Types of Range Hoods: Meaning, Parts and How to Choose One

A range hood is the canopy over a stove, with a fan and filters inside, that catches the grease, steam, heat, smoke and combustion gases rising off the burners and either ducts them outdoors or filters them and blows the air back into the room. The six types of range hoods are under-cabinet, wall-mount chimney, island, insert (a liner and blower inside a custom or wood shell), downdraft and the over-the-range microwave, and what separates them is where they mount and how much of the cooking plume they catch.

"Range" is the American word for a stove that combines a cooktop and an oven, and "hood" is the canopy shape. The rest of this page is the detail behind those two sentences: the parts inside every hood, how ducted and ductless hoods differ, the sizing rules that matter more than the fan, and what we sell versus what comes from an appliance store.

We sell cabinets for a living, and the hood is the one appliance that is also a piece of cabinetry. That puts us in the middle of a lot of confused conversations: people who ordered a wood hood and expected a fan inside it, people who were told a microwave "is" a hood, and people who bought a recirculating kit because it was listed as a duct cover.

Key Takeaways

• Definition: a hood is a capture device over the cooking surface. The canopy catches the plume, the blower moves it, and the duct takes it outdoors.
• Six types: under-cabinet, wall-mount chimney, island, insert (a liner and blower inside a custom or wood shell), downdraft, and the over-the-range microwave.
• Ducted beats recirculating on every measure except installation. A charcoal filter reduces odor; it does nothing for heat, moisture or the combustion gases from a gas burner.
• Size by width and height first: at least as wide as the cooktop (wider is better), mounted within the height range your hood and range manuals give.
• Above 400 CFM the model residential code can require makeup air in homes with certain fuel-burning appliances; your local building department decides.
• What we sell: Fabuwood Allure wood hood shells with a stainless liner, no blower included, plus Broan RHBB 250, 400 and 600 CFM inserts and a recirculating kit. We do not sell island, downdraft, under-cabinet or microwave hoods.

Table of Contents

• What the Word Means: Range, Hood and the Other Names
• What a Hood Actually Removes
• The Six Types of Range Hoods
• Anatomy: Every Part of a Hood, Named
• Ducted vs Ductless Hoods: Where the Air Goes
• Sizing Rules: Width, Depth and Mounting Height
• CFM and Makeup Air, Briefly
• What We Sell: Wood Kitchen Hoods and Broan Inserts
• Choosing a Type: Five Questions in Order
• Frequently Asked Questions

What the Word Means: Range, Hood and the Other Names

The two halves of the name describe two different objects. A range is a freestanding or slide-in appliance that puts a cooktop and an oven in one box; in American usage it is simply the word for a stove. The hood is the canopy above it, open at the bottom so rising air walks straight into it. The name stuck even in kitchens where there is no range at all, only a cooktop in a counter with a wall oven somewhere else.

The same object goes by several names on spec sheets and in stores:

• Rangehood, written as one word, is common in Australia and New Zealand and turns up in American listings too. It means exactly the same thing.
• Vent hood, exhaust hood and kitchen hood are generic American alternatives. Contractors often just say "the vent."
• Cooker hood and extractor hood are the British terms, because a range is a "cooker" in the UK.
• Insert, liner, power pack and blower name parts inside a hood, not the hood itself. The anatomy section covers each one.

The table sorts out the appliance names that get mixed up with it.

For how each of these appliances claims its own cabinet, from the range gap in the base run to the tall oven cabinet, our guide to kitchen cabinet types lays out the whole family.

What a Hood Actually Removes

Cooking throws a column of hot air upward, which ventilation people call the plume. It carries five things you would rather not keep in the house.

• Grease, as fine droplets that settle on the nearest cool surfaces: the upper doors, the ceiling and the hood's own underside. It is why finishes near a range age first; our cabinet cleaning and care guide covers getting it off.
• Moisture from boiling pots, which ends up as condensation on windows and, over years, in the paint and wood around the range.
• Heat, which carries the grease and steam up to the cabinets.
• Smoke and odor. Searing and frying produce fine particles along with the smell, and they come from the food, not the fuel, so an induction kitchen makes them too. The EPA lists cooking as an indoor source of particulate matter and recommends exhaust fans vented outside when cooking.
• Combustion gases from a gas flame: nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and water vapor. The EPA's guidance on nitrogen dioxide names gas stoves among the indoor sources and advises an exhaust fan vented to the outdoors over them. This is why a filter-only hood is a weak answer over gas.

