Fat filters for hoods: varieties, their features and disadvantages + how to choose

Kitchen hoods remove polluted air from the kitchen, most often to the street and, it would seem, why in this case, filtering is needed. After all, these are additional costs and troubles associated with the selection, purchase, and replacement of equipment responsible for cleaning.

All this is true, but it is worth knowing that grease filters for hoods are an indispensable part of its design and in this case, save yourself at the expense of it. Moreover, losses can be serious, including damage to equipment, ignition of the resulting fatty deposits.

Why air purification from fat?

Modern hoods are able to work in two popular modes. The first is the removal of air outside the kitchen, that is, into the street or into the ventilation shaft. The second way is recycling, after which the air masses that have already been used, but are cleaned from pollution, enter the room.

Depending on the operating mode of the hood, grease filters perform the following functions:

1. When venting. Protect structural elements, including the engine, from exposure to large particles of dirt (grease, soot).
2. During recirculation. They purify the air from the above elements in order to purify the air, and also serve to protect the engine and other parts of the ventilation equipment design.

In addition, grease traps in recirculation hoods protect carbon filterused to remove odors, gases, some combustion products.

As the above information indicates, a grease filter for any modern hood is necessary to protect its structural elements from the effects of any large dirt particles.

The protection of an expensive engine and other structural elements depends only on the grease trap

Why is this needed? If you do not cleanse grease, soot, then in just a few weeks all kinds of internal surfaces of the hood and the engine will be covered with a suspension of layered dirt particles.

Unfiltered dust will enhance its abrasive properties. What will cause a significant increase in the load on all rubbing hood elements, first of all, this concerns an expensive engine.

As a result, increased wear will begin, after which premature breakdowns will occur, which will lead to significant financial losses.

Steel filter, it is strong, durable. Conveniently, it can be used several times by removing grease from the surface with detergents

When recycling duties, a grease filter is added. And poor-quality cleaning will lead to significantly greater negative consequences.

The reason for this lies in the fact that the air that will be reused is cleaned not only of fat, products of combustion, but also of odors.

Aluminum filter. A lock is visible in the foreground, making it easy to install the product or remove for maintenance

Therefore, an additional expensive filter element is used to remove them, which should also be protected. After all, dust and grease deposits easily, and most importantly quickly, lead to a loss in the effectiveness of the odor-collecting filter.

As a result of cleaning coal extractor will not be executed, and this again is additional financial costs, harm to health.

Varieties of grease filters

The industry supplies a large number of products for filtering fat particles, combustion products. They come in all kinds of sizes, differ in manufacturing materials and efficiency.

Basic product classification

But with all the variety, there are only 2 main varieties of grease filters. The indicated categories include disposable and reusable products. Each variety has a number of advantages and disadvantages that you should pay attention to when buying a hood or filter elements themselves.

Disposable filters. As the name indicates, all products belonging to this category are used once, that is, before pollution. Since after that they lose their effectiveness and do not provide the proper level of cleaning.

Acrylic grease filter is easily adjusted to the desired size, is durable, efficient

Reusable filters. Elements related to this variety are used together with the hood throughout its life. To ensure high-quality filtration, they are periodically required to be cleaned of accumulated fat and combustion products.

Modern grease filters are made from synthetic and organic non-woven fibers or metals. Regardless of the material of manufacture, they are all easy to use and able to provide sufficient cleaning quality, but the similarities end there.

Fiber grease filters

They are mainly made from synthetic materials: acrylic, polyester fibers, which are also simply called syntepon.

But often used and non-woven, made from cellulose. Therefore, the products are paper-like, that is, organic. To increase their strength, sizing is often used.

Disposable filters are always cheaper than metal filters, but they often have to be changed in view of the impossibility of giving them their original appearance after washing

Regardless of the origin of the fibers, filters made from them are always disposable. Except in certain cases - this is the case today with acrylic products that are allowed to be used repeatedly, but they are not fully reusable.

Since after each cleaning their effectiveness decreases, so the service life is short.In addition, disposable products belong to the cheapest segment of filtering devices.

This is their drawback - although the cost of fiber products is several times less than metal, but they will need to be thrown away every few months, which leads to regular spending.

It will be more practical if instead of one large cassette 2 small ones will be used - they are easier to remove and more convenient to wash

Sometimes owners try to extend the life of one-time filters by washing, which is absolutely impossible. Since after any such treatment the fiber structure is violated, after which the product will no longer be able to perform high-quality cleaning. Which will lead to negative consequences in the form of increased equipment wear.

Metal Grease Catchers

All kinds of filters made of metal are always reusable, more precisely, they are used throughout the life of the hood itself.

The material of manufacture may be:

• foil;
• stainless steel or galvanized steel;
• aluminum.

When using the first option for the manufacture of filtering devices take several layers of foil. Perforation is used to increase efficiency - holes made with it help to more successfully fight dirt. Such filter elements successfully cope with the work, but their strength and durability are not the highest.

Stainless steel or galvanized products are guaranteed to last as long as a hood. They have excellent strength, safety, high efficiency, as well as corrosion resistance.

Although with improper care, traces of rust can be seen on the metal surface. The most significant drawback is the considerable cost, which is why this category of filters can only be seen on hoods no lower than the middle class.

Aluminum fixtures are also durable, as are steel ones. They are distinguished by efficiency, strength, durability. Sometimes anodizing is used to enhance the latter characteristic, which eliminates the oxidation of the material.

The disadvantage of the products is high cost. This is especially true for filters made using anodizing - they are installed only on expensive hoods. Any of the metal grease filters is a cartridge consisting of a sturdy frame and thin mesh sheets of steel, aluminum, and foil.

