Experience with cooker extraction and open plan living?

9 years ago

Hi, I'm going open plan combining a sitting room, dining room and kitchen. I've put quite a bit of effort into creating zones and I've researched open plan living as I don't want it to be a liveable nightmare, we are really excited about the change.

My last remaining concern and it's a big one, is extraction above the cooker. Do you have any recommendations from experience? If I fry, I imagine the upholstery in time being coated. Yuk!

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9 years ago

Ps fried food isn't good for you!

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9 years ago
On the John Lewis website the extractors have different ratings for sound and strength. Basically you have to have the extractor on when you cook anything! I have open plan and I find judicious use of kitchen friendly candles does help but you will have to ensure you change the grease filters regularly too. Also make sure any window treatments & loose rugs can be removed easily for dry cleaning or laundering.
When living alone it makes sense to have open plan and I really like it.
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What you might find is that if you take this info to a kitchen designer that the layout provided will be completely different to what your architect has (surprisingly) come up with. Personally as a designer, I’d have a completely different take on this room area - but then I Design Kitchens and space concepts for a living - (but ask me to design a building with roof angles and all that that entails etc and I’d be out of my depth a little ! ) So it’s just a case of choosing someone who specialises in this particular area really - we are independent so we don’t sell products that would include a profit - so we charge for our services and work with you over a week to thrash it out - but then you can shop around easily by dropping in a copy of the plans and asking for their best price and haggle for discounts that are often far greater than our design fee. Alternatively you can book loads of studios to each send over their sales people to each come over and measure and each then design a scheme and each then try to win the sale by inviting you to go through their ideas in their studio. Although this is ‘free’ it’s maybe a tad more time consuming, repetitive and you don’t usually have much input. If you click on my name or icon you can read some comments from past clients who’ve tried this way !
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Kusten Vorland
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks sort our stuff, I'm not sure about your comment on fried food good job this isn't Chinese Houzz!
I guess it's going to be a lifestyle change though as you say and not cook on the top. I've had a look on quiet mark website because noise was my priority but I guess performance is too. Commercial kitchen extractors pull externally I think. I'll take a look on JL now, have a good morning.
PRO
OnePlan
9 years ago
Domestic extractors can vent externally too. The shorter the distance between appliance and outdoors, the more efficient it is too!

But the key point is to turn on the extractor as you turn on the hob ( not just when you can see steam ) every time - make it a habit ! When you are in a flurry of pans and boiling and chatting to people in an open plan kitchen - the noise of the extractor is more of a background noise that you blank out - so don't get overly hung up on that part in my opinion - as you will switch it off when the cooking is done !
It's only going to be needed to be left on after you've finished cooking, if you forgot to switch it on as you started to cook !!!

Heat rises, so the trend for ceiling extractors makes perfect sense - the only downside is climbing a ladder to clean them !
PRO
Clover Kitchens
9 years ago
Hi

Extraction in an open plan room is essential and needs properly specifying. This would normally be done by the kitchen designer.

The most popular extraction systems for an open plan room would be flush with ceiling or downdraft.

Hope this starts to get you thinking on the right road.

Also what other cooking appliances are you having? Steam oven?

CK
PRO
Kusten Vorland
Original Author
9 years ago
http://esse.com/news/the-new-esse-990-ch/ this is my cooker, I'm not planning on having anything else. They do their own extractor but it's got a logo on the front and that puts me off!
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Clover Kitchens
9 years ago
Ok - so you are having a cast iron range. I assume this will be sited in a chimney for the flue? This type of cooker you don't really put extraction above as it can affect the running of the cooker itself. Also with this type of cooker its very much oven based cooking rather than hob based.

As I previously mentioned your kitchen designer should be able to advise properly on the matter.

CK
PRO
Kusten Vorland
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi, Yes I think it is going to be a change of lifestyle, the kitchen designer has referred us to the Esse extractor, which I wasn't keen on. I wanted to brave it without one maybe I'll give it a go and see how we get on. The electrics are all ready so we could install one retrospectively. Yes, we have a chimney and flu.
Laraine Clarke
9 years ago
Our kitchen fitter put in a ceiling extractor that is round and about 15 cms. It is relatively quiet and works very well. I also have a fanlight in my living space, put in for warmer days. But I've found it great for a quick blow through on the odd occasion. We love our change to open plan, but we also have a sitting room for after dinner.

