When you are in the kitchen enjoying the meal prep for your famous family recipe, or you want to try a new stovetop chicken meal, you wait to consider whether or not the ingredients for your meal or the cooking process can release pollutants into your home. Basically, you're just trying to cook something delicious for yourself or your family. But every homeowner should be aware of exposing themselves and their home to contaminants in the air just from cooking. The pollutants we're talking about are released through smoke, steam, and grease that are released into the air when we cook. Smoke, steam, and grease can negatively impact the air quality in your home. This is where a practical range hood comes in. Range hoods are designed to mitigate these pollutants, helping to improve air quality and reduce health risks associated with poor indoor air quality. If a home does not have a range hood to help stem the dangers of poor air quality, then that home is welcoming severe health risks for their home and anyone living with them. Let's discuss these health risks caused by poor indoor air quality and the benefits of having and using a range hood in your home.
What are the risks of not using a range hood?
A range hood is a must-have in most kitchens today. But if you don’t already have one, or you’re thinking about getting rid of yours, there are some risks you need to be aware of.
Your health
range hoods provide vital ventilation which can help keep your home free from pollutants and toxins (more on this below), as well as dust and other particles that can occur naturally in your home. Using your range hood regularly will help you protect your respiratory health and ensure the air in your home remains clean.
Added heat and humidity
Another core function of a range hood is to help remove excess heat. Cooking produces heat and moisture, all of which can make your home feel very hot, very quickly. This can be a particular problem during the warmer months, leaving your home feeling uncomfortable. Using a range hood will help keep your home cooler, allowing air to circulate easily in your home.
Grease buildup
Cooking food day after day can lead to a buildup of grease, thanks to oil and grease particles circulating in the air. This grease can coat your surfaces, walls, cabinets and more, making them not only attract odors but also difficult to clean. Using a range hood can help extract this grease, making it much easier to keep your kitchen clean.
Fire hazard
Not only can a build-up of grease cause stains, but it can also pose a fire hazard. If you were to have an accident cooking, there’s a risk the fire could spread quickly and become difficult to contain. Cooking causes over 49 percent of all reported home fires in the US, causing multiple injuries and deaths. Using your range hood and keeping your surfaces clean can help you reduce the risk of a fire in your kitchen.
Unpleasant odors
While the smell of something delicious cooking in the kitchen can be appealing, multiple cooking smells can linger over time, leaving unpleasant odors in your home that can spread to furniture, textiles, and even clothing. Ventilation through a range hood can help remove odors before they settle to leave your home smelling fresh.
Reduced property value
A lack of range hood ventilation could be seen as a negative by potential buyers should you decide to sell your home. As a standard kitchen feature, most buyers would expect to find one in a property or face having to install their own, adding to their costs.
What are the health risks of poor indoor air quality?
Everyone, at some time or another, has turned the cooking pan up too high and accidentally burned a recipe. And this may have produced lots of grease and splashes of smoke in the kitchen. When this happens, the next logical step is to find a nearby window or door to open to get the smoke out. Often, once the smoke dissipates, we don't think about how that one incident may have affected the air quality in our home. But what if that one incident occurs again and again? And what if there is no range hood in the home being used? Not using a range hood can have lasting adverse effects on our health because it negatively affects the air quality in the house. Poor indoor air quality can lead to a variety of health problems:
- Respiratory issues
- Allergies
- Asthma
Cooking without a range hood can release various pollutants into the air. These pollutants are:
- carbon monoxide
- nitrogen dioxide
- particulate matter
These pollutants can then exacerbate certain health conditions. Headaches, fatigue, eye irritation, scratchy throat, and other symptoms of poor indoor air quality can negatively impact your quality of life.
The Benefits of Using a Range Hood
Since we've spoken about the risks of having poor air quality in your home when cooking, it is only natural for you to realize now that using a range hood in your home will provide various benefits. These benefits include:
- improved indoor air quality
- reduced health risks
- a more pleasant cooking experience
So, who would want to avoid utilizing a range hood in their home to see and experience the benefits of better air quality and the strong possibility of reducing health risks? Range hoods are specifically designed to mitigate pollutants that are released during cooking. When used, range hoods work to extract those pollutants from the air in your home and then vent them outside, thereby reducing any risk of harm to you while also improving the air quality in your home. In addition, range hoods minimize the accumulation of grease mixed with dust particles and other debris in your kitchen. This helps to have a cleaner kitchen and living space.
Installing a range hood
It is recommended that every kitchen have a range hood vented outside installed. Not every kitchen is equipped to have this, especially in old homes. However, there is always the opportunity to upgrade an old kitchen in an old home to meet the current building standards for a kitchen that includes a range hood. A few factors are involved when deciding to install a range hood in your home, like the overall size of your kitchen, the type of stove you may have, or how often you cook in your kitchen. Knowing that range hoods will improve indoor air quality and reduce health risks, it is the best logical step to have one in your kitchen.
Every kitchen varies in style, size, and type of stove. Having a gas stove in your kitchen Poses an even greater risk of pollutants being released into the air. With gas stoves, these pollutants include carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The potential negative result of using a gas stove without a range hood is too high of a risk to take. Also, many enjoy making meals that require frying or searing their meat with large amounts of oil, often done on high heat. The high temperature, alongside a large amount of oil used in frying, will almost always release grease into the air and on kitchen walls and pollutants into the air. Again, for this reason, it only makes sense for your kitchen to have a range hood.
Range hood styles
Range hoods come in a variety of styles, helping you find one that is best suited for your kitchen and your tastes.
Copper range hoods are a striking addition to your kitchen, available in modern, European, premier, signature styles and others. Stainless steel hoods are also very popular due to their hard-wearing properties, complementing most kitchen styles.
Exploring modern kitchen inspiration can help you find some ideas for how you can make a new range hood work in your home.
Customizable range hoods
While range hoods are available in a range of styles, they can also be customized. The benefit of a customized range hood is that it is made to fit your exact specifications, fitting perfectly in your kitchen for a seamless, polished look. Having a properly fitted range hood can help you maintain a clean and safe kitchen space, and even form the focal point of your kitchen.
At CopperSmith, you can choose from an incredible selection of customizable range hoods, helping you find the perfect style for your space. You can even get a color-match range hood that can be matched to your existing kitchen features. With so many options available, you’ll be guaranteed to find a range hood suitable for your needs.
Let CopperSmith help you find your perfect range hood
The risks of not using a range hood are hard to ignore. So if you’ve been thinking about replacing your current range hood or upgrading to a new style, there’s no time like the present.
So why take the risk and not have a range hood installed in your home kitchen? Once you have a range hood installed, you will immediately see and experience the positive results of having better air quality in your home, fewer pollutants in the air, reduced likelihood of health problems, and even a cleaner kitchen.
As the experts in range hoods, CopperSmith is the place to go to choose a range hood that meets your needs. Explore our online range or contact us today to learn more about our products.