This won't hoodwink you (Baumatic Chimney Hood QF6SS)

Member Name: The Scenery

Product:	Baumatic Chimney Hood QF6SS
Date:	17/04/07 (1818 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: clean lines, well made.

Disadvantages: none so far

The world of cooker hoods can be a confusing and frustrating place to be. The choice is endless and the price you can pay is verging on the ridiculous.

So what type of hood and how much to pay to complete my purchase of kitchen appliances?

The brief from Mrs Scenic was a chimney hood. I did try to steer her toward the flat rear vented type, but she was having none of it. Now with chimney hoods you can pay anything up to £800 and on for the more expensive makes. Luckily I was in charge of the budget and anything over £150 was out of the running, so I was very pleased to see this Baumatic in the Homebase catalogue for £99.99. After playing around with kitchen unit combinations for about 2 hours I just tacked this hood onto the list and thought “job done”.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, if I had checked the spec’s of the hoods I was looking for I could have saved a whole lot of time and not had to drill a new hole in my kitchen wall for the vent. Having replaced the old rear vented hood with this chimney hood I discovered that the hole for venting had to be another 18 inches higher. “Yes dear its going to take a bit longer to finish I’ve got to make another hole in the wall, see right here.” The rule of thumb with a chimney hood is the motor sits at the base of the chimney and the vent outlet needs to be at least 8-12 inches above that.

Having said all that chimney hoods are the vogue at the moment and the reason for this kitchen is to sell the house with updated and stylish fittings for a smallest budget to maximise profit. The Buamatic fits the bill on price and design, stainless steel looks good on any product and the clean simple lines fit just right in a modern kitchen.

Once delivered I was slightly worried I had ordered or been sent the wrong model, the box it arrived in seemed far to small the house the appliance, but once opened it was clear they had done their homework on how to fit all the components into the smallest space. The item was well packed and a plastic film covered the stainless steel parts.

N.B. Keep the plastic film on the hood until you have fitted it, as it protects the finish and if you have to paint the wall around it you don’t have to mask it all up again.

So to the tricky bit, the installation. Here you have two choices; external venting or air recycling via carbon filters. I went for the external venting, having already had a hole in the wall, but I would recommend venting as having used a hood with carbon filters you are for ever changing filters and the cooking smell never really gets filtered unless you have the fan on lowest speed.

I say tricky but it was really easy to install, except for making a new hole in the wall. The most important part is measuring the height at which you site the hood. Too low and the chimney will not reach the ceiling and you will hit your head while working around the hob. Too high and the extraction effect will be lost.

The chimney has an adjustable top section to allow for height differences in ceilings, you need to decide before installation which method of extraction you are going for, vent or recycling. Once you are happy with the height it is just a case of careful measuring to drill and mount the brackets, fit the vent hose and mount on the wall, making sure the external vent hole is at least 10 inches above the neck of the hood.

If you go for the recycling option the carbon filters are mounted on each end of the motor and air is ducted up the chimney and out through the grilles on the chimney sides.

So your hood is up on the wall looking good does it do the job?
Well yes, it is quieter than the old hood and seems to extract more air. The fan has three speeds and on the low speed it is enough to clear steam and condensation. Second speed will suffice for most uses unless you’ve got a real humdinger curry or fry up on the hob, then high speed is needed.

With this model you get two lights with normal tungsten bulbs, the light is good but with halogen lights in the kitchen they are a bit superfluous.

The only maintenance in this extraction mode is to remove the grease filters to clean, and the amount of time between clean rather depends on how you cook.
With the recycling mode the carbon filters are recommended to be changed every three months, again a simple task accessed by removing the grease filters.

So we have our chimney hood for under a £100 it looks stylish, works well, I only wish we had chosen Baumatic oven and hob now, but that’s another story.

Technical bits:-

Air extraction: 500m3/hr slightly less on recirc mode

Width (canopy) 600mm
Depth (canopy) 500mm
Height (adjustable) 700mm to 1040mm

Chimney section 165mm x 222mm

Minimum distance above hob 700mm

It is advisable not to fit above radiant hobs

www.baumatic.co.uk

0118 9336 900

Summary: create an expensive look for under £100

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