Smoke, grease, and food aromas make the environment more uncomfortable, unpleasant, and unhealthy in a small kitchen.
So, whenever you enter the kitchen to cook, back in your mind, you always think about when to finish and leave the place.
Though you love to cook, you can’t concentrate, enjoy, and cherish the job.
We covered 5 range hoods for your cozy apartment or tiny galley kitchen to transform your cooking experience.
Of course, you also love them for their craftsmanship, design, and space-saving fittings. However, they also blend with the decor and keep your budget intact.
So buckle up and prepare to take your small kitchen to the advanced level with the perfect range hood.
How To Define Your Kitchen Is Small?
Basically, there is no litmus test to define a kitchen as small. Most kitchen sizes depend on the apartment or home size. The smaller the house or apartment, the smaller the kitchen is.
- Generally, in the USA, a family consisting of 3 people live in a house less than 1k to 1.5k square feet. This type of apartment has a 150 square feet or less kitchen.
- Or the kitchen size can be around 10-15% of the house.
Both of the kitchens are small in size.
What Size Range Hood Is Appropriate For A Small Kitchen?
The kitchen hood size should be wider than your main cooktop. So it can efficiently ventilate the polluted air and effectively filter grease and smoke. Here is an essential guide to selecting your range hood size.
- If your main cooktop is 18-20 inches, choose a 24 inches hood.
- If your main cooktop is 24-26 inches, choose a 30 inches hood.
- If your main cooktop is 30-32 inches, you should choose a 36 inches hood.
In addition, you should also keep in mind the installation system and hood style to choose the size.
- For an under-cabinet mount, consider the cabinet shape.
- For the Island mount, consider the ceiling height of the kitchen.
- For wall mounts, consider the wall venting system.
Also, consider ducted or ductless-style hoods.
Best Range Hood For Small Kitchen Comparison Table
Best For Kitchen Remodel | Best For Kitchen Complementary | Best For Heavy Cooking | Best For Convertible | Best For Tiny Kitchen |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hood: 30-Inch, Filter: Aluminium, Exhaust fan speed level: 2, Lamps: 75W, Noise: 6.5 Sones | Hood: 30-Inch, Filter: ARC-FLOW, Exhaust fan speed level: 3, Lamps: 2, Noise: 50 dB | Hood: 30-Inch, Filter: Baffle, Exhaust fan speed level: 4, Lamps: 2*3W, Noise: 65 dB | Hood: 30-Inch, Filter: Aluminium, Exhaust fan speed level: 3, Lamps: 2, Noise: 71 dB | Hood: 24-Inch, Filter: Charcoal, Exhaust fan speed level: 2, Lamps: 75 watts, Noise: 64 dB |
*Remove 160 to 210 CFM air in low to high speed *Easy to reach by installing 18" above the cooktop *Protect your health by improving air quality *A permanently lubricated motor needs less maintenance | *195.98 motor will remove 380 CFM air *Easy to operate with soft touch control *Offer top-notch performance all year round *Help you to cultivate your cooking passion | *Higher 900-CFM in this size and price hood *Certified by ETL & CETL Standards Compliance *Energy-saving lights to cut out electric bill *Give your kitchen a restaurant-like feel | *Well ventilation with 450 CFM *Dual installation with adjustable chimney *Reusable and dishwasher-safe filters *Solid build and creative design | *Provide adequate suction power with 2850 RPM motor *Remove smoke, steam, and food aroma *Sleek and stylish design for a sharp kitchen look *Most economical price in the range hood industry |
On Amazon | On Amazon | On Amazon | On Amazon | On Amazon |
Remodelling your small kitchen will add some spice to its space and outlook. As kitchen remodel needs to replace many appliances. So many home cooks are looking for a budget-friendly range hood to cover everything.
Are you one of them?
If so, we suggest you choose this Broan- NuTone Ducted Range Hood. It has the correct dimensions to fit strictly under your kitchen cabinet with no challenges. Even a reasonable price will make you happy to afford it on your tight budget.