The design problem is capture. The plume rises and spreads, and a hood can only remove what reaches it. So the canopy's shape, width and height matter as much as the fan, and a quiet, well-placed hood usually beats a loud, badly placed one.

The Six Types of Range Hoods

Retailers slice hoods by material, style and price. The useful split is by where the hood mounts and how it captures, because that decides what your cabinets, ceiling and duct route have to do. Every product you will be shown is one of these six.

Under-cabinet vent hoods

The plainest and cheapest type: a stainless or painted-metal box, usually 30 or 36 inches wide, fastened to the underside of a short wall cabinet above the range. The duct goes up through that cabinet, which loses most of its shelf space, or straight out the back wall. Capture is decent when the hood reaches over the front burners; the cheapest models are shallow and miss them. It disturbs a continuous row of uppers least, which is why builders like it.

Wall-mount chimney hoods

A canopy fixed to the wall with a vertical cover, the chimney, running from its top to the ceiling to hide the duct. There is no cabinet above it, so the upper run has to stop on either side and leave a gap. That gap is the design move: it turns the cooking wall into a composition instead of a row of doors. Most stainless "designer" hoods and most wood hoods are this type. Our glossary entry on chimney hoods and its sibling on wall-mount hoods give the short versions.

Island hoods

An island hood hangs from the ceiling with a chimney on all four sides. It has to work harder than a wall hood. A wall acts as a backstop that guides the plume upward; over an island, drafts from doors, windows and people walking past pull the plume sideways. So island hoods are usually specified wider and with more airflow than a wall hood over the same burners, and the ceiling needs blocking and a duct route through the joists. A related style, the ceiling-mounted or flush extractor, sits in the ceiling itself. It looks clean, but it is the furthest from the plume of anything on this list. Check the walkway math in our island clearance guide before you commit to either.

Inserts: a liner and a blower inside a custom shell

This is what most people mean by "a custom hood." The part you see is a shell of wood to match the cabinets, plaster, or hammered metal, and it holds no machinery on its own. Inside sits a metal liner, which protects the shell from heat and grease and gives the fan something to mount to, and a blower insert (also called a power pack), a self-contained box with the fan, lights, filters and controls that fits into the liner. The shell sets the look and the capture area; the insert sets the airflow and noise. Buy them as a matched set, because an insert only fits the liner opening it was designed for.

It is the only type we sell, and the key fact belongs here: a wood hood shell, ours included, does not come with a blower in it unless the listing says so.

Downdraft vents

A downdraft pulls air sideways and down, either through a slot built into the cooktop surface or through a panel that rises a few inches behind it when switched on. The blower and the duct live in the base cabinet below, and the duct usually runs through the floor. It exists for one situation, an island cooktop where the owner does not want anything hanging from the ceiling, and it performs worst of the six because it fights the direction hot air travels. It also takes a big bite out of the base cabinet beneath, so plan the drawers around the blower.

Over-the-range microwaves

An over-the-range (OTR) microwave is a microwave oven with a small exhaust fan and filters built into its underside, installed where a hood would go. It saves counter space, but it compromises capture on every count. It is shallow, typically around 15 to 17 inches deep, so it barely covers the front burners. It hangs low and its fan is modest. And an OTR can usually be set up to recirculate or to exhaust through the cabinet above or out the back wall; if nobody sets it up for outdoor exhaust at installation, it never vents outdoors at all.

The model's installation instructions set the opening width and the clearance above the cooktop. If you want a microwave off the counter without giving up a proper hood, a microwave wall cabinet or a tall oven cabinet is the other route; our microwave cabinet glossary entry covers the options, and the wall and tall cabinet guide has the heights.

Anatomy: Every Part of a Hood, Named

Every type above is built from the same list of parts, arranged differently. Knowing the names matters most with an insert hood, where different parts come from different suppliers.

