Do You Need A Vent For An Electric Stove?
If you’re a proud owner of an electric cooktop, then you already know about the many benefits it can offer to you in terms of ease of control and heating efficiency. Not only are electric cooktops incredibly sleek in their appearance, but also provide heating more uniformly and efficiently than gas stoves. Maybe not all but the best electric stoves do exhibit these attributes.
This is why they can be on the higher end in terms of pricing, but it is a beneficial investment to make, especially for owners of smaller kitchen spaces. However, a little known fact is that you need a vent for an electric stove as well, despite the fact that it does not produce visibly intense fumes like gas stoves do.
Here today in this write up, you’ll get an overview of the many benefits you can get if you decide to install a range hood over your electric cooktop – both in terms of functionality and appearance – as well as a decisive way to calculate the minimum CFM of your electric stove range hood, so as to answer the question of “do you need a vent for an electric stove?” altogether.
Do You Need A Vent For An Electric Stove?
There are a couple of options you have when you’re deciding upon whether you should install a range hood for your stove. You can either have a gas stove if you have a larger kitchen for more intense power in your cooking or a quieter and smaller electric stove for more compact kitchen spaces.
While many might expect electric cooktops to not need venting since they do not release as many fumes as gas stoves do, this notion is actually a myth. If you’re wondering “is a vent required for an electric cooktop?,” the answer is a decisive yes.
Electric cooktops need to be vented with the help of a range hood as well, and for a variety of reasons. With around 600 CFM for the range hood of your electric stove, you can install a ductless range hood for the best results. This will be discussed at length in the subsequent sections.
The Many Benefits Of Installing A Range Hood For An Electric Stove
1. Removes Cooking Fumes
With certain kinds of cuisines, there is a greater chance of you experiencing fumes from your cooking. Deep frying, especially, can make your kitchen air grimy – and an excessive buildup of these fumes can even lead to suffocation or choking for you.
Once you have installed a range hood over your electric stove, you’re safe to attempt all kinds of cuisines without getting a faceful of terrible odors and excessive smoke from your cuisines, since the former can vent it all out of your kitchen.
You’ll no longer have to deal with the accumulation of your cooking fumes and can enjoy cleaner kitchen air – one of the biggest advantages of installing a range hood with an electric stove.
2. Prevents Grease and Dirt Buildup On Cabinets
With the cooking fumes, your cooktop may also release a number of gases that can combine in order to accumulate on your cabinets and other kitchen appliances. This results in excessive grease on every surface – which not only looks extremely unattractive, but can result in the formation of bacteria in the long run.
Along with bacteria, cooking can sometimes also result in the formation of soot over all of your kitchen appliances. When you have a range hood in place, all of the impurities in the air can be sucked in by the charcoal filters present as a part of your range hood.
3. Improves Indoor Air Quality
Not only can range hoods eliminate the fumes you can be on the receiving end of when you’re cooking, but it also keeps the air inside your kitchen cleaner that may potentially pollute your home.
This includes harmful substances in the air such as exhaust fumes and even carbon monoxide – leading to humidity in your kitchen, which may be the beginning of a bigger mold infestation. To avoid this, it is best to install a range hood that can be either vented outside so that all the pollutants in your kitchen receive an outlet, or be regulated with the help of a charcoal filter in case of recirculating hoods.
4. Increases Home Value
One of the biggest reasons why homeowners install appliances in their kitchen is whether they add visually to their kitchen in terms of aesthetics. If you’re big on the spatial beauty of your cooking space, then you can definitely invest in a range hood for the purpose of increasing your home value.
If you’re planning on reselling the property, then you can rest assured that any individual looking for a home will prefer a kitchen with a range hood owing to its sleek minimalism in terms of the aesthetics – and of course, the many health benefits it can pose for your kitchen.
5. Work Surface Lights Ease Prepping
Next on answering the question of “does an electric stove need a vent?,” let’s talk about its additional features. For the purposes of cooking and prepping, you may need additional lighting to illuminate your workspace so you can work efficiently. All under cabinet range hoods (the most prominent type in domestic settings) come with work surface lights.
Without a range hood installed, you will have to switch on your kitchen lights for the same purpose – and this is something that can be easily avoided with the inbuilt lighting system that range hoods provide.
Simply by turning on the lights in your range hood, you can save an unexpected amount of money that you would otherwise have to put aside for electricity bills. This makes the installation of a range hood extremely cost-efficient, apart from being beneficial to your kitchen air.
Deciding the Venting Power For An Electric Stove
There are a couple of ways that you can use when you’re decided what the venting power should be when your range hood is coupled with your electric cooktop. Typically, you can attempt to measure the width of your electric stove – let’s say it’s 34” – and then multiply the same with 10.
This gives you a minimum CFM of 340 for your range hood mounted on your electric stove. Similarly, you can also calculate the total number of British thermal units of your cooktop, while dividing this number by 100.
You can calculate the total BTUs by adding up the BTUs provided by each of the burners on your stove – so if six burners can provide you with 5,000 BTUs each, then the minimum CFM required by your range hood comes to be 300. However, it is best to add an additional 100 – 200 CFM to this number, especially if your typical cuisine style requires more power out of your cooktop.
Verdict | Is A Vent Required For An Electric Cooktop?
So do electric stoves need to be vented? While having an electric stovetop might actually mean a more compact kitchen space with greater ease of cleaning, it is not very different from gas cooktops in terms of the fumes it can produce while cooking.
To avoid these fumes and the buildup of the same in your kitchen, it is imperative to invest in a range hood – and as seen from the above benefits, cleaning up your kitchen and indoor air is only one of the benefits that you can get out of your range hood. We’ve rounded up reviews of some top-selling range hoods across leading brands that you may refer if you’re in need of one –
And while you may require a less powerful range hood for your electric stove, it is always best to purchase one that has a higher than required CFM – owing to the fact that it can thus be constantly used and provide noiseless ventilation for your kitchen. On the off chance, if for some reason, you just don’t want to pair your electric cooktop with a range hood, there are some thoughtful range hood alternatives that you may consider instead. Whatever you see fit, one thing stays constant, electric cooktops still need to be vented.
