Cooker Hood Spares

Hi I'm Matt from eSpares.

In this video I want to talk to you about cooker hoods and what you can do to make sure that the smoke and smells that come from your cooking are extracted properly.

Now, cooker hoods come in all different shapes and sizes, but there are basically just two types. Those that vent externally - the extractor fan draws the air up through some ducting and it is expelled outside the property, and those that re-circulate the air back into the kitchen - and that's the sort that you'll almost certainly have if your cooker is not near an external wall.

Both types will have a grease filter, and that's just to stop the fan and the inside of the cooker hood getting all caked in grease. Two main types, these fabric ones which are designed to be folded or cut to size, they're disposable and these saturation indicators, usually either dots or stripes, they change colour to let you know when it's time to replace them.

Now the other type, like I've got on my cooker hood here, are these wire mesh filters, these are designed to be cleaned. All you need to do is take that out, put it in the sink, give it a good spray with a decent oven spray and then pour over boiling water. If yours are beyond the pale, then they are replaceable as well.

Whichever type you've got, you do need to keep them clean, because the last thing you want is fat dripping down onto your food as it's cooking. 

If yours is a re-circulating cooker hood, you'll also have a carbon filter, that will maybe look like this one, or possibly like this one. Now, what you can hear there are activated charcoal chips. As the air passes through, the smoke and the odours are removed by the charcoal, before the air is circulated back into the room. It's recommended that you replace these every six months. Some of them have these six month indicators on the side that actually change colour, and some of them actually come apart and you can just replace the charcoal chips inside, either way, if you've got a re-circulating cooker hood, and you've got a smoky kitchen, it's almost certainly because you need to replace your carbon filter.

Safety First! Please make sure your cooker hood is switched off before fitting any accessories.

Finally all cooker hoods have a light, they are very often the small screw or SES type, you can see I've actually replaced mine with spiral energy saver bulbs, they not only last a lot longer, but they save you a lot of energy as well. Whatever type of cooker hood you've got, replacement filters and spare parts are available on the eSpares website.

Thanks for watching.