Do You Need an Extractor Hood With a Range Cooker?

Every range cooker needs extraction. The question is what form it takes, and it's worth resolving before your kitchen is designed rather than after it's fitted.

Why it matters more with a range cooker

A 90cm to 120cm cooker produces far more steam, grease and heat than a 60cm one, simply because you can run more pans at once. Without adequate extraction you get condensation on windows, grease film on nearby cabinetry, lingering cooking smells through an open-plan space, and — in poorly ventilated kitchens — genuine moisture problems.

Gas hobs add combustion by-products to that list, which is why extraction over a dual fuel cooker is not optional.

Sizing the hood

The working rule is that the hood should be at least as wide as the cooker, and ideally wider. A 100cm hood over a 100cm cooker will work; a 110cm or 120cm hood over the same cooker will work noticeably better, because steam plumes spread as they rise.

Undersizing is the most common mistake. A 90cm hood over a 110cm cooker leaves the outer burners effectively unextracted, and those are usually the ones carrying the large pans.

Mounting height

Follow the manufacturer's stated clearance for your specific hood and cooker — it varies, and for gas models it is a safety requirement rather than a preference. As a general planning figure, hoods typically sit somewhere between 65cm and 75cm above the hob surface, but confirm the exact figure for your combination before the kitchen is built. Too high and capture drops sharply; too low and you're bumping your head into it over the back burners.

Extraction rate

Hood performance is quoted in cubic metres per hour. The calculation most fitters use is room volume multiplied by ten air changes per hour. So a kitchen measuring 5m × 4m × 2.4m is 48m³, which suggests around 480m³/h as a minimum.

For an open-plan kitchen-diner, calculate on the whole connected volume rather than the kitchen alone, and add headroom. Quoted maximum figures are usually measured without ducting attached, so real-world performance is lower — buy above your calculated number, not at it.

Ducted or recirculating

Ducted vents outside and is significantly more effective. It removes heat and humidity as well as odour. Use the shortest, straightest duct run you can, in rigid ducting of the correct diameter — every bend and every metre of flexible hose costs you performance.

Recirculating filters air through charcoal and returns it to the room. Simpler to install where external venting isn't possible, but it doesn't remove heat or moisture, and filters need replacing. Treat it as the fallback, not the default.

When you don't need a hood at all

If the cooker has extraction built in. Bertazzoni's Air-Tec models pull steam down through the hob surface rather than up into a canopy, which removes the need for anything overhead.

That is the right answer for islands, open-plan rooms with sightlines you don't want to break, low or sloping ceilings, and renovations where running ducting through a ceiling would be the most disruptive part of the job.

The design conversation to have early

Extraction placement affects where the cooker can go, which affects the entire kitchen layout. If you want the cooker on an island, decide on downdraft versus canopy before the units are ordered. If you want a canopy, confirm there's a viable duct route to an external wall.

This is the single most common thing we see people resolve too late. Bring it up with your kitchen designer at drawing stage.

Talk it through with us on 0330 133 6617, or browse range cookers.