However, the motor will effectively and quickly remove cooking smells, smoke, and steams from the kitchen. So, you won’t need to worry about your entire house smelling for last night’s dinner.
Multiple speed settings and bright LED bulbs make the hood customizable. You can set the fan and light as per your culinary needs.
Installation is a breeze with easy-to-follow, clear-cut instructions and needed included hardware. You can install it yourself within an hour, even for an average guy, for its lightweight.
Why Should You Buy This Hood?
You should buy this range hood for a stylish addition to your small kitchen. Simple use, air improvement, shiny appearance, and easy cleaning make it worth choosing. You’ll be delighted with the hood to make your life easier, smarter, and faster.
What We Like
- Well built, sleek design, and versatile to use
- Move plenty of polluted air through the outside vent
- Perfectly fit under your cabinet and save space
- Easy to clean for dishwasher-safe filters
What We Don't Like
- Less suction power, not worthwhile for heavy cooking
Do you rarely cook heavy foods and need a powerful medium hood?
Is it better if the range hood has a stainless and modern glass combo look to compliment your small kitchen?
Also, do you need a sleek vent and quiet hood that works in a more transitional/traditional setting?
Yes, COSMO 30 in. Wall Mount Range Hood will meet all your requirements. The hood is constructed with cutting-edge technology to ensure durability.
Besides longevity, it is well-designed in terms of usability and functionality. The 3-speed fan settings, bright lights, auto shut-off timer system, and ARC-FLOW permanent filter will be worth it.
You can set the fan, light, and timer based on your cooking needs. The powerful suction will clean the air, making your kitchen feel fresh-smelling, and well-ventilated.
The filter will trap grease, smoke, and other airborne particles. So, you find the kitchen as clean as before, even during your cooking. Unless you fry food, you don’t need to run the fan more than level 1.
It’s also easy to install with the 6-inch vent and installation kits that come with the package. If you have strong muscles and DIY skills, you can install it with the help of your partner. Otherwise, it’d be better if you sought help from a professional.
Why Should You Buy This Hood?
The hood looks glamorous over the gas stove, even for your small kitchen. It’ll also work way better than any typical microwave recirculating hood. Adjustable settings, lights, and easy use make it a great deal for this price.
What We Like
- Solid and sturdy manufacturing ensures quality
- Modern European design compliments your kitchen
- Bright lights for even and better visibility
- Convertible as ducted or ductless for your convenience
What We Don't Like
- Difficult to remove the blue protective wrap
It’s hard to find a decent range hood covering heavy cooking smoke and odors for your small kitchen. It becomes a level of sweet breaking when your budget is less than $400 bucks.
But IKTCH feels you and brings its 30-inch under-cabinet range hood. Its engineers always make its product line based on customer needs, desires, and satisfaction. Once you install this hood over your gas stove. There is not any more cooking smell in the kitchen.
What makes the hood so powerful?
Absolutely, it’s better construction, design, and versatile fan speed setup. It can remove 385, 490, 715, and 900 CFM of air from 1 to 4-speed levels. That means you have complete control over your hood.
The adjustability of 3 watts of light brightness helps you to set it as you like without bothering your eyes. And the baffle filters will catch the heavy cooking grease, oils, and fumes immediately. So, you can level up your cooking experience with more comfort.
Love to use the hood from far away? No worries, it offers you remote control, gesture sensing, and a 1-15 minute delay off timing. As a result, you can control the hood just by waving your hand.
The 19-gauge thick rust-resistant stainless steel makes it robust. It looks new after using it for 3-5 years. Which ensures worthiness as a home appliance investment.
Why Should You Buy This Hood?
You must grab this hood to handle your small kitchen’s heavy cooking smoke and grease. The touch button, gesture sensor, remote control panel, 4-speed level, lighting adjustment, and easy cleaning filter make it a real horse for your kitchen.
