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How often should you clean or replace your range hood filter?
Clean / replace range hood filter every 3 months. The commonly recommended range is every 1-3 months. Grease-soaked filters cut extraction and are a fire risk.
The metal mesh or baffle filters above a hob capture airborne grease before it reaches the fan and the ducting. They saturate steadily, and once saturated the grease simply passes through and coats everything downstream instead.
Why does cleaning your range hood filter matter?
Grease-soaked filters cut extraction and are a fire risk.
What happens if you skip cleaning your range hood filter?
Grease-soaked filters cut extraction sharply, so steam and cooking odours stay in the kitchen and condense on cabinets and ceilings. More seriously, accumulated grease in a filter directly above a hob is a fire risk, and a pan fire that reaches a greasy filter has a ready fuel path into the ducting.
How do you do it?
- Let everything cool first. Do not do this straight after cooking.
- Release and remove the filters. Usually a spring catch or a small tab. Note the orientation before removing.
- Soak in very hot water with degreaser. Hot water, a good squirt of dish detergent, and a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda. Fifteen to twenty minutes of soaking does most of the work.
- Scrub with a soft brush. Work along the mesh rather than across it. A stiff brush deforms aluminium mesh.
- Rinse and dry completely. Refitting a damp filter traps moisture against the fan housing.
- Wipe the hood interior and the fan housing. Grease that has already passed through sits here, and it is rarely cleaned.
- Replace carbon filters rather than washing them. Recirculating hoods have a separate carbon filter that cannot be cleaned and must be replaced, typically every three to six months.
What does it take?
How do you know cleaning your range hood filter is overdue?
- Grease visible on the filter surface, or a sticky feel to it
- Steam and smoke lingering in the kitchen rather than being drawn away
- Cooking smells persisting long after cooking
- A yellow or brown film building on nearby cabinets and the ceiling
- The fan noticeably louder or less effective
What do people get wrong?
- Putting aluminium mesh filters in a dishwasher, which oxidises and blackens them permanently. Stainless steel baffle filters are usually dishwasher safe, aluminium ones are not
- Washing a carbon filter, which destroys it: carbon filters are replaced, not cleaned
- Cleaning the filter but never the hood interior or fan housing
- Running the hood only while cooking rather than for several minutes afterwards, which is when most of the residual steam and grease is cleared
What changes how often you need to do it?
- Frequent frying and wok cooking loads filters dramatically faster, potentially monthly
- Recirculating hoods need carbon filter replacement on top of mesh cleaning
- Households cooking mostly by boiling and baking can stretch the interval
When should you stop and call someone?
If the ducting itself has accumulated grease, particularly on a long run, a professional clean is worthwhile. Ductwork grease is a genuine fire path.
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Get the free appDoes this differ in the US, UK, Australia or Canada?
United States
Ducted hoods venting outside are standard in new construction, and over-the-range microwaves with integrated recirculating filters are extremely common in older kitchens. Those microwave filters include a replaceable carbon element people frequently do not know exists.
United Kingdom
Recirculating hoods are very common, particularly in flats and in kitchens on internal walls where external venting is impractical. That makes carbon filter replacement the critical task rather than mesh cleaning, and a carbon filter that has never been changed does nothing at all for odour.
Australia
Ducted hoods and rangehoods venting through the eaves are common in houses, while apartments frequently use recirculating units. High-heat wok cooking is popular and loads filters quickly. Ensure ducted hoods discharge outside rather than into a roof space, where deposited grease creates a fire risk and attracts vermin.
Canada
Similar to the US, with over-the-range microwaves widespread. Ducted hoods venting through an exterior wall need the exterior damper checked, since it can freeze shut in winter or be blocked by nesting birds.
Common questions
Why does cleaning your range hood filter matter?
Grease-soaked filters cut extraction and are a fire risk.
What happens if you skip cleaning your range hood filter?
Grease-soaked filters cut extraction and are a fire risk. Skipping it does not usually fail immediately, which is exactly why it gets forgotten: the consequence arrives months later as a repair bill rather than as an obvious fault.
Does cleaning your range hood filter differ by country?
US 'range hood'; UK 'cooker hood / extractor'. Grease filters universal.
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