We recently completed a cooker hood installation for a customer in Birkenshaw, Bradford, and this has to be one of the smartest kitchen extractors I've installed.
The customer had chosen a high-spec Elica cooker hood, and it's a good example of just how far kitchen ventilation has come. At the basic end of the market, a cooker hood can simply be a fan, a light and a couple of speed settings.
This one was a different animal altogether.
Back to top1) A seriously smart kitchen extractor
The Elica cooker hood comes packed with technology designed to make controlling the kitchen ventilation easier.
It has humidity control, multiple fan speeds, a boost setting for when you need extra extraction, Wi-Fi connectivity and app controls. Even the built-in lighting is dimmable.
What impressed me most, though, was how quiet it was.
Powerful cooker hoods can sometimes sound like you're preparing for take-off when they're running at full speed. This was genuinely one of the quietest cooker hoods I've installed, especially considering the amount of air it can move.
That's important because a noisy extractor often ends up being switched off. A good kitchen extractor needs to be powerful enough to remove moisture, cooking smells and airborne grease without making so much noise that you don't want to use it.
Back to top2) Getting the ducting right matters
Installing a good cooker hood isn't only about mounting an expensive appliance on the wall.
The ventilation system attached to it is just as important.
For this installation, we fitted the ducting to the top of the cooker hood and made sure everything was installed neatly. Good ducting helps the extractor move air efficiently out of the property rather than unnecessarily restricting the airflow.
You can buy one of the best cooker hoods available, but poor ducting can seriously affect how well it performs.
Once everything was installed, we carried out the relevant electrical testing along with checks on the ventilation and operation of the cooker hood.
The finished installation looked really smart, performed extremely well and, most importantly, the customer was delighted with it.
Back to top3) Don't forget about cooker hood maintenance
One advantage of this particular Elica cooker hood is that it can actually tell the homeowner when maintenance and cleaning are required.
That's useful because cooker hood maintenance is something that's very easy to forget.
Filters gradually collect grease and dirt during normal cooking. If they're left for too long, that build-up can affect the performance of the extractor.
How frequently filters need cleaning will depend on the cooker hood, the type of filter fitted and how much cooking you do, so it's worth following the manufacturer's recommendations rather than relying on one fixed cleaning schedule.
With a high-spec model like this, the built-in maintenance reminders make that job considerably easier.
Back to top4) Cooker hood installation in Birkenshaw
I really enjoyed this installation.
It also shows the difference between a basic kitchen extractor and some of the high-spec cooker hoods now available. Modern models can combine powerful ventilation with quieter motors, automatic controls and smart technology that makes them much easier to live with.
Of course, even the smartest cooker hood still needs to be installed correctly.
If you're considering a new cooker hood or kitchen extractor fan in Birkenshaw, Bradford or the surrounding areas, we can help with the electrical installation, ducting and ventilation to make sure the finished system works as it should - get in touch today!
Quality Electrician provides domestic electrical and ventilation work throughout Bradford and the surrounding areas, with a lifetime guarantee on our workmanship.
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