St GeorgeAustralia

How to Clean a St George Rangehood

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

3 min read · Written by Oven Valets, cleaning rangehoods across Sydney and greater NSW for 15+ years

Soak the filters flat rather than replacing them, since heritage St George filters are unlikely to be obtainable. The more significant question on a hood this old is the ducting above it, which has had decades of cooking vapour through it.

A St George rangehood in an older Sydney home has usually been running since the kitchen was built, which frequently means the 1980s or 1990s.

Thirty five years of duct

This is the finding that matters on a hood of this vintage, and it is not about the appliance.

Fat condenses on the inside of a duct and hardens, layer over layer, for as long as the hood runs. A duct fitted in the early 1990s has had thirty five years of that, and nobody has ever seen it, because it disappears into a ceiling or a wall cavity and there is no reason to look.

Two consequences. The duct is progressively restricted, so the hood moves less air every year in a decline slow enough that nobody notices. And a duct heavily lined with hardened fat is a genuine fire risk, which is why commercial kitchens have theirs cleaned on a schedule and domestic ones essentially never do.

On a St George hood the ducting is more likely to be the real problem than the filters are, and it is worth establishing before paying anyone to clean the visible parts.

Filters you probably cannot replace

Heritage St George filters are unlikely to be available, which inverts the usual advice. Rather than soaking once and replacing if it fails, soak twice with a change of water and give it considerably more patience than you would give a filter you could renew.

Where a filter is genuinely finished, measure it. Standard rectangular mesh sizes are more interchangeable than model-specific ones, and there is a fair chance yours is a common dimension in a St George frame.

The general method is on our rangehood cleaning guide.

The impeller behind the filters

With the filters out, look up with a torch. The impeller sits in a housing above, and on a hood that has run for three decades that housing carries a hard brown lacquer of everything the filters ever missed.

That deposit is behind all three complaints people have about old hoods. The smell is warm grease in a warm housing. The noise is a fan thrown out of balance by uneven build-up. The poor extraction is a loaded impeller moving less air.

Isolate the power at the wall or the circuit breaker before anything goes near it. On an installation of this vintage the switch is frequently not where you would expect and occasionally not labelled at all, so establish it properly rather than assuming.

What actually goes wrong

Decades of ducting nobody has inspected.

A filter discarded that could not be replaced.

An impeller housing never opened, which is where the smell and the noise come from.

Should you do it yourself?

Do it yourself for the filters, patiently and regularly.

Get someone in to establish what the duct actually looks like, which on a hood this old is the question worth answering. The St George oven and St George cooktop are usually the same age.

St George rangehood questions

Does thirty year old rangehood ducting need cleaning?
It is worth having looked at, yes. Fat condenses on the duct wall and hardens layer over layer for as long as the hood runs, which both restricts airflow in a decline slow enough that nobody notices, and creates a genuine fire risk when heavily built up. On a hood installed in the 1980s or 1990s the duct is more likely to be the real limitation than the filters are.
Can I get replacement St George rangehood filters?
Unlikely for a heritage unit, which is why the usual advice inverts. Rather than soaking once and replacing if it fails, soak twice with a change of water and considerably more patience. If a filter is genuinely finished, measure it, because standard rectangular mesh sizes are more interchangeable than model-specific ones.
Why has my old rangehood stopped pulling air?
Three likely causes in order: loaded filters, a grease-loaded impeller behind them that filter cleaning never addresses, and on an installation this old, ducting partly lined with hardened fat. The third is the one nobody checks and the one most likely on a hood that has run for decades.

How Oven Valets cleans a St George rangehood

  • Our products are non-caustic and biodegradable, so coatings, trim and seals are not at risk and the appliance is safe to use as soon as we leave.
  • Removable parts come out and are cleaned separately rather than wiped in place, and every piece goes back where it belongs.
  • We tell you what we find, including when a part is past saving, rather than cleaning around it.
  • Fully insured, with fixed GST-inclusive pricing and no call-out fee.

Rather have someone else do it?

Fixed, GST-inclusive pricing with no call-out fee. Non-caustic and biodegradable products, so the appliance is safe to use as soon as we leave. Rated 4.9 from 88 Google reviews.

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Oven Valets is an independent cleaning service. We are not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by any appliance manufacturer named on this page. Brand names are used to identify the appliances we clean.