Filters: baffle, mesh and charcoal

Baffle filters are rows of overlapping metal channels. Air has to zig-zag through them, and the heavier grease cannot make the turns; it hits the metal, condenses and runs into a gutter. They hold their airflow as they load, which is why professional hoods use them. Mesh filters are layers of aluminum screen that catch grease like a sieve. They are cheaper and lose airflow as they clog. A hybrid baffle puts a baffle face in front of a mesh layer. Charcoal filters are for odor, appear only on recirculating setups, and are replaced rather than washed. Grease-loaded filters are the most common reason a hood that worked well at first gets weak and loud; the insert's manual sets the cleaning interval.

Where the blower lives

Most hoods carry the blower inside the canopy or the insert. Some systems move it partway along the duct (an inline blower, often in the attic) or to the roof or an outside wall (a remote blower), which takes much of the noise out of the kitchen at the cost of more parts and harder servicing. Every insert we sell is the internal kind.

Ducted vs Ductless Hoods: Where the Air Goes

Ducted (vented): air goes in through the grease filters, through the blower, out the top or back of the hood, through a metal duct and a backdraft damper, and leaves the house through a wall or roof cap. Everything in the plume goes with it: grease that slipped past the filters, moisture, heat, odor and combustion gases.

Recirculating (ductless), which is how a ductless range hood works: air goes in through the grease filters, through the blower, through a charcoal filter, and is blown back into the kitchen, usually through a grille near the top of the hood. The grease filters catch much of the grease and fresh charcoal takes out much of the odor. Heat, moisture and the gases from a gas flame stay in the room. It is the answer when a duct is genuinely impossible, and a poor one anywhere else. Some hoods are sold convertible, meaning a kit lets them be installed either way. Our inserts work like that, and the kit's listing name causes confusion.

How the RHBB DCT kit and RHBB FLTR refill work

On our hood listings you will find a part filed as "Duct Cover". It is not a decorative cover and it is not ductwork to the outside. It is Fabuwood's RHBB DCT interior ductwork kit, and its job is to turn one of the Broan RHBB inserts into a recirculating hood. Fabuwood's spec book lists the contents: an RHBB FLTR charcoal filter, a soffit grille (11-3/8 by 3-5/8 inches), a 90-degree stack boot, a 7-inch round duct and a 6-to-7-inch round transition. The duct and stack boot turn the blower's discharge back toward the grille, with the charcoal stripping odor on the way. The installation guide supplied with the hood governs the exact assembly, so read it before the hood goes on the wall.

The RHBB FLTR, sold separately, is the kit's replacement charcoal filter. It is not a grease filter; the inserts carry their own washable metal grease filters, and those stay in place whether the hood is ducted or not. Spent charcoal stops working, and a recirculating hood with saturated charcoal is, for odor purposes, just a fan.

Fabuwood's own note on the kit recommends that all hoods be vented to the outside and that buyers consult local building codes and heating appliance requirements before ordering. We agree. The model residential code lets a listed and labeled ductless hood skip outdoor discharge only where it is installed per the manufacturer's instructions and the kitchen gets mechanical or natural ventilation some other way. Our range hood CFM guide has a side-by-side table of what each setup removes.

Sizing Rules: Width, Depth and Mounting Height

A hood is sized in three dimensions before anyone talks about the fan. Our CFM guide covers capture in detail; these are the rules as they affect the cabinet drawing.

• Width. At least as wide as the cooking surface, and wider is better because the plume spreads as it rises. A common rule is about three inches of overhang each side, which is why a 36-inch hood over a 30-inch range is such a frequent pairing. The hood width, not the range width, sets the gap in the upper cabinets: a 36-inch hood needs a 36-inch space between the flanking wall cabinets even though the range still sits in a 30-inch opening. Our Fabuwood sizes and specs guide works through a range wall with the flanking uppers drawn to the inch.
• Depth. Most cooking happens on the front burners, and a shallow hood misses them. Wall hoods typically project well past 12-inch-deep uppers; the Fabuwood wood hoods we sell are drawn in the spec book at roughly 19 to 21 inches deep. That projection is why a hood's sides are always on show.
• Mounting height. Commonly cited ranges put the bottom of the hood 24 to 30 inches above an electric or induction cooktop and 30 to 36 inches above gas. Those are rules of thumb. The binding numbers come from the hood or insert's installation instructions and the range manufacturer's required clearance above the cooking surface; where they disagree, the higher minimum wins.