Actually, they are responsible for cleaning the air from pollution. All grid cells are rotated at a certain angle, which allows you to change the direction of flows for the efficient capture of dirt particles.

The filter element of all metal filters is a perforated mesh.

The grid may be asymmetric or uniform. None of the types of perforation has obvious advantages, as well as disadvantages, so when buying at this point, you should not pay attention. To increase efficiency, the filter elements can consist of several layers of grids.

In this case, the air will change direction many times, which will allow you to catch a greater amount of fat, combustion products. For ease of use, manufacturers often share one filter into 2-3 separate cassettes. So, they are more convenient to dismantle, clean and install back.

Grease Filter Dimensions

All kinds of reusable metal tools are most often used throughout the life of the hood, so the question of changing the elements responsible for cleaning is extremely rare.

But, if there was a desire to replace the old filtering material with a more effective one, then this is not difficult. Since the industry produces products of various sizes.

All that needs to be done in this case is to find out in the attached cooker hood passport the exact dimensions of each cartridge, the filter as a whole. If the sizes are non-standard, then even then it will turn out to get out of position.Due to the fact that there are a sufficient number of manufacturers in the country who are ready to make a piece product, but its cost will be higher.

Grease filters for metal can be of various sizes and shapes - from small household models to huge ones used in industrial premises

Quite simply, the issue of size is solved when using disposable grease filters, even with the most non-standard sizes. In this case, a larger product is simply bought and all the excess is cut off with scissors, moreover, with ordinary ones.

This is easy to do, because disposable filters are made only from synthetic and organic fibers. They are even visually similar to ordinary rugs, sponges, with the processing of which there are no difficulties.

Grease Filter Service

All reusable products used to clean air from grease are easy to maintain. It consists mainly of the removal of contaminants accumulated in the mesh cells. To perform this procedure, filters are removed from the seats.

It is not difficult to do this - convenient fasteners are used to fasten them, allowing you to quickly cope with the locking / unlocking. Next, the filter is placed in a container with soapy water and treated with a brush.

As a detergent, you can use ordinary household soap, a half-piece of which must first be grated on any coarse grater, and pour the resulting shavings with 3 liters of moderately heated water. Despite its simplicity, this is a fairly effective and economical way to get rid of dirt quickly enough.

The grease filter is able to filter out so much dirt in just a few weeks of work in an ordinary kitchen of an average family

If there is no desire to mess with the preparation of a soap solution, then you can take any specialized tools, including those that are used for washing dishes. After cleaning the mesh material, the filter must be washed under running water.

In the presence of dishwasher and its corresponding dimensions, the washing procedure can be automated. But a very dirty product is so far from always washed. Therefore, the main way is a manual wash.

To remove dirt do not use:

• washing powders - often their use leads to scratches on the metal surface;
• baking soda for aluminum - this product often leaves brown streaks on the metal surface;
• alkaline, acidic preparations for the purification of aluminum - these potent substances will lead to the darkening of the specified metal;
• abrasive brushes - they leave noticeable marks on the metal.

If the filter element is made of aluminum, then when washing in a dishwasher, you do not need to select high-temperature modes. Since hot water can contribute to the oxidation of the specified metal, which will lead to its darkening.

After the cleaning procedure, the product is allowed to dry, even at room temperature and after any type of cleaning. Failure to do so may result in corrosion.

In order for the filter to be as effective as indicated in the photo, it must be washed and dried regularly at room temperature

Maintenance of disposable filters is reduced to monitoring their condition and replacing them with a new product after contamination. It is not difficult to determine the moment of replacement, since special signs begin to appear on the surface of the product, indicating the maximum permissible dirt content in the pores of the cleaning element.

Landmarks of the right choice

If it is necessary to purchase a grease catcher for an existing hood, then first of all it is necessary to clarify its dimensions. Next, you need to determine the type of filter. But it should be understood that inexpensive disposable products will be a practical option only for small hoodsmounted in kitchen furniture.

In addition, these devices should not be used if the room is often cooked. In this case, disposable "rugs" will quickly exhaust their capabilities, after which they will have to be disposed of.

Buying a reusable foil product can only be caused by a desire to save. Since only steel and aluminum products can be considered truly practical filters without any restrictions.

The latter require more thorough care, which will help to avoid oxidation with a subsequent color change, but they are considered more durable. Although this advantage is conditional, since steel elements can serve for decades.

All grease filters are equipped with convenient and practical locks for easy removal.

If you want to choose the most practical option, then you need to buy a product consisting of 2-3 cassettes. After all, a large-sized grease catcher is more difficult to wash, to perform other manipulations with it, for example, installation, dismantling.

It should also be remembered that a larger number of mesh layers provides better cleaning quality. But the cost will be higher.

After purchase, make sure that between the filter frame and the housing full-size hood there are no gaps. Because their presence will lead to the ingress of dirt into the ventilation circuit, which should not be allowed.

Deposition of fat on the walls of the channels ventilation system in the kitchen inevitably leads to a narrowing and reduction in air velocity through the duct. This means that it entails a loss in the quality characteristics of the microclimate with all the attendant, not very attractive consequences.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

Most often, owners of hoods have difficulties only with cleaning the grease catchers from dirt. The following video will tell you how to correctly perform the specified procedure:

This video shows how to get the owner of the hood out of position if there is no grease catcher of suitable dimensions:

Modern grease filters are practical products that can effectively clean the air of contaminants. But it should be remembered that the best result is possible only with the correct selection of the grease catcher.

This applies to size, material of manufacture. Also, one should not forget about the timeliness of cleaning the purchased filter or its entire effectiveness will be reduced to zero.

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