CHIMNEY FOR KITCHEN

Experts from modular kitchen companies in Chennai recommend for Indian cooking it is always best to go for duct chimneys. Chimney and Cooker Hood are terms used interchangeably in India. While you are finalizing on the new kitchen design and kitchen accessories you also need to decide if a chimney is required for your new kitchen.

Indian cooking involves a lot of masalas, oil and deep/shallow frying. This results in a lot of smoke, oily vapor and smell which you would like to get rid of after. The odour often spreads to the rest of your house/apartment. This can be quite embarrassing when guests enter your home. Your whole home/apartment will smell like the food that you have cooked. If these elements remain in the kitchen space, it could get deposited over the surface of your kitchen cabinetries, counter tops and other appliances. And if left unchecked, over a period of time the deposits will become stains which will be difficult to remove. Cleaning becomes a tedious job and the kitchen will never look the way you want it to. To avoid this and to keep the kitchen odour-free, fresh and clean, Hoop Pine would recommend installing a chimney according to your requirements.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHIMNEYS

1. Duct type – Requires piping from the hood to the wall vent
2. Ductless – Uses charcoal filter which absorbs the cooking odours and the purified air is recycled back into the kitchen

Advantages of ductless chimneys:

• Occupies less space
• Easy installation since ducting is not required

Disadvantages of ductless chimneys:

• The charcoal filter needs to be replaced frequently which depends on your cooking style and charcoal filters get choked easily which results in oil dripping from the chimney.
• The extraction of air would be less in ductless chimney due to restricted air flow in the charcoal filter.
• The recirculation hood will reduce odour but will not remove heat and humidity from the kitchen.

For Indian cooking it is recommended to go for Duct type chimneys due to the factors mentioned above.

Duct type Chimneys / Hoods – things to look for:

• Positioning of the hood: Two aspects to keep in mind are the distance between the hood and the wall vent and the number of bends required. The lesser of both the better it is. Place the hood as close to an outside wall as possible because shorter ducting length and fewer bends will extract more air from the kitchen than long running ducts. It would be optimal if the wall vent can be placed just above the chimney for better efficiency and aesthetics.
• Ducting Type: Ducting should be rigid and of a solid type because flexible ducts may reduce extraction and performance.
• Size of hood: Size selection depends on the size of the hob that is being used. Chimney size should be at least the size of the hob, so that the hood entirely covers the hob. For example, you will need a 2 feet (600mm) hood for a 2 feet hob. If you want to use bigger hoods, that can be done.
• Suction capacity: It is measured in m3/hour. Suction capacity should be selected considering your kitchen size and the style of your cooking – it ranges from 400m3/hour to 1200 m3/hour. For regular Indian cooking in a kitchen that is 70-90 Sq. Ft., we would recommend a chimney with a suction capacity of at least 900 m3/hour.
• PDCA Housing: Ensure that the chimney’s motor is enclosed in a Pressure Die Cast Aluminum housing that increases the motor’s life and decreases the noise level of the motor.
• Cleaning and maintenance: Filters need to be cleaned on regular intervals to ensure efficiency of the hood. These intervals vary depending on the type of filter incorporated in the chimney. You can remove the filter easily and soak it in warm detergent water for few minutes and brush up a little for cleaning.

These hoods work on a simple mechanism of sucking the air from near the hob and taking it out through the duct and to the vent wall. To ensure that grease does not get accumulated inside the chimney / on the motor, thereby reducing the life of the equipment, a filtering mechanism is employed. These filters keep the grease / oil vapor and particles from going to the inside of the chimney.

Two types of filter mechanisms are available; Mesh and Baffle.

Below, is a comparison of the two types of filters –

• Effective suction is reduced in the Baffle filter because it deflects smoke due to its design when compared to the Mesh filter which pulls maximum smoke inside.
• Noise level is higher in the Baffle filter because it has to invest extra pressure on motor to extract smoke from its narrow gaps because of which the life of the motor is reduced whereas Mesh filters puts no extra load on the motor.
• Baffle filters does not pull smoke completely as compared to Mesh filters and gets deposited on to the sides of the chimney which makes it sticky in a few months.
• Cleaning and maintenance of Baffle filter is difficult because the inner channels are not easily accessible resulting in unsatisfactory performance over a period of time and also the sharp edges of the filter are likely to bruise the hand while cleaning. On the other hand Mesh filters are extremely easy to quickly clean and wash. Mesh filters need to be cleaned every 10-15 days whereas Baffle filters needs to be cleaned every 3-4 weeks depending on the cooking style.

There are different varieties of chimneys available in the market, so you can choose it as per your need that goes with your kitchen model.

1. Wall Mounted chimney: These types of chimney hoods that are installed against the wall. Following are the different design of hoods with suction 500 m3/h – 1180 m3/h.
2. Island Kitchen chimney: These chimney hoods hang from the ceiling and are best to ventilate the kitchen when you have cooker hob on the island. The price for these cooker hoods varies from Rs.30,000 – Rs. 70,000 and suction capacity ranges from 1000 m3/h – 2000m3/h.

Different designs available in Chimneys;

• T Shaped Hoods: The sleek design would make your kitchen look modern and elegant. Ranges from Rs. 14,990 – Rs. 39,990/-.
• Cylindrical Hoods: This features a stainless cylinder with LED push controls. The price for this ranges around Rs. 28,000/-.
• Inclined Hoods: These are vertical hoods which are trending now days that sits horizontal against the wall inclined outwards from base to the top of the hood. Price varies from Rs. 29,990 – Rs. 41,990/-.
• Pyramid Hoods: These are early days design models which ranges from Rs. 10,000- Rs. 20,000/-
• Glass Hoods: These glass hoods are easy to clean maintain with price range from Rs. 18,990- Rs. 34,990/-