To help keep any kitchen clean and odour-free, extractor fans are the way to go. Smoke, steam and lingering smells are all filtered out, improving the air quality in your kitchen and in turn improving the mood of whoever’s in it. But what makes them so effective?

Mechanisms

Extractor fans work by drawing polluted air in and filtering out anything unwanted – your grease, smoke or nasty airborne particles – before expelling clean air back out. The actual process of achieving this can come in two main forms.

Ducted Extractor Fans

These models remove the air from the kitchen – well, maybe not all of it! These models focus on venting impure air from the kitchen, and the simplest way to achieve this is to send the unwanted air elsewhere.

These are ideal for larger kitchens at home or commercial kitchens with lots of staff. They still provide ventilation, meaning you’re purifying the air whilst keeping everything cool.

Recirculating Extractor Fans

As you’ve probably guessed, these extractor fans fulfil the opposite role: they re-release air into the kitchen after cleaning it. These fans are filled with filters to trap impurities, making them ideal for kitchens that aren’t compatible with ducting. This includes apartments or older homes undergoing a kitchen refurb, where costs to fit ductwork would be too high.

Depending on the service you want or need, you can find plenty of businesses to consult online, such as www.thekitchenrefurbishmentcompany.co.uk/.

Key Components

Now that we know the difference between the two main types of extractor fan, it helps to know what goes into them – other than air, of course.

The fan motor springs to mind first, obviously providing the power and circulation that define these machines.

Then we have the filters, which typically consist of grease filters and carbon filters. Grease filters catch oily residue from cooking, utilising a metal mesh to trap fine particles as air escapes.

Carbon filters tend to be more common in recirculating extractor fans and use ‘activated carbon’ to absorb and eliminate odours. They lure and trap volatile particles, erasing odours from your kitchen.