One consequence surprises people. The hood's bottom edge usually sits several inches higher than the bottoms of the uppers beside it, and that step is correct; do not lower the hood to line things up. Then check the vertical: a 30-inch gas range on a 36-inch counter with the hood 30 inches above the cooktop puts the hood's bottom edge at 66 inches. On an 8-foot ceiling that leaves 30 inches for canopy and chimney together; on a 10-foot ceiling it leaves 54, and a standard chimney may not reach. Our kitchen dimensions guide has the clearances around the range itself.

CFM and Makeup Air, Briefly

CFM stands for cubic feet per minute, the volume of air the blower moves, and it is the number printed biggest on every hood box. It matters less than capture and ducting, and the rated figure comes from test conditions that a long or undersized duct will never match. Ratings certified through the Home Ventilating Institute give you comparable airflow and sound numbers. As a loose guide, a wall hood over a 30-inch electric range is often well served at a few hundred CFM, while a 36-inch gas range with high-output burners can call for 600 or so; the burner, width and room-volume methods, with duct tables and noise ratings, are in our guide to how much ventilation a kitchen needs.

Makeup air is the other half. Every cubic foot a hood pushes out has to be replaced, and in a tight house a strong hood can pull replacement air backwards down the flue of a gas water heater or furnace. The 2021 International Residential Code addresses this in Section M1503.6 of its exhaust systems chapter: where a fuel-burning appliance that is neither direct-vent nor mechanically drafted sits inside the home's air barrier, each exhaust system capable of more than 400 CFM must be provided with makeup air at approximately the rate it exhausts. The IRC is a model code, and it applies only where a state or city adopts it; some jurisdictions are on older editions with broader wording, and some amend it. Ask your local building department before you buy a blower over 400 CFM.

What We Sell: Wood Kitchen Hoods and Broan Inserts

Everything above applies to any hood from anyone. This part is specific to us, because a wood kitchen hood sits between the cabinet shop and the appliance store, and buyers often assume the wrong one supplies a part.

The shells: Fabuwood Allure wood hoods

Every hood in our catalog is a Fabuwood Allure wood hood, finished to match the Allure cabinet collections, so the hood and the doors come out of the same finishing process. Each is an insert-type hood: a wood shell with a stainless steel interior liner included, sized for Fabuwood's Broan-NuTone blower inserts. No blower is included with the shell. The spec book says so on every liner page; the liner is not sold separately. Our site lists the five styles under shopper-friendly names that differ from Fabuwood's, so the table shows both.

Prices are the displayed 36-inch prices in Galaxy Nickel, a standard Galaxy finish, when this was written; they move, and the oak finishes run higher, so check the live hood listings before you budget. A few details from Fabuwood's Allure spec book that change decisions:

• The Arched hood is not available in the Luna door style. The four chimney styles trim on site but do not extend, so measure your ceiling first.
• The Euro and Arched hoods ship with the liner pre-installed; the Farmhouse, Signature and Curved Artisan liners go in on site.
• Fabuwood offers a two-tone finish modification on the four chimney-style hoods, not on the Arched, and not in Walnut.

The finishes and door styles these shells match are covered in our Fabuwood Allure review, and the brand overview lives on the Allure line page.

The inserts: Broan RHBB 250, 400 and 600

The blower is a separate line item: one of three Broan-NuTone RHBB inserts built for Fabuwood's liners.

All three carry Broan-NuTone's one-year limited warranty, all three have LED lights, and all three fit every Allure wood hood with one exception: the 250 is not offered for the 48-inch Arched hood (RHA483021). Notice the gap between name and maximum: the "400" can move up to 450 CFM, which is over the 400 line in the makeup-air rule, so ask your building department how it reads "capable of." Fabuwood notes on every insert that dealers should refer to the heating appliance manufacturer's specifications for ventilation requirements, and that it is not responsible for improper blower selection or installation.

What we do not sell

We do not sell under-cabinet hoods, island hoods, downdraft vents, over-the-range microwaves, inline or remote blowers, blowers over 650 CFM, or ductwork, dampers and wall caps. If your plan needs any of those, they come from an appliance or ventilation supplier, and we design the cabinets around them. What we will not do is pretend a wood shell is a complete hood. The shell, the insert, the duct and the installation are four separate line items, and the budget should show all four.

Choosing a Type: Five Questions in Order

People usually start with the look. It works better to start with the building, because the building rules out options before taste gets a vote.

