Charcoal cooker hood filters
Charcoal cooker hood filters are used to help remove the odours from cooking fumes in your kitchen. They are essential requirements if you have the type of cooker hood extractor fan that is known as a recirculating fan, because it doesn’t vent cooker fumes through a hole in the wall directly to the outside. Instead, cooking fumes are sucked up into the hood, passed through the charcoal filters, before being circulated back into the kitchen as fresh air. Below, is a typical example of how to replace charcoal cooker hood filters – a simple DIY task, but also an important one.
Why do charcoal cooker hood filters need replacing?
New charcoal filter on the left – old charcoal filter on the right. Time for replacement I think!
Well, quite simply because they eventually get clogged up with grease, and therefore can no longer filter the air.
Designs of cooker hood filter vary, but the round ones shown here are commonly used by all the best known cooker hood manufacturers.
Most manufacturers will recommend changing charcoal filters every three to six months, but in practice, you can normally get away with replacing them once a year.
The photo shows an old filter on the right, and a new one on the left. As you can see, the old filter is completely blocked up, and trust me, it was very greasy to the touch!
How to replace charcoal filters
How to replace the filters in your cooker hood will of course be rather dependent on design, but the method shown below is a typical example – it’s always best to refer to the cooker hood manual if in any doubt.
First of all make sure that the power to the hood is turned off at the consumer unit.
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1. Undo the grease filters to expose the extractor unit inside the hood. On this design, they simply unclip. On others, you may need a screwdriver. |
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2. A slight rotation of the filter releases it from the unit. Fit the new charcoal filter by aligning it with the ‘nibs’ on the unit and again, rotate it slightly to ‘lock’ it in position. Most fans have two filters, one on either side of the unit, some will just have one. |
Once the charcoal filters are secured in the correct position, refit the grease filters, and you can then turn the power back on. Incidentally, the grease filters on your cooker hood are other items that need periodic maintenance, and as the name suggests, their primary function is to remove grease from the air as it is sucked up into the cooker hood.
The aluminium filters shown here can be washed in the sink with fairy liquid and rinsed before being replaced, or most can actually be cleaned in the dishwasher, but check your manufacturer’s recommendations. Some cooker hood designs will use paper grease filters – these can’t be cleaned, and will need replacing once they become clogged – this is again a very straightforward DIY job.
Where to buy charcoal cooker hood filters
First of all, you need to make sure that you’re buying the right design for your cooker hood by finding out the model number. With most cooker hoods, you’ll find this inside the hood, after you’ve removed the grease filters.
Once you’ve identified your model, I find that it’s best to simply do a bit of a price check on a few of the many ‘Cooker Spares’ sites on the net, and it’s also worth checking out our old friend Amazon, as they often come up with the best price!
