Best way to manage grease in the range hood

The sun had just risen and was shining into the kitchen; directly onto the glass protector of my range-hood. The glass was filthy. I hadn’t noticed it before but the sun shine highlighted the dirt.

Our range hood is very rarely turned on. It isn’t ducted outside the building so if used any grease in the steam that emits from the stove top is absorbed into the filters. It looks impressive but doesn’t really do anything substantial.

I was appalled at how the glass protector looked so out came the cream cleanser from the cupboard and with that and a sponge/scourer I cleaned the glass. But as I was cleaning I realised the rest of the range-hood surface was just as greasy. This meant the full clean, under and over and along the sides. No I didn’t remove the grill, though maybe I should have, but that will be done another day.

Because the range-hood had been thoroughly cleaned, inside and out, about four months ago, the build up of grease on the surface wasn’t that hard to remove. When I wiped off the residue with a soft cloth, rung out in hot water, the range hood was not only cleaner but actually sparkled.

Range-hoods are a great invention, and if ducted out through the roof or the wall work extremely well at extracting steam and cooking smells from the kitchen. It is only when range-hood is the absorbent kind that the grease build up is worse. Obviously being above a stove top, a range-hood will always accumulate grease on the surface. They will always need a regular clean, but with the absorbent type there is no place for the grease to go except into the fibre-glass or mesh filters inside. This means if not cleaned regularly the grease build up can be dangerous and an open gas flame can cause a fire.

I make it a point to clean the filters inside my range-hood at least every six months. As they are not too big to fit in the dish washing machine, I find the dish washer does the best job. The hot water flushes through the filters and removes the grease and because it is so hot inside they dry out quicker than if you have to wash the filters in a sink of hot water with washing up liquid and leave them outside to drain and dry in the sun.

As I said, range-hoods are a great invention for keeping the steam and lingering smells out of the kitchen, but they do need a regular clean to keep down the grease.