practical range hood question

14 years ago

To those of you with glass (or partially glass) range hoods, do you find them difficult to keep clean? I'd picked out an all stainless hood, but the one thing I'm not crazy about is that the lights in it are at the back.:

I found another for about the same price that has the lights at the front, but it's the style with a stainless center and chimney and a curved glass canopy.

I like both styles equally, and I definitely prefer the lights at the front, but between grease and dust it seems like a glass range hood would have to be wiped down pretty much every day to stay looking good. I keep up on cleaning, but I'm not sure I'd really keep up with that kind of maintenance.

Oh, and while I do want a ducted hood that actually moves some air and heat to the great outdoors, I don't have a pro-style range, so I'm not really concerned with the difference in the size of the uptake area between the two. (The ancient range hood we just took out when we demo'd the kitchen was a recirculating one and I couldn't even use it - the first time I turned it on after we moved into the house there was a loud crashing noise as the plastic blades on the fan all snapped off and went crashing around the housing!)

Featured Answer

User

14 years ago

Stainless or glass, it's pretty much the same. Either the shiny stainless will show the dust or the clear glass will.

It's a 30 second chore to dust the hood (ANY hood) in the morning while you are waiting on the coffee to perk. Or, it's about a 90 second chore to get out the spray cleaner, spritz, and wipe if you cooked the night before and have some grease on it.

If you spend less than 2 minutes a day doing those things, then you won't have to spend 30 minutes once a week waiting on the degreaser to cut through the gunk and scrubbing. You will still have to clean the filters once a week though. Pop them in the DW one night, and if you've got a spare pair, pop those in at the same time. It takes maybe 30 seconds with no downtime if you do that. Otherwise, you've got to wait for the overnight hours to put the filters back in after the DW has run it's load for the day.

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Comments (8)

ginny20
14 years ago
Don't have glass, but I have to dust my stainless hood a lot. Also, the way the switches are on mine, I get fingerprints every time I turn it on or off, so I have to wipe those off. It only takes me a minute to do it, but I'm not sure that glass would be any worse.
maryl1
14 years ago
Audry, I have a hood with the curved glass canopy, but the lights are along the sides rather than just in front. I do wipe the glass portion fairly often to keep it clean - not every day; it depends on what I was cooking. It isn't hard to do. Mine is also ducted out.
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Audry Barber
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the replies everyone. It's good to know that the stainless-only one will probably require pretty regular cleaning/ dusting as well, but you've also made me think of something I hadn't before... if I "have" to clean it every day, it will mean I don't have to clean off built-up grease. Which, if I can't see it, I'm definitely more likely to let it build up to the point where it's more of a pain to clean.
maryl1
14 years ago
Totally agree about not letting the grease build up into hard to remove gunk. That's why I wipe the glass fairly regularly. It becomes part of the routine.
rocketmomkd
14 years ago
We just installed a glass one and I love it! I can see if there is dust on it and then I wipe it. Not a big deal. Definitely love the look of the glass better than the all stainless one. Get the one you like better, don't worry about cleaning. They will both need the same amount.
Zip W.
9 years ago
Thank you all for this information. We're remodeling our 30-year-old kitchen now, and we've selected a glass hood. I loved its appearance but was worried about keeping it clean. These comments have reassured me that it will be fine.

Thank you!
Miranda33
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I would be more concerned about the exhaust efficiency of the hood. The OP's pictured stainless hood has the baffles going edge-to-edge with what looks like 3 baffle filters. But the glass hood has just a small area in the center for one baffle that will exhaust the smoke and grease. I.e., a third of the baffles of the stainless hood. That to me is a problem.

If you are worried about which is harder to clean, the large areas of glass will be collecting the grease, instead of the baffles doing so.