Range Hood Installation in Monterey Park, CA

The California Air Resources Board says natural gas stoves can release carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and other harmful pollutants, and that "The best way to ventilate your kitchen is to use a properly-installed, high efficiency range hood over your stove." It describes a high efficiency hood as one with a high cfm rating and a low sones rating.

Its advice for people who already have a hood: check that it vents to the outdoors, use it while cooking, and cook on the back burners when you can. Its combustion guidelines add that ductless hoods are not effective because they exhaust into the house rather than outside.

Where these facts come from: California Air Resources Board, Indoor Air Pollution from Cooking; California Air Resources Board, Combustion Pollutants in Your Home: Guidelines.

Many Monterey Park houses from the 1940s to 1960s have kitchens that were updated piece by piece. We often find a hood that was swapped for a microwave, a duct that stops short of the roof, or a damper stuck shut with grease. We look at all of that before recommending a new hood.

If there is a working duct to the outside, a new vented hood goes straight on. If there is none, adding one is roofing or wall work for another trade; a better recirculating hood is the fallback.

We shut off the breaker, disconnect and lower the old hood, and clean the duct collar. The new hood is fastened into the cabinet or wall framing, joined to the duct with foil tape, and wired in its junction box.

Then we run every fan speed and the light, and check that the damper opens so air leaves the house.