How to clean rangehoods, by brand

A hood that switches itself on never reminds you it needs cleaning, which is the one real drawback of an otherwise excellent feature.

If a replacement filter seems unobtainable under the Ariston name, it is worth checking what the same hood is called elsewhere in the Whirlpool group.

These go into renovations rather than original fit-outs, which usually means a wider canopy than the kitchen previously had and a duct that has not changed.

A wide brushed stainless canopy hanging at eye level is the most visible surface in the kitchen, and the least forgiving of a careless cloth.

Fifteen years in an apartment, two or three owners, and not one of them has ever dropped a filter out.

In a package kitchen this is the appliance with no advocate. The oven smokes, the hob is visible, and the hood simply gets quieter about doing less.

In a matched apartment kitchen this is the appliance nobody thinks about, which is exactly why it is the one holding a decade of grease.

Bosch, Neff and Siemens hoods share more than their owners realise, which is useful when you are trying to identify a filter that no longer has a label on it.

On a hood this old the filters are the easy part. The question worth asking is what the duct above it looks like after two decades.

Three badges, one group, and frequently one filter, which is worth knowing when a replacement seems unobtainable.

A canopy sized to match a 900mm range is moving considerably more air than a standard hood, and usually on the same maintenance schedule.

A hood in a rental property has usually never been opened by anyone, because no tenant considers it theirs and no agent inspects above eye level.

A canopy over a Falcon range is extracting from a great deal more cooking than a standard hood, and it is usually cleaned on a standard schedule.

These are usually fitted into a bank of joinery in a newer build, which looks excellent and hides the one thing that actually goes wrong.

Franke is better known for sinks and hoods than for ovens, which means the rangehood is the appliance the brand actually cares about.

A Gaggenau extractor may not be a canopy at all. Downdraft and island units hide their filters in places people never think to open.

An IKEA hood in an apartment is usually recirculating, which means a charcoal filter is doing all the odour control and has probably never been changed.

A hood over a 120cm ILVE is extracting from five or six burners at once. It loads faster than any hood in a normal kitchen and it usually gets cleaned less.

On most hoods a filter that will not clean gets replaced. On a Kleenmaid it may not be replaceable, which makes the soak matter far more.

The hood above a La Germania range shares its worst risk with the range itself: anything that drips from it lands on enamel.

The hood is styled to match the range, which means it carries the same brass and the same rule about what may touch it.

A Miele hood paired with a Miele hob runs itself, which is the point of it and also exactly why its filters are dirtier than the owner thinks.

Neff, Bosch and Siemens hoods share more than their owners realise, which matters when a filter has lost its label and the model sticker has faded.

In a matched project-home package this is the appliance nobody thinks about, which is why it is usually the one furthest behind.

Hood filters lose their labels faster than anything else in a kitchen, which is exactly when it helps to know what else the same part is called.

The filters are the part everyone cleans and the part that matters least once they are soaked. The grease that causes the smell and the noise is behind them, in the fan housing.

A hood installed in 1990 has had thirty five years of vapour through its duct, and nobody has ever looked at it.

In a matched project-home kitchen the hood is the appliance that never announces a problem, so it is the one that has never been touched.

This is the appliance quietly setting the maintenance schedule for the two beside it, and the one nobody has opened.

These hoods outlast the kitchens they are fitted in. The filters are the easy part; the ducting above a twenty year old unit is the part nobody has ever looked at.

Fitted by developers in volume, which means the hood is as old as the building and has almost certainly never been opened.