When it comes to kitchen interiors, there’s nothing classier than gorgeous copper vent hoods. They add quite a bit of visual appeal to your cooking area – however, you’ll hear plenty of people telling you that copper is finicky in terms of maintenance.
In reality, a high-quality copper range hood is easier to keep in tip-top shape compared to most other materials available on the market. You just need to understand how copper “behaves” as a metal, and you’ll be just fine. With that in mind, we’ll detail how you can clean and maintain a copper vent hood below!
Maintaining The Exterior
Generally, you’ll probably spend the most time cleaning the exterior of your copper vent hood. And you can buy plenty of different cleaners for this specific purpose, both in liquid form and powder form.
In most cases, the choice depends solely on your personal preferences – and the specific manufacturer recommendations for each individual hood. However, we’ve found that most homeowners go for the powder-based cleaners simply because they’re easier to apply without messing up the cooktop below.
If you decide on a powder cleaner, we recommend you wipe down the hood with a damp cloth first – getting rid of annoying dust build-ups in the process and damping up the surface a bit before applying the powder.
Then, you can start applying your powder to the wet surface. Give it a few minutes to properly settle in. Once you see that a paste has formed on the surface, wipe it away with another clean cloth.
On the other hand, if you went with a liquid solution, odds are you can wipe it away quicker – just make sure to follow the instructions printed on the label.
Cleaning The Air Filter And Vent
Cleaning the surface of your hood was the easy part; however, you also need to do some maintenance on the vent to ensure your hood is as efficient as possible. And just to make sure you know what we’re talking about, the vent is the narrow, hollow duct through which contaminated air is expelled from your kitchen.
Even though it seems like only smoke and air passes through here, you’d be amazed at how much grease can build up in there over time. If you allow for too much of it, your fan motor won’t be able to operate at its required capacity.
So, start cleaning the vent by scrubbing off any excess grease. If there’s too much grease in your air filters, hot gasses won’t be ventilated out – and unpleasant odours may spread through your kitchen as you cook.
It’s a good idea to use a degrease while cleaning the air filters. Then, ensure they’ve completely dried out before you return them to their place in the range hood. And if they seem overly worn out from regular cleaning and excessive grease, you can always replace them with new ones.
Troubleshooting
From time to time, it’s advisable to troubleshoot your range hood and ensure everything is functioning as it should. The best way to do that as a layman is to switch it on and pay attention to how the motor or fan sounds. If you notice more noise than usual, something may be up with the fan.
Again, this could simply be a sign of dirt or grease buildup that’s making the fan work more to vent out the air. However, contact a repair professional if your range hood consistently fails to turn on or clear smoke in a reasonable time frame. There might be some DIY repair advice in your manual, but it’s always better to let a pro handle these kinds of repairs.
Preventing Damage
If you want to have a copper range hood that works at peak efficiency for a long time, the best way to ensure that is to take preventative measures. First, go through the operation manual in fine detail to ensure you understand how the whole thing works – and what some of the major dos and don’ts are.
Even if you don’t notice that the hood is “misbehaving,” cleaning it regularly is always the best way to ensure your filter and motor fans won’t clog down. Remember, grease particles are the number one enemy of even the best copper range hood. If you don’t address this issue on a regular basis, you may need to deal with expensive repairs sometime in the future.
How Often Is Cleaning Necessary?
Naturally, this also depends on your cooking habits. If you don’t prepare a lot of food frequently, cleaning the hood once per season will be more than enough. On the other hand, if you cook all the time (meaning each day), cleaning your hood every month or two is the smart way to go.
Of course, you don’t need to open up your range hood every time; the most regular cleaning will be necessary for the exterior surfaces due to the constant dust buildup no matter how often you use it. Still, cleaning the whole thing thoroughly after holiday feast preparations isn’t a bad idea.