Installing a hood in the kitchen

It is extremely important in modern kitchens to have hoods, because during cooking, the evaporation of a variety of odors occurs, which may not always be pleasant. Even if you have already purchased a hood, you should know how to install a hood in the kitchen. In this article, we will tell you about what hoods exist, as well as how to install them.

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Types of cooker hoods

You can’t just go to the store and take the first device you like in appearance. You need to understand how they differ. And the first criterion will be the principle of installation, by which they distinguish:

• Suspended, they are also called flat and standard - they are mounted under the cabinet directly above the stove.
• Built-in - they are installed inside the wall cabinet or on the table, which is why they fit perfectly into absolutely any design.
• Wall-mounted - they are mounted on a wall above the stove itself; they can have a diverse design of the case.
• Corner - mounted in the corner.
• Island hoods - specially designed for the kitchen, which has an "island". You can fix it anywhere in the kitchen by attaching it to the ceiling.

Important! Regardless of the appearance, the installation of a kitchen hood above the stove is possible only at a distance of 70 cm, and above the gas stove, you must retreat 80 cm.

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Hood operation modes

In addition to the type of fastening, kitchen hoods differ in ventilation mode, and this also needs to be paid attention to. Otherwise, the expected equipment efficiency cannot be achieved.

Here we have the following options:

• Flowing - draw polluted air into the ventilation shaft. This method of ventilation is called “air exhaust”, that is, the exhaust mode. This method is the most productive and efficient.
• Circulation hoods - air is passed through carbon filters that are built into the housing. After the cleaning process, we get fresh air at the outlet. Such a hood does not require the presence of ventilation in the kitchen, which is why its installation can be called the most simple, and at the same time less effective, if we talk about cleaning.

Important! Any hood has a grease filter in its design, which prevents fat particles from settling on the inner surface of the pipe. Find out more about him in our post. "Fat filter for hoods".

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Grounding and Grounding

Before we talk about how the hood is installed in the kitchen, we must mention the electrical safety. Due to the fact that a huge amount of splashes of fat gets inside the body, the kitchen constantly has a high level of humidity, this all increases the chance of electric shock during improper connection of the hood to the mains.

Therefore, the cooker hood must be connected to the mains with three wires: zero, phase and ground.

Important! As a rule, the ground wire is marked in yellow with a thin green stripe. Before installing the hood, it is necessary to provide grounding for the safe use of electrical appliances.

How to proceed:

• In the event that a ground loop was provided in the house and eurotype sockets were installed, you will not have problems: during the connection, simply connect the wire to the ground terminal. It is indicated by stripes of various lengths or by the word Ground (GND).
• If your equipment does not have a grounding connector, then you can do it yourself by screwing a wire to the metal case.

Euro socket with grounding

Euro sockets with a connected ground can be found exclusively in new apartments.

But most may not find euro outlets in their apartment, and they wonder how the hood is installed in the kitchen if there is no grounding? In this case, you can do the neutralization yourself, but under no circumstances connect the neutral wire to the pipes and batteries. It must be connected to dead neutral.

To do this:

1. Open the electrical panel with the counters, find the pipe walled in the wall, where the wires come from.

Important! Be very careful, because the wires are constantly under voltage 220V.

2. Most likely, you will find on it a ready-made pin and already abandoned neutral wires. This is that dead neutral, the pipe is perfectly grounded.
3. You must lead a stranded wire from the kitchen into it with a cross-section of at least 2.5 mm2, and connect the hood using a 6.3 A automatic isolator

Important! We have prepared separate reviews with useful tips for installing other household appliances in the kitchen:

• Refrigerator installation;
• Installing a washing machine in the kitchen under the countertop. 

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Duct selection

There are several types of ducts for kitchen ventilation:

• Plastic ducts are made of PVC - durable, lightweight, and also silent, because they practically do not create resistance to air because of their very smooth surface.
• Corrugated aluminum pipe is a fairly lightweight material in terms of self-assembly, it can be bent to the required size without any problems. Another excellent quality of the corrugation is the almost complete absence of hum and vibration, which differs from hard boxes.

Important! The drawback of such an air duct is its ugly appearance, so you can figure out where to hide the ventilation, for example, under a ceiling made of drywall.

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How to calculate the required power?

A very important parameter during the acquisition of the hood is its maximum cleaning performance, which is calculated in cubic meters per hour. As you might have guessed, this value shows how many cubic meters of air the hood cleans in 1 hour of operation.

Important! You can easily calculate the required power by this incredibly simple formula: Ceiling height * Kitchen area * 12 times.

Also, you should take into account the margin for loss of power due to bending of the duct, the length of the entire ventilation shaft and other parameters, for this, add about 30% to the calculated result.

For example, if your kitchen has an area of ​​6 square meters. m. and a height of 2.5 m, then the calculation will be approximately like this: 6 * 2.5 * 12 * 1.3 = 234 m3.

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Hood Installation Procedure

Self-installation of a kitchen hood depends on its type, as well as the location of the ventilation shaft. To begin with, we will consider installation using the example of a built-in hood in a cabinet.

Anti-return mechanism

This mechanism prevents air from returning to the kitchen.

If you want to do everything properly, then:

1. Start with the process of making a cracker box. You can make the case of aluminum, galvanized sheet or tin.
2. You can also not suffer, but simply purchase an anti-return valve that opens like a butterfly. It is placed in front of the ventilation shaft.
3. To make it more convenient for you, mount the case on the wall cabinet itself above the stove.
4. Then fix it more tightly, closing all the slots with mounting foam and gluing it to the cabinet in order to prevent resonance.
5. First try on the housing of the cracker, and make markings for the holes on the cabinet.
6. After that, you can remove the cabinet from the wall and cut a hole in the lower frame using a jigsaw in the lower wall.
7. To do this, drill a hole in the center of the marking area with a large drill, then insert a jigsaw file and cut out the shape you need in the cabinet.
8. Then, in exactly the same way, cut a hole in the inner shelves, if present, under the duct.

Duct connection:

1. Slide the corrugation into the previously made holes, and on top of the cabinet give the desired shape of a square.
2. Cut the corrugation with a certain margin, cut the corners, and then bend them out.
3. Now you can hang a cabinet with corrugation on the wall.

Important! Do not forget to process all joints of the duct with silicone sealant so that power is not lost.

4. Now fix the homemade box on the cabinet so that it can help you connect the corrugation together with the ventilation shaft.
5. After that, you can fix the hood inside the cabinet. Screw it with screws, dowels, if the mount is designed specifically for walls.
6. Thoroughly fasten the corrugation to the hood and secure it with a clamp.
7. In the place of attachment of the clamp, coat with sealant.

Important! Owners of apartments with small kitchens very often carry out redevelopment of housing. We have prepared a separate review that will help you organize your space, arrange furniture, and emphasize. Find out more in the article. "Design of the dining room kitchen".

Fixing the corrugation to the ventilation itself

If you use PVC air ducts, the installation process is similar: just connect the pipes together with the components and carry it out before ventilation.

Important! During the installation of ventilation, try to minimize the number of bends in the pipe so that the air draft remains good enough. Remember that with each bend, power is lost by about 9-10%.

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Stock footage

Now you know what kitchen hoods are and have a step-by-step guide on how to install a suitable model with your own hands. So - from now on, your kitchen will always have exclusively pleasant aromas of freshly prepared dishes.