1. Where is the cooking surface? On a wall, every type is possible. In an island, you are choosing between an island hood, a ceiling extractor and a downdraft, in that order of performance.
2. Can the air get outside, and how far does it travel? A range on an exterior wall can often vent straight out the back with one short run, the best duct there is. An interior wall means a route through the ceiling joists; if that route is long or blocked, ask whether the range could move. If there is truly no route, you are buying a recirculating setup, and the fuel question becomes urgent.
3. What is the fuel? Over gas, ventilate outdoors; a recirculating hood leaves the combustion gases in the room. Over induction or electric, recirculating is more defensible, though heat and moisture still stay in.
4. How wide is the cooktop? That fixes the minimum hood width, and the hood width fixes the gap in your upper cabinets. Settle it before the cabinet drawing, not after.
5. What should the wall look like? Only now does style lead: stainless for a pro look, a wood shell to make the hood part of the cabinetry, often with glass-front uppers on either side, a microwave where counter space outranks everything else. Look at a Fabuwood door sample in your finish under the lighting you plan to use.

If the room is still undecided, our kitchen layouts guide shows where each layout puts the range, and small kitchen ideas covers the tight rooms where a microwave hood comes up.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does range hood mean?

It means the hood over the range: a canopy above the stove with a fan and filters inside that captures cooking grease, steam, heat, odor and smoke and sends them outdoors through a duct, or filters them and returns the air to the room. "Range" is the American word for a stove that combines a cooktop and an oven.

Which type of range hood works best?

For a range on a wall, a chimney hood or an insert in a shell, at least as wide as the cooktop and ducted outdoors, captures the most. An under-cabinet hood does nearly as well if it is deep enough to cover the front burners. Island hoods need extra width and airflow, and downdraft vents and microwaves capture the least.

What is the difference between a range, a cooktop and a hood?

A range is a single appliance with burners on top and an oven below. A cooktop is only the burners or induction zones, set into a cutout in the countertop, with the oven installed somewhere else. The hood is the ventilation above whichever of the two you have, and both need one. For how the counter around a cooktop is sized, see our countertop guide.

What does CFM mean on a range hood?

Cubic feet per minute, the volume of air the blower can move. It is a maximum measured under test conditions, so the real figure in your kitchen depends on the duct.

How do ductless range hoods work?

The fan pulls air through metal grease filters and then a charcoal filter, and blows it back into the kitchen through a grille. The charcoal cuts odor while it is fresh. Heat, moisture and the combustion gases from a gas burner stay in the room, and the charcoal has to be replaced, not washed.

What is a convertible range hood?

One that can be installed either ducted or ductless. With a duct it vents outdoors; a kit adds the charcoal filter and the parts that turn the air back into the room. The Broan RHBB inserts we sell work this way with Fabuwood's RHBB DCT kit.

Does a range hood have to vent outside?

It should whenever it can, and over gas especially. The model code allows a listed ductless hood if the kitchen is ventilated some other way, but recirculating leaves heat, moisture and combustion gases in the room. Your local code official has the final word.

Is an over-the-range microwave a range hood?

It is a microwave with a small exhaust fan built into its underside. It ventilates, but it is shallow, hangs low and has a modest fan, so it captures less than a dedicated hood, and it only vents outdoors if it is set up that way at installation.

What is a hood liner, and what is an insert?

A liner is the metal interior of a custom shell that shields the wood or plaster from heat and grease. An insert, also called a blower insert or power pack, is the self-contained fan, light and filter unit that mounts into the liner. With our Fabuwood wood hoods the liner is included and the insert is bought separately.

Do I need a hood over an electric or induction cooktop?

Yes. Grease, steam, smoke and odor come from the food, not the fuel. Without gas there are no combustion gases, which makes recirculating a more reasonable fallback if ducting is impossible.

Plan the Hood With the Cabinets

The hood decides the gap in your upper cabinets, the height of the cabinets beside it and, if it is wood, one of the largest finished surfaces in the kitchen. Put it on the cabinet drawing from the start. Our design service turns your measurements into a 3D layout within 24–48 hours, with the hood width, the flanking uppers and the insert choice drawn in, and we will tell you plainly when the hood your kitchen needs is one we do not sell.

Send your range model, ceiling height and a photo of the wall through our contact page, or call 609-900-3358 and ask for a hood and blower quote alongside the cabinets.