What We Like
- Sleek, slender profile and excellent suction power
- Fit precisely into a 30″ vast space with a tad of a gap
- Instant responsive motion sensor for fast functioning
- Easy to install within 2 hours and mediocre elbow grease
What We Don't Like
- It’s loud at level 4
Would you like a mid-range convertible hood for your 150-250 square feet kitchen? Then our next pick is for you, and it’s the Comfee CVP30W7AST range hood.
you can use the hood as ducted or ductless, how it suits your kitchen. It saves space during installation, which is the primary concern for a small kitchen.
This pyramid-style wall mount hood can purify up to 450 CFM air. That is enough for your light to heavy cooking fumes, odors, and grease. You can customize its speed with the 3 levels of settings.
However, you can control the hood with one click due to its touch control panel. Whenever your hand isn’t free, you can adjust the airflow with the gesture control panel. That makes it fantastic for busy home cooks.
It comes with the industry’s highest 5 layers of filtration system. That’ll trap around 95% of the grease from your kitchen. Even the filters are dishwasher-safe. So, as a mom with kids or a corporate lady with a workload on shoulder. It helps you reduce cleaning hassle, save time, and enjoy cooking.
As in the user manual, the company describes the step-by-step installation guide. Or shows the process in video. Plus, the hood is lightweight, with only 23.3 pounds. So you can install it with ease.
Why Should You Buy This Hood?
We’ll recommend this hood to avoid further ductwork or any other hassle, but ensure comfortable cooking. Perfect size, customizing fan speed, powerful suction, and dishwasher safe filters make it a great choice for a small kitchen.
What We Like
- High quality stainless steel ensure long lasting performance
- Gesture control helps to control without touching
- No nose and eye burning sensation for smoke
- Exactly fit in your kitchen with or without ductwork
What We Don't Like
- Too much noisy
If your kitchen is tiny, less than 144 square feet, this Broan-NuTone 24″ range hood will be your right pick. It has the perfect size and shape to fit correctly under your cabinets.
Though it’s small in size, you get enough ventilation and filtration. It can protect your health, the kitchen ceiling, and the underside of the cabinets. So for remodelling or reinventing your kitchen, you must prefer it.
The whole installation process requires around 30-60 minutes with minimal hardware. That’s why anyone can do it themselves without others’ help. That saves installation costs.
The dual (high and low) fan settings and 75 watts of light make it versatile. You can effortlessly use it with the easy push-button control panel. And the 18-inch above cooktop installation ensures easy accessibility even for the average to short-height ladies.
Though the charcoal filters are replaceable and washable, they capture maximum grease. As a result, you can avoid cleaning the too-sticky kitchen surface when the filters become dirty. Just remove them and wash them with warm soapy water. And simply wiping the hood with disinfectant wipes makes it shiny.
Why Should You Buy This Hood?
Living in a rental house, buying an expensive hood is unnecessary. So, this hood from Broan will be your perfect small kitchen partner to make your cooking experience comfortable and enjoyable.
What We Like
- Excellent ventilation system at this affordable price
- Well functionality with simple button control
- Lightweight for easy and fast maneuver
- Good to choose for a rental replacement
What We Don't Like
- Packaging needs improvement
Buying Guide To Pick The Right Hood With Ease
Having a clear purpose makes the process easier to hunt the best range hood for your small kitchen. Since the range hood is like a kitchen superhero directly impacts your cooking experience, health, and comfort. It’s not wise to pick one randomly.
Instead, it’s 100 times better to make a checklist to pick the right one. This buying guide will help you here to reduce your toil.
Know Your Culinary Style
As your kitchen is small, even light cooking can make the surroundings foggy, smoky, and greasy. The heavier cook may make the place horrible because of poor air circulation. So, you must consider your culinary styles before choosing a hood. For your convenience, here are some questions that you should answer
- How many members do you need to feed? (2,3,4 etc.)
