not sure that many extractors work particularly well anyway - some re circulate air and rely on the filters effectively cleaning the air as it goes through .... how often do you clean / change your filters ? Others have filters and blast the air to the outside... theoretically better.

Thinking about it I don;t switch the extractors on that often as rarely fry and cook almost everything in the over.

if you like the house don't let the lack of hood put you off

If you go back to see the house have a good walk around in the kitchen - our friends don't have a cooker hood and their floor is always slightly sticky! We have one but it is VERY noisy (and why do the DCs always want to talk to me from the other room the second I switch it on?). As others have said, don't let it put you off, and open a window.