The worst aspect of open plan is that cooking for guests leaves the messy kitchen on show so I face my guests towards the sitting area and retire to the lounge for coffee.
snagglepuss47
8 years ago
I would agree with Clover Kitchens - we have an Aga without an extractor and the only time I'd like one is when we accidentally burn toast cooked on the plates! You will find you do all your frying on the bottom surface of the top oven as you need to limit the time you have your covers up. It is a slightly different way of cooking so I definitely say give it a go without an extractor.
mrsthing
8 years ago
Is there any option for an extractor if your cooker isn't near an outside wall? We have one which we use on "recirculate" but it doesn't do very much good.
Maddy
8 years ago
Yes make sure your extractor is extracting the cooking air/fat particles /smoke outside! I have noted that most extractors in average homes in the uk aren't ducted outside like they should be...don't really see a point in having an extractor that doesn't "extract" the cooking air! This is not only disgusting and unhygienic but also a fire hazard. (Fat that is stuck on the inside can easily catch fire...lecture received from my firefighter father in law)

You can run the extraction pipes through kitchen cupboards and then out through an exterior wall or if you have an extractor on an outside wall all you need is a brick drill and a few bits and pieces from b & q.
perry525
8 years ago
The most important consideration is, make up air. For an extractor fan to work efficently, it needs to pull in cold air from outside, so that it can eject your expensive warm air, and you can pay to warm the newly imported cold air. At least that's what normally happens. You can improve on this, by running a large diameter pipe from outside, to as close to the extractor as you can get it. This will short circuit the cold air being pulled from cracks and holes throughout your home, and eliminate drafts. It also means you can run a lower powered extractor, result no drafts and lower electricity bills, and less smoke and water vapour in your home.
lesleylm
8 years ago
What if you don't have a kitchen designer? We just want an extractor fitted in our chimney alcove above our cooker and nobody wants the job as we are not having a complete kitchen refit.
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Kusten Vorland
Original Author
8 years ago
Lesleylm, try to break the job down. Get an electrician first to run a cable then get a carpenter to fit the unit, buy it yourself. If you have a chimney you should be sorted.

But be careful, I fitted a bathroom extractor myself, like for like apart from the coil and it circulated steam in the wall cavity and caused damp. After years of wondering where the damp was coming from... It was me!
PRO
Kusten Vorland
Original Author
8 years ago
Perry525, I'm interested in what you said, is the pipe drawing fresh air linked to the extractor? Or does it stand alone. Also how does it deter from cracks in the home? Most domestic extractors recirculate and they are awful, I'd love fresh air.
perry525
8 years ago
Kusten, the inlet pipe is usually fitted under the floor, when supplying an island hob. Or if the hob is close to an outside wall then through the wall directly behind the hob.
I find it works best,when the air can rise all round the hob.

It is not linked to the extractor, if you have a very powerful extractor, and therefore need a lot of make-up air, then inserting a fan in the pipe, a fan with the same capacity in cubic feet will solve the problem.

As normally fitted, extractor fans, without make-up air provision, pull outside air from wherever they can get it. Mainly badly fitting doors and windows. This causes drafts and means you are loosing your expensively warmed air blown from the room and replacing it with cold outside air, which you then have to heat.

The extractor has to pull quite hard to get the large volume of cold air it requires from outside through a narrow crack or gap round a badly fitting door. make-up air arriving through a six inch diameter pipe has a much easier path and that's the way it will arrive. You will instantly notice the difference, your kitchen will be warmer and your heating bills lower.

So called extractor fans that don't exhaust to the outside are a joke. All they do is filter out grease in a block of carbon. All the water vapor that is produced by burning gas and cooking remains in your home.

The first law of thermodynamics is that heat always moves to cold. Pushing hot wet air into an unlined chimney or cavity is asking for trouble. As the water vapor instantly condenses on the first cold surface it meets. A cold wet wall/chimney provides an express route outwards for your expensive heat.

All modern insulation works by trapping air in small cavities, air in a space smaller than 19mm does not allow rotation and therefore does not pass heat by circulation. A damp chimney quickly and permanently passes heat from the room into the chimney and up into the sky. You don't want this to happen.
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Kusten Vorland
Original Author
8 years ago
Perry, thank you for taking the time to advise me. I have taken it all on board and we are working out the best way to do this. I think we are going to extract straight up into the attic bedroom out through the roof. Once again thank you.
User
6 years ago
Open need not be greasy! Start your extractor fane 15 mins before you start cooking! And I mean anything no grade no smell. Always had it ducted to the outside.
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OnePlan
6 years ago
Gosh - this is an old post !

Experience with cooker extraction and open plan living?

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