- How many times do you have to cook every day? (2,3 or 4 times)
- How much time do you have to spend in the kitchen every day? (1,2 or 3 hours)
- What are the cooking styles? (Chinese, continental, Thai, etc.)
- What’s your usual cooking time? (Morning, midday, evening, night)
You can add some more questions based on your needs. As long as you know the answer to these questions. It’s more evident that you know exactly what range hood you want for your kitchen.
Ventilation System
You should check your kitchen ventilation system because it’s the central working part of your hood. Between the two types of hoods, ducted or ductless, you can choose one. However, most homeowners prefer ductless hoods for small kitchens for no requirement of ductwork.
Easy & Space Saving Installation
As in the kitchen, you must organize the main cooktop, cooking appliances, storage space, washing space, etc. Tight space is the main obstacle to a small kitchen.
Considering all those things, most small kitchens are ‘V’ or ‘U’ shaped Under-cabinet style. If your kitchen is like this, choosing an Under-cabinet hood is better than a wall mount or Island mount.
Easy Using Mechanism
Some factors ensure easy using mechanism of the hood. Such as
- Exhaust fan adjustment for light and heavy cooking.
- Several lights for nighttime cooking to offer better visibility.
- Easy to access, push button, or responsive touch screen control panel
All are important to improve your cooking experience. 2-4 levels of fan speed, 2-3 watts energy saving LED lights, and a simple on/off switch are worthwhile to serve your needs. If the hood comes with an auto shut-off timer system, that’s a plus.
Types of Filter
The primary job of the filter is to trap cooking grease to keep the kitchen clean. The range hood comes with a baffle or carbon filter, or both. You can choose anyone based on your requirements.
However, if you are used to cooking light foods (boiling, braising, or grilling), a baffle filter is alright for your kitchen. On the other hand, if you steam, stir fry, deep fry, etc., it’s better to choose the carbon filter hood.
Easy To Clean
Nowadays, we are living in a fast pacing world. Time is precious, and we are always trying to save time. So easy cleaning and maintenance of the hood are helpful. In that case, choose the hood that’s filter is dishwasher safe and needs less maintenance.
Noise Level
Would you love a range hood that seems as loud as a jet engine in your small kitchen?
Of course, not.
The hood within 35-60 decibels or 3-5 Sones is quite in operation. You have to choose the hood in this sound range for peaceful cooking or not to disturb your conversation.
Durability & Price
Let’s face it; nobody loves a range hood that needs to be repaired or replaced within the first or second year. That means the longevity of the hood matters a lot to avoid this hassle shortly.
The hood is made with heavy-duty stainless steel, a powerful motor, and other solid materials that will be sturdy to use year-round. Though, the quality hoods are a bit expensive. But considering the 3-5 years of a healthy cooking environment, that’s not too much.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really need a range hood in my small kitchen?
Case to case, the answer may vary. Yes and no, both can be the correct answer to this inquiry based on a unique situation. Such as
- If your kitchen is tiny and has an adequate organic ventilation and lighting system. And you cook light foods and have no shortage of breathing problems or skin allergies. A range hood is suitable to install, but you don’t face too many problems if you don’t.
- On the other hand, though your kitchen is small. But natural air and light can’t enter your kitchen. You also prefer heavy cooking and have suffocation and allergies problems. In this case, you must install a range hood.
Can I install a range hood myself?
Yes, if you have a bit of DIY electric and hardware skills, you can install a range hood yourself. But, if you don’t have. To ensure safety and install the hood correctly, hiring a professional is better.
Final Verdict
Choosing the perfect range hood makes a big difference in your kitchen’s air quality and cleanliness. Inhaling the fresh air, enjoying the fresh smell, and having a clean kitchen must boost your confidence as a home cook.
It’ll also help you to maintain the excellent health of your loved ones. Because home-cooked food is always healthier than refined and processed store-bought foods.
Choose the hood that meets your purpose, complements your kitchen, and fits your wallet.
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