Keep Your Kitchen Neat: How to Clean a Cooker Hood Filter

Last Updated on January 10, 2023

It’s easy to forget about cleaning cooker filters because they’re not always in sight, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no pile of bacteria and grime growing on top of the surface. In this article, we’re sharing a helpful method on how to clean a cooker hood filter easily and effectively.

Cleaning a Cooker Hood Filter

You don’t want your kitchen to be filled with grease, stubborn dirt and more. As part of your serious maintenance, you should clean the hob, cooker cover, worktops, cooker hood and extractor fan filter. For the best results for extractor fan cleaning, follow our guide.

What You’ll Need

• Sink
• Hot water
• Brush
• Baking soda
• Washing up liquid

Instructions in Cleaning a Hood Filter

• Carefully remove the filter from the hood following the instructions in your manual.
• Add hot water, washing up liquid and bicarbonate of soda to the sink or a bucket.
• Submerge the filters deep into the solution, so the entire filter is covered. Leave alone for around 10 minutes for the filters to soak in the liquid.
• After this time period, remove the filters from the water and gently scrub the surface with a brush. All the while, you should be ensuring that you’re gentle with the brushing action so you won’t damage the filters. During this step, rinse it occasionally to clear off any stubborn grease.
• Repeat the steps on the other side of the filter.
• Rinse thoroughly with clean water and allow the filter to dry naturally.
• Only once completely dry, reinsert the filter into the extractor hood.

Different Types of Cleaning Solutions

Although the above solution mentions using a mixture of baking soda and washing up liquid, you can replace this solution with other mixtures, which we’ll mention below.

Soapy Water and Ammonia

Pour dish soap and water into the sink, and add some ammonia. Mix the solution and place the filter in, then repeat the steps above.

Vinegar and Baking Soda

As an alternative to using baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and dish soap, you can add vinegar to the mixture. Fill a pot or the sink with boiling water, and add three tablespoons of vinegar and two teaspoons of baking soda. Place the filter in and repeat the steps.

Degreaser

Since filters can calculate a large amount of grease, it makes sense to use a degreaser. Fill up the sink with hot, not boiling, water and spray (or pour, if you have a liquid solution) into the water. You’ll typically need around 20 sprays of the degreaser if you have a lot of stubborn grease on the filters. You may need to leave the grease filters in the solution for up to 30 minutes instead of the standard 10 minutes.

It’s Important to Air Dry

You might be impatient and want to install your filter into the cooker hood straight after cleaning, but it’s important that you allow the filter to air dry before doing so. For this reason, you must plan your cleaning session for when you know you won’t need to use for cooker hood for a while.

Avoid using a hair dryer, as this can lead to electric shocks. Ensure that the filter is completely dry before you add them back to the cooker hood. Leave overnight for the best results.

Can You Place Hood Filters in the Dishwasher?

In a nutshell, yes, you can place hood filters in the dishwasher. But you’ll need to check this with your particular filters because it depends on the materials used. You’ll also need to place the cycle on a hot wash to remove any build-up of grease, dirt, and grime.

Reasons You Need to Clean a Cooker Hood Filter

So what is the reason for cleaning cooker hood filters? Well, everything that cleans needs to be cleaned itself. When you’re cooking, the underside of the hood can accumulate a build-up of grease and other dirt. As the grease sticks to the filter, the filter can no longer trap smells and air particles, resulting in an ineffective clean in your kitchen.

Prevent Filling Your Home With Toxins

The number one reason for regularly cleaning hood filters is to improve the indoor air quality in your home. Doing so is critical for your health, and that’s especially true if you suffer from allergies or have a poor immune system.

When your gas hood filters become dirty, they add nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde to the indoor air quality that becomes nearly unsafe for you to breathe. Additionally, dirty electric hood filters produce ultrafine particles that turn dust particles into vapours. So, if you don’t clean your hood filters, these dust particles will be in the air in your home.

Avoid Pests

Another reason for you to regularly clean filters after cooking is to prevent a pest infestation. Household pests, such as flies and cockroaches, thrive off grease, and if your grease is flavoured like food, it will attract them into your home, which is what you don’t want to happen.

Avoid a Fire Hazard

It’s important to indulge in filter cleaning because grease is flammable, so if you don’t keep your filters grease-free, you might experience smoke or even fire. Many commercial fires are due to faulty cookers, so don’t let your home be another statistic.

 

Improved Lifespan

You don’t want to spend a lot of money upgrading your ventilation system because you didn’t thoroughly and regularly clean your cooker hoods. Fortunately, keeping up with maintenance can improve the lifespan of your cooker and even improve the lifespan of the filters themselves.

Improved Kitchen

Your home should be a place to unwind with family and indulge in a delicious, healthy meal after a long day. But grease, dirt and bad smells don’t exactly create the aesthetic you’re probably going for. Don’t wade off friends (and even visitors or customers if you have a professional kitchen) with a greasy, dirty hood.

Quieter Operation

If you’ve switched on noisy cooker hoods, this is because they need a good clean. Dirt will clog up the fan, creating a rattle as the fumes try to pass through. As a result, you’ll have to operate the fan at a higher speed, which can lead to a rowdy room and even more expensive energy costs.

How Often to Change The Filters

Grease

For grease filters, you’ll generally want to change them between every three to six months, but this depends on how often you cook because you might only cook a couple of times a week. And using the microwave won’t contribute to any build-up of grease or more in the filters.

However, this type of extractor fan filter is the first point of contact for air particles when cooking, and it’s sucked straight into the extractor hood, which leaves behind lots of dirt, grease and grime. Fortunately, grease filters are designed to handle this high capacity of dirt, but they will require more cleaning and more of a scrubbing action, too.

Charcoal

For charcoal filters, you’ll want to thoroughly change them every six to nine months—so less often than a grease alternative. Many high-end hood models will let you know when it’s time to switch the filter by reminding you of the exact number of hours it’s been used. This guidance is super helpful if you easily lose track of duties like this.

Cooker Hood Cleaning Tips

For an overall hygienic home, you’ll need to get your hands dirty with the hood. Below are some instructions on how to keep kitchen hoods clean.

• Start with a soft, clean, dry cloth because a hardwired brush will leave scratches and marks that could become impossible to remove.
• Apply a kitchen cleaning product to the surface, using only a small amount at first, so it doesn’t slip off of the hood and onto the countertop.
• Wipe away the solution using a soft cloth, ensuring that you start from the back and move forwards to prevent pushing any dirt back.
• To get into any hard-to-reach areas, you can use an old toothbrush to remove any sticky residue from the hoods. A toothbrush’s bristles are also soft enough not to leave any marks behind.

What Cleaning Tips Do You Have?

We hope the above step-by-step process shows you how to clean a cooker hood filter and how to keep your filters in excellent working order. If you want your home to be clean and hygienic, regular cleaning is needed.

Do you take pride in your cooker hood? Share your go-to cleaning methods or ways you efficiently get the job done in the comments to inspire our readers.