How to clean and maintain your cooker hood
Cooker hoods work hard to remove grease, cooking smells and steam from your kitchen and just like all domestic appliances, they need a little TLC from time-to-time to make sure they stay in tip-top condition. It may come as a surprise to hear that on average, the grease filters in your extractor fan should be cleaned every two months and the carbon filters changed every four.
Read on to find out more on how you can keep your extractor fan performing at its best and looking like new with our handy guide to cleaning and maintaining your cooker hood.
Be prepared: What you’ll need to clean your extractor fan
Before you get started, make sure you have gloves, cleaning products, a soft microfiber cloth and some hot water and set aside a little time to focus on giving your extractor a good clean. We recommend using a neutral, chlorine-free detergent such as our Franke Cooker Hood Cleaner to effectively remove grease and odours from your extractor fan. And don’t forget to switch off or unplug it at the mains before you begin.
Keep your grease filters spick & span
Most cooker hoods have metal mesh plates that act as grease filters and keeping them clean is key to ensuring it performs at its best. Without regularly cleaning your filters, your extractor fan may become less efficient and noisier over time, while the grease build-up can even cause a potential fire hazard.
We recommend your grease filters are cleaned every two months or more if you regularly cook up a storm in your kitchen. They are spring-loaded and can be easily removed and cleaned in the dishwasher or in your sink using hot, soapy water. To really get into all the grooves, try using an old toothbrush to remove any stubborn grime and grease before rinsing and drying thoroughly.
At Franke, we’re always looking for ways to maximise the performance of our appliances while minimising the maintenance required to keep them in prime condition. Sleek and stylish, our Mythos Vertical Pro cooker hood provides super-efficient filtration with just one grease filter, which can be effortlessly removed thanks to our anti-fall system.
Replace the charcoal filter
While all cooker hoods have motors and grease filters, the way some clean the air can differ. Often fitted on an external wall, ducted models expel odours and steam outside through a pipe. Re-circulatory extractors draw steam and cooking odours into grease filters as well as charcoal filters, which purify the air, before re-circulating it back into the kitchen. The majority of extractor hoods can be fitted in both ducted or recirculatory mode for maximum design flexibility.
However, if your cooker hood is fitted in re-circulatory mode, you will need to regularly replace its charcoal filters with new ones as most cannot be cleaned and re-used. These filters include activated charcoal which absorbs the steam, grease and odours and their effectiveness is reduced over time. The filter becomes saturated making the motor work twice as hard to draw air inside – costing you more to operate while cooking smells can be left lingering. To prevent this, we recommend you change them every four months or so for average kitchen use. If you regularly cook with a wok or frying pan for example, they will need replacing more often. And if you feel your cooker hood is no longer effectively removing odours, that should be your cue to replace the charcoal filter, too.
Looking as good as new
Now that your cooker hood is working at peak performance, how do you also keep it looking as good as new on the outside? Our Cooker Hood Cleaner applied with a Franke Microfiber Cloth , will effectively eliminate grease deposits and odours to keep your extractor fan spotless. Apply the cleaner with a linear, rather than a circular motion in the direction of the grain of the metal (if it’s a stainless steel hood). A paste made up of mild bicarbonate of soda and water is also effective and a neutral liquid cleaner will cut through grease, too.
You can find more information on our range of cooker hoods here.
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