Compare the Best Cooker HoodsSeptember 2018

Types of Cooker Hoods

Cooker hoods come in all shapes and sizes. The 3 main fitting types of are island (free hanging), wall-mounted and built-in. The hood that is best for you will be dictated mostly by the shape of your kitchen, and the position of your cooker within it.

Island

They are regularly used for kitchens where the cooker is situated in a central ‘island’ work surface. They are the most stand-out and visually impacting style of hood, and give a kitchen a modern, open-plan feel.

Wall-mounted

These hoods are attached to the wall of your kitchen directly above the hob, pulling smoke and dirty air away from the cooker. They aren’t as dramatic as island hoods, but aren’t hidden like inbuilt extractors. They can be simple as a ‘visor’ hood over the hob, or as eye-catching as giant ‘chimney hoods’ looming over the whole cooker. Wall-mounted hoods are the most common type of cooker hood, and suit all kitchens, from the very small to the larger ones.

Built-in

These hoods are generally smaller and quieter, but also come with less power. They are meant to be integrated into cupboards and ‘hidden’ away from obvious view. Because of their smaller size, they are ideal for more cramped kitchens, or places where a traditional chimney extractor hood would be too bulky.

Extraction Types

Cooker hoods work by sucking up the air given off from cooking, and either moving it to the outside through a duct or cleaning and recirculation it inside the room. Most cooker hoods can be operated both ducted and in recirculation mode.

The extraction power rating is measured in m³/h - the higher a hood’s extraction rating, the quicker it extracts air from the room.

Ducted

Ducted hoods feature a duct which channels hot air and smoke to the outside. Because they require access to the outside air (normally through a hole drilled through an outside wall), these type of hoods usually require specialist installation, or a hole from a previous installation. Extracting the air is more effective than recirculation the air.

Recirculating

Recirculating hoods take the dirty air and smoke given off from cooking, pass it through a filter to clean it, then blow it back into the kitchen. They do not require outside access, so are easier and less invasive to install, but are not as efficient at removing smoke and cooking odours as ducted hoods.

Filters

Filters serve to trap grease and smoke given off by cooking, leading to a better-smelling and cleaner kitchen. There are 2 different types of filters for cooker hoods - grease filters are important for all different types of hoods, since they help reduce the grease in the air and the smell of cooking. Carbon filters, on the other hand, are only necessary with recirculating air systems, since they strip the smoke from the air before it is recirculated back into your kitchen. These filters last about a year before they need to be replaced.

The hoods in our system are given a grease filtering efficiency grade. The better the grade, they more efficient they are at removing grease and odours from the air.

Cooker Hood Colours

Cooker hoods come in many different colours to best complement your cooker and kitchen. Most hoods can be found in plain silver, white or black but you can also find more adventurous colours - from bright red to fluorescent green - if you really want to make a statement!

Noise Level

A cooked hood is basically a large fan, so they make can make quite a lot of noise when turned on. The noise will depend on the power level of the extractor used - generally speaking the more powerful the fan, the louder it will be. Other factors such as the material used for the hood may also affect the noise level of your cooker hood.

Many hoods feature a low and high speed, with differing noise levels for each.

Extract Hood Prices

Extractor fans range in price from £25 to £6,121 and in total we found prices for 1463 extractor fans. On average, a new cooker hood costs £501 and 80% of extractor fans are priced between £104 and £1,061. The cheapest extractor fan that we found is the Logik L60CHDX13 at only £25, and the most expensive is the Gaggenau AL 400 121 at £6,120.

Extractor Fan Brands - Price Range

The highest average kitchen extractor price out of all brands is Gaggenau kitchen extractors with an average price of £4,526. Gaggenau kitchen extractors range in price from £2,057 to £6,120.

KitchenAid cooker hoods range in price from £650 to £3,000, and the second highest average extractor fan price out of all brands is KitchenAid cooker hoods with an average price of £1,717.

The average price of Nodor kitchen extractors is £1,277 which is the third highest average price of all kitchen extractor brands. Nodor kitchen extractors start at £1,277 and their most expensive kitchen extractor costs £1,277.

Extract Hood Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 1,705 user extractor fan reviews available online and used this data to evaluate the average rating for each brand of extractor fan. The top rated extractor fan brand is Bosch with an average rating of 91%. The second best brand is CDA with 88% and the third best brand is Siemens with 85%.

Biggest Extractor Fan Retailers

The biggest extract hood retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 805 current extract hood offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Amazon UK with 725 offers. That means eBay is slightly bigger than Amazon UK when it comes to cooker hoods. ao is the third biggest retailer with 375 current offers.

When Are Most New Extract Hoods Released?

April to June is the most common period for new extract hoods to be released in. 187 new extractor fans were released in June 2017 making it the biggest month that year for new extractor fan releases. In 2016 most new extractor fans were released in October, with 356 new extractor fans released that month. In April 2015 340 new extractor fans were released making it the biggest month that year for new kitchen extractor releases.

How Fast Do Extract Hood Prices Drop After Release?

New cooker hoods drop in price by an average of 3% in the first 6 months after they wer first released. That means a saving of £16 on a typical £501 new cooker hood if you wait 6 months before buying.

Maximum Extraction Power

'Max Extraction Power' denotes the maximum speed of air extraction for the cooker hood.

Across the range of cooker hoods, the maximum extraction power range from 21m³/h to 2,500m³/h. The maximum extraction power of most cooker hoods range from 650m³/h to 800m³/h. The Elica ANDANTE GME 7, which is on sale for £2,900.00, has the highest maximum extraction power and is a 2,500m³/h max extraction power kitchen extractor. The extractor fan with the lowest maximum extraction power is the Bosch DWI37JM60, which is a 93.6m³/h max extraction power kitchen extractor and can be purchased for £763.79.

Types

The type of the cooker hood denotes it's case design, such as wall mounted or integrated. Different kitchen designs will favour different types of hood.

The most popular type amongst new extractor fans is chimney / wall-mounted. We found 1,607 extractor fans that are chimney / wall-mounted extract hoods. We found 304 cooker hoods that are built-in extract hoods, making this the second most common type amongst new cooker hoods.

Noise Levels

'Noise Level' denotes the noise level of the cooker hood, measured in decibels (dB).

The noise levels of cooker hoods range from 30dB to 90dB. The noise levels of the majority of kitchen extractors range from 64dB to 68dB. The kitchen extractor with the loudest noise level is the Faber EGEA X 90, which is a 90dB noise level cooker hood and is priced at £133.28. The Hotpoint HTS93G, which can be purchased for £699.00, has the quietest noise level and is a 35dB noise level extract hood.

Energy Efficiency of Cooker Hoods

The Energy Efficiency Class of a cooker hood shows how well it uses energy, and how much is unnecessarily wasted. Products are ranked from G to A++ in terms of how little energy they use compared to the norm.

We found 548 extractor fans that have an energy efficiency rating of A, which makes A the most popular energy efficiency rating amongst new extractor fans. We found 381 cooker hoods that have an energy efficiency rating of D, making D the second most frequently found energy efficiency rating amongst new cooker hoods.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Cooker Hoods?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying extractor fans. For each retailer it shows the total number of extractor fans where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying extract hoods. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was eBay. 540 of their cooker hood prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Kitchen Extractors for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for cooker hoods by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of cooker hood prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's cooker hood prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was eBay. 67.1% of their kitchen extractor prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.