How to Tell if Your Oven Hood is Working, and What to Do If It’s Not

It’s well documented and recently well publicized that cooking on a gas stove releases by-products such as nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde into the air in your home. While switching from a gas stovetop to induction may reduce or eliminate some of the scary-sounding things, it turns out that when it comes to cooking, anything is possible any some kind of cooker or grill – still poses a risk if your space is not properly ventilated.

“Your kitchen is the number one source of indoor air pollutants,” says Dennis French, air quality expert and board member of the Indoor Air Quality Association based in Alberta, Canada. “When you smell food cooking, you smell the chemicals that food naturally gives off during the process.”

Regardless of the fuel source (gas, induction, or electric), French says that every time you cook, you release pollutants like smoke and oil mist into the air. And if you don’t have a good kitchen exhaust system, he says those particles will get into the smallest areas of your lungs and cause irritation. Over time, they can cause damage and disease.

This is how you can tell if your extractor hood is actually working

If you have a range hood and are wondering how well it works (or if it works at all), you don’t really need any special tools or equipment. French says you can hold a small source of smoke, like a blown out candle or incense, near the exhaust and then turn on the fan and see how much smoke is trapped. But don’t expect everything being sucked up because, he told me, no exhaust system — not even the kind found in commercial kitchens — can pull all the pollution out of the air.

“What you want is to visually see the air moving toward that hood,” he says.

If you’d rather not light a candle or incense stick in your kitchen, you can purchase an incense stick that French uses in his own tests.

As for testing carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels in your kitchen, French suggests leaving it to the professionals, since most affordable off-the-shelf devices are either prone to false alarms or require constant calibration. However, you should always have a working carbon monoxide detector on every floor (just don’t leave it in the kitchen for false alarms).

To get a more complete picture of what you’re breathing in at home, consider an indoor air quality assessment. You can find a professional assessor on the IAQA’s website, although French (a professional assessor himself) says there’s plenty of data online that can tell you what you’re releasing when cooking if your main concern is air pollution from cooking ensure certain dishes on the stove and in the oven. For example, a 2001 study (PDF) found that grilling fish “produced very high levels of particles in the kitchen and other rooms of the home” and that the self-cleaning feature on any gas or electric range may just open a portal to hell.

What to do if you don’t have a working kitchen extractor?

If it turns out you don’t have a working range hood — or if you don’t have a range hood at all — there’s no need to panic. And no, you don’t have to renovate your kitchen either. There are a few far less expensive steps you can take now to reduce indoor air pollution from cooking.

1. Install a ductless range hood

Although not typically as effective as a range hood that vents to the outside, a ductless range hood can still capture oil fumes and other contaminants through a series of filters before recirculating the clean air back into your kitchen, much like an air purifier. Often these hoods are referred to as convertible, meaning they can be plugged into an existing ducted system in addition to the ductless configuration.

No room for a big hood? You can still install a compact version under overhead cabinets, or swap out your mounted microwave for one with a decent built-in exhaust system.

If you choose a ductless cooker hood, be sure to clean and/or replace the filters regularly. Finishing the French, I immediately inspected my own and was both pleasantly surprised and utterly disgusted at how much dirt it had trapped since I last cleaned it.

2. Get a kitchen air purifier

A simpler solution is to get a kitchen air purifier. As well as making sure the unit you choose is powerful enough to handle the size of your space, look for units with HEPA and VOC (volatile organic compounds) filtration. The HEPA filter captures particulates and oil vapors, while a chemical/VOC filter captures strong odors and hazardous vapors.

However, remember that a dedicated kitchen air purifier needs to capture grease, dirt, and dust in a way that a unit in a living room or bedroom cannot, which is why manufacturers generally advise against placing an air purifier right next to or above one hob. But the closer it is to the source of pollution, the more effective it will be, says French. Of course, to make it work remain To be effective, it’s essential to replace the filters and clean the machine regularly — far more often than the manual or indicator lights suggest, according to French.

Filter replacement costs aside, French says that if you’re using an air purifier as your primary kitchen extractor, you should also set aside some money for the unit. As someone who has recently upgraded my air purifiers, I can report that the difference between cheap and premium models is immediately clear. In the month I’ve switched between the decor-friendly Coway Airmega 240 and the futuristic Dyson Purifier Cool Formaldehyde, my house smells better, I’ve noticed less kitchen mess overall, and I love that both devices automatically kick in at full speed when I start cooking (something my budget units have never done).

3. Try a portable range hood

For a more affordable, low-maintenance option, check out the new AirHood. Marketed as “the world’s first portable range hood,” it exists somewhere between a ductless tabletop extractor system and an air purifier. While it has no true HEPA or VOC specific filters, it does have a stainless steel mesh oil filter and a purifying internal activated carbon filter similar to what you would find in a ductless oven hood.

Wired and rechargeable models are available as long as you check the site when pre-orders are open (the brand regularly turns off the option to keep up with demand). I was able to get my hands on a rechargeable AirHood and was impressed by how powerful it was for a cordless device. Because it’s so easy to move around the kitchen, I also use it when I’m cooking in my countertop oven, and even keep it next to my cutting board when chopping onions (it helps a bit with eye irritation).

While it’s kind of brilliant, the Airhood isn’t perfect. Even with a flame retardant ABS plastic shell, it is not approved for use near an open flame. But if you cook on induction or electric and are short on space or budget, the AirHood is certainly worth considering. Servicing is also relatively affordable, as the (dishwasher-safe!) oil filter can be replaced for $15, and you can get five replacement charcoal filters for the same price.

4. Put a fan in the window

Even the most effective exhaust system is only effective until it gets too dirty. When routinely cleaning a machine and replacing expensive filters feels like too much, French says there’s an easier, yet less expensive solution: Put a fan in the window. Just make sure it’s highlighted or vice versa to push the polluted air out of your kitchen. You also need to open another nearby window to allow fresh, clean air to replace what is being removed.

Unfortunately, no kitchen exhaust system is included complete maintenance free – all that grease and dirt has to go somewhere – so plan to check the blades and motor housing occasionally for debris.