Stove Hood / Vent

jlgrillot

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2012
Messages
26
Location
Kettering
Hi All Escape Fans,

In the process of planning our 19' Escape for the fall of 2013.

Would like feedback on the pro's and con's of deleting the stove hood / vent fan normally installed over the stove.

Thanks Jim
 
I made the decision to eliminate it in my May 2013 15A based solely on comments made in many different threads on this forum. It will be good to have this topic drawn together in one thread.
 
While we do use it whenever we cook inside, as it usually involved boiling water, it is nice to send this unwanted moisture directly outside. However, if I was to do it again, I might eliminate it an just use the ceiling fan, so to keep things looking simpler inside. I would just have an additional light mounted in its place.
 
I also only use it when cooking indoors, which is rare. Still, it helps keep the smoke alarm from going off when making toast & does pull out the moisture when boiling water.
 
Lighting

If you do eliminate the hood consider another light fixture in in its place. We use the hood light frequently to add lighting to the work area of the "kitchen".
 
I think if I had to do it over again I would not get the hood/fan , its very noisy and does not pull very much, the max fan is close by and pulls way more air and makes a fraction of the noise, we have pretty much stoped using ours and just turn on the max fan, I think not having it would clean up and open up the 19 ft alot. I have actually tried having both on just to see and the max fan out works the hood/fan on low speed, you can watch the steam from the kettle go over to the max fan even when the hood fan is on.
 
We used ours on our first big trip, but it seemed we used it only because it was there. I have to agree that the Maxx fan is terrific and probably all you need.

A decent light would be useful. We didn't use the hood one because it is not LED and draws a lot of power from the battery if not plugged in. Even when hooked up it is not a very strong light.

We kept forgetting to open the little latches that keep it shut while travelling and forgetting to close them when we took off.

I do think the hood looks cool, especially in SS, but it was my favorite place to bump my head (Glenn's favorite place was on the overhead cabinet above the dinette beside the door.) It took us almost our whole trip to stop doing that. :eek:

Rosemary
 
We put in the extra light in place of the range hood, and are happy with that decision. We opted to skip the range hood based on two factors: 1 -- It makes the trailer seem more spacious inside, and 2 -- We decided from the start to avoid cooking much of anything inside that might leave unpleasant odors. We didn't expect the range hood to reliably remove the odors anyway.

When visiting other small trailers at campgrounds, the first thing we often notice is the retained smell of old cooking, perhaps absorbed into the mattresses and cushions. It's likely that the owners are unaware of it, but to us it's unpleasant.
 
True stainless is non-ferrous, most things claiming to be stainless these days are either stainless plated or poor grade stainless.
 
There are 3 groups of stainless steels: austenitic, martensitic, and ferritic. They are all known as stainless steels but they have different properties that make them suited for different applications.
The stainless steel that most consumers encounter is austenitic stainless (18-8, 18% Cr, 8% Ni) and a magnet will not stick to it. A magnet will stick to ferritic stainless which is "used extensively for kitchen equipment, dairy machinery, interior decorative work, automobile trimmings, and chemical equipment (to resist nitric acid corrosion)" (Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, 8th ed., 1978).
 
Stove Hood/Vent

I eliminated the stove fan/vent from our build list as I thought it took up too much "visual" space. I was more concerned with adding more lighting and since everyone raved about the efficiency of the Max Fans, I felt confident it was enough.

Also, since I was planning to add a back splash, I had Reace put a block of plywood in the wall so I had something to anchor to. I ended up using an acrylic mirror to further reflect light and make it feel more spacious - it's almost like having a window over the stove!


 

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We used ours on our first big trip, but it seemed we used it only because it was there. I have to agree that the Maxx fan is terrific and probably all you need.
Rosemary

I pulled out the hood in my 19' and installed a double light in it's place and like the "open space" look but I do have the vent cut through the side and have been trying to figure out how to either use it or cover it. Today I reversed the rotation of the Maxx Fan and even on medium speed it will push the vent flaps completely open with a lot of air flowing out from the top area of the range top out of the trailer. The Maxx Fan makes the vent work perfectly, making the vent opening useful for those times when we need to cook indoors. Now we will come up with some sort of sponge foam cover for the vent that is washable.
 
I think an issue than needs consideration is that the hood has a filter in it to remove cooking grease and smoke particles. If the Max Fan is only pushing steam from boiling water, it's not an issue, but frying pork chops could make a mess.
 

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