3 Tips for Maintaining & Cleaning Your Range Hood
When your kitchen fills with smoke and steam, you automatically turn to your range hood and flip it on. The range hood uses its fans to quickly pull the smoke right out of your kitchen. This clears the air, improves your cooking experience, and protects your cabinets.
However, if you don’t perform regular cleaning, the next time you turn on your fans could be the time you’ll get no response and helplessly watch while your kitchen fills with smoke and the fire alarm sounds. With a few cleaning and maintenance tips, you can make sure that your range hood is always in perfect working condition, and you never experience this scenario.
Find out what the top 3 tips are for cleaning and maintaining your range or cooktop. Did you know that over time, your range hood and vent can fill with grease and dirt? This can result in an increased risk of fire, the diminished efficiency of your range hood both in function and power, and a shortened life expectancy of your range hood components.
If you want to reverse these effects and see your range hood serve reliably in your kitchen for many years, you need to follow these 3 tips for cleaning and maintaining your range hood:
1. Regular Cleaning
Does cleaning your range hood seem unintuitive or intimidating? Don’t worry! We’ll walk you through the steps of a proper range hood cleaning that you should perform on a regular basis. It’s best if you can clean your range hood once a month. However, once each season is probably more achievable for most homeowners. Here’s how you should do it:
Remove the Hood Filter
First, make sure that your range hood is turned off. Then, check your unit’s manual to discover what fastening mechanism is used on your filter. If you don’t have a manual anymore, it should be easy to figure out. Most filters are attached using screws, a rotating metal or plastic fastener, or a latch mechanism that uses a lever. Carefully remove the filter.
Clean or Replace the Hood Filter
There are three types of filters: metal, fabric, and charcoal. Fabric and charcoal filters must be replaced on a regular basis according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Typically these filters should be changed every 3-4 months. If you have one of these types of filters, get a new one and keep it ready for when it’s time to re-attach the filter.
If you have a metal filter, then it’s time to clean it! You can clean a filter in many ways, but the most effective way is to soak it in hot water with dishwater detergent.
After soaking it for about an hour, give it a good scrub with a brush and rinse it off with hot water. You can also run it through your dishwasher. Make sure you allow it to dry.
General Cleaning & Vent Check
While your filter is soaking or before you replace your charcoal or fabric filter, you can do some general cleaning. Using warm soapy water and a cloth, clean all around your range hood. In addition, check your vent to see if it’s filled with grease.
Make sure you seek professional cleaning help to thoroughly clean out your vent. Warmth, grease, and food particles that get caught in the vent not only cause a fire hazard but also promote bacteria growth, which can be a health risk.
Put your vent back in place carefully.
2. Test It!
In addition to regular cleaning, you should test your range hood on a regular basis to make sure that the fans are pulling the air and steam out adequately. You can do this by flipping on your fan and placing a small sheet of newspaper close to the fan.
The fan should be able to pull the paper up and hold it in place over the filter. If your range hood fan doesn’t pass this basic test, you may want to get it serviced. Grease and dirt can damage your range hood motor and fan, affecting use.
3. Perform Repairs as Needed
Of course, if you notice anything is off with your range hood, you should perform repairs as soon as possible. Some common problems encountered when maintaining your range include: not pulling air and smoke properly out of the kitchen, the motor making a loud sound, and the switches not working. Whether it’s your lights or fan that doesn’t seem to be functioning properly, a quick diagnosis and repair job will get your range hood back in working order.
If All Else Fails, Call the Experts at Maintaining Your Range
When you need help with your range hood, you need an expert who can quickly identify the issue and solve the problem so that you can get back to cooking as normal. The capable experts at West Coast Chief Appliance Repair are skilled and reliable. When you need help with your range hood, we’ll send out our teams to identify the problem quickly and solve it so that you can get back to normal, all for a reasonable cost.
As a local company, we take care of all of our clients with personal, friendly, and high-quality service. Don’t cook in the dark, increase your home’s risk for fire or damage your kitchen cabinets. Get your range hood fixed quickly and effectively by the experts at Chief Appliance.
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