In 2018, I wrote a review of our Fujioh kitchen hood. I was already sceptical then, but thought a cheap hood might still be useful for the light and some limited suction.
8 years later, we barely use it.
Why we stopped bothering
The hood still works. It’s noisy, the suction never felt especially useful (our clothes still stank when frying stuff!), and turning it on became one more thing to remember while cooking.
There was some laziness involved too. We never built the habit of using it, and the benefits weren’t obvious enough to make us change.
We almost never cleaned it either
Grease and dirt slowly built up into hardened crusts, so it’s no longer a matter of giving the hood a quick wipe.
I’d need to take the whole thing apart, remove the panels and attack it with vinegar. At this point, I’m too lazy to do that and slightly afraid of what I might uncover.
The sensible solution would’ve been to clean it regularly. I chose the alternative approach of leaving it alone until it became a minor renovation project.
Now we can’t easily remove it
The annoying part is that the hood is built into the kitchen cabinets. There’s a space designed specifically for it, so removing it would leave an awkward gap.
It now sits there:
- Rarely used
- Not cleaned
- Taking up cabinet space
- Too troublesome to remove
Would I install one again?
Probably not.
The better question isn’t which hood to buy. It’s whether you’ll actually use and maintain one.
I’d also avoid designing the cabinets too tightly around it. Appliances can be replaced. Built-in carpentry is much harder to undo.
