Best cooker hoods 2024: Which? Best Buys and expert buying advice

A cooker hood is a long-term investment for your kitchen, so you'll want one that performs well and looks great. Our Best Buy recommendations and expert buying advice can help.

Some models we've tested in our lab are noisy and ineffective. The best cooker hoods, however, eliminate steam and odours quickly and efficiently without causing a racket.

On this page, you can find out more about what to look for when shopping for a new cooker hood or kitchen extractor, and see our top Best Buy recommendations.

Discover the best cooker hood for your budget with our cooker hood reviews.

Best cooker hoods for 2024

These are the very best cooker hoods we've tested.

We test a vast selection of cooker hoods in our specialist lab each year. Only logged-in Which? members can view our recommendations in the tables below. If you're not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access.

Cooker hood reviews by type

Not sure what type you need? Scroll down a little to see images of the different types.

• Chimney cooker hood reviews
• Canopy cooker hood reviews
• Visor cooker hood reviews
• Island cooker hood reviews
• Ceiling cooker hood reviews
• Integrated cooker hood reviews
• Angled chimney cooker hood reviews
• Downdraft extractor reviews

Cooker hoods by price:

• Cooker hoods under £100
• Cooker hoods under £200
• Cooker hoods under £500
• Cooker hoods under £1,000

Why you can trust our cooker hood reviews

Unlike many other product review websites, we buy all of the cooker hoods we test ourselves – that means you can have complete trust in our verdict, including Best Buy and Great Value recommendations.

Our cooker hood tests reveal:

• How well they remove steam We boil four pans of water on the hob until humidity levels in our test chamber reach 90%. We then switch on the hood and record how quickly it reduces the humidity to 60%.
• How well they remove grease Our experts see how well each model can clear the kind of grease produced when you're frying, by dripping vegetable oil and water into a hot pan on a hob for 30 minutes. 
• How well they remove smells We use the pungent chemical methyl ethyl ketone, which smells like nail polish remover. A Which? Best Buy cooker hood, set up and installed correctly, should have no problem removing smells.

We've also devised rigorous tests to find out how easy a cooker hood is to clean, plus how noisy it gets – useful to know if you have an open-plan kitchen.

Our in-depth reviews will help you to choose the perfect cooker hood for your needs, whatever your budget.

Read more about how we test cooker hoods.

Where to buy a cooker hood

Below, we've picked out a handful of the most searched-for sellers.

• B&Q stocks a varied selection of cooker hoods, with prices starting at around £75. Listed brands include AEG, Beko and Bosch.
• Currys sells cooker hoods from various big-name brands including Bosch, Neff and Russell Hobbs. Prices start as low as £50.
• Screwfix offers canopy-style, chimney, integrated and visor cooker hoods. You can use the measurement filters on the website to find models that'll fit your kitchen setup.
• Ikea offers a mix of built-in and wall-mounted cooker hoods. At the time of writing, the retailer names the Mattradition as one of its most popular wall-mounted hoods, priced at around £250.
• Wickes has cooker hoods from several brands including AEG, Bosch, Rangemaster and Samsung. Prices start at a little over £100.

Types of cooker hood

Integrated (built-in) cooker hoods

• A good choice if you're short on space and don't want to make a feature of your cooker hood.
• Suitable for standard-width or narrow cookers and hobs.
• Tend to be on the small side, usually measuring 52-60cm wide. 

See all our integrated cooker hood reviews.

Canopy cooker hoods

• This is a discreet type of hood that sits flush to or just below your kitchen wall cabinets above the hob.
• Consider a canopy hood if you have limited space.
• Some canopy hoods have an extendable telescopic section to provide a greater surface area for extraction. You might see these hoods listed as telescopic hoods, rather than canopy hoods, on retailer websites.

See all our canopy cooker hood reviews.

Chimney cooker hoods

• These consist of a canopy plus a chimney.
• Chimney cooker hoods come in either stainless steel, glass, or a combination of the two.
• Their large size can make them a stylish feature in your kitchen.
• You'll need to get one with a canopy that spreads all the way across the width of your cooker – so whether you've got four rings on your hob or a wide cooker with eight burners, make sure you choose an appropriate size.

See all our chimney cooker hood reviews.

Angled chimney cooker hoods

• Similar to chimney hoods, but their slanted style gives them a smaller profile and more headspace.
• Their angle allows them to capture more air from the front and sides, rather than from the hob directly below.

See all our angled chimney cooker hood reviews.

Island cooker hoods

Island hoods – also called freestanding hoods – are large and can be very pricey, so take this into account if you're designing a new kitchen and deciding where to locate your oven and hob.

• These can give a large kitchen a striking look.
• Island hoods attach directly to the ceiling, so you’ll need plenty of space to accommodate one.

See all our island cooker hood reviews.

Visor cooker hood

This is the original type of cooker hood, and these models are sometimes referred to as conventional hoods.

• They fit at a right angle to the wall, usually on the underside of a kitchen wall unit.
• Visor hoods tend to be relatively cheap and, like integrated or built-in cooker hoods, are good for kitchens with limited space.

See all our visor cooker hood reviews.

Downdraft extractor

If your kitchen has a minimalist look, then a downdraft extractor might be tempting.

• Downdraft extractors are a new, relatively expensive type of cooker 'hood' that hides away under your worktop, behind your hob, when not in use.
• At the press of a button, they rise up to suck in the moisture, smells and grease from your cooking.

See all of our downdraft extractor reviews.

Ceiling extractor

These are mounted in the ceiling, offering a minimalist and unobtrusive look in your kitchen.

• Positioned further away from the hob, they provide wider coverage but might struggle to extract as effectively. 

See all of our ceiling cooker hood reviews.

Installing a new kitchen along with your new cooker hood? See our guide to the best and worst kitchen brands.

Best cooker hood features to look for

Cooker hoods aren't terribly complicated, but there are a few key features that can be useful to have: 

• Easy-to-use controls For ease, choose a hood with controls on the front rather than the inside or the underside.
• Variable power settings In general, most cooker hoods have three speeds. If you regularly fry strong-smelling foods, such as fish, you might want to choose a hood with a short high-power burst option – these quickly clear a kitchen of smells and steam. This boost function will usually run for five or six minutes before reverting to the original setting automatically.
• Lights Cooker hood lights help you to see better as you cook. Most cooker hoods have two or more lights to illuminate your cooking. These days, most are LEDs and should last a long time. If you do need to change a light, it can be a struggle. The best hoods have quick-release light casings which are ideal for getting this job done easily. Lower-scoring hoods have unfriendly metal edges which can be tricky to prise open.
• Delayed off function This function means you can leave the hood working away while you sit down to eat your meal. It will turn off automatically 15 or 20 minutes later.
• Hob-to-hood wi-fi Some pricier hobs and hoods have a wireless connection that means the hob activates and adjusts the cooker hood automatically depending on what you are cooking.

How much do I need to pay for a cooker hood?

The cheapest types are usually visor style, integrated (built in) or canopy-style hoods that are designed to fit over a four-ring hob or cooker. 

Many of these are available for less than £100, but some are much better than others, and some hoods at this price are not powerful enough to do a decent job of extracting steam.

You can find chimney-style cooker hoods for less than £100 too, but it's easier to find a good one if you have £300 to £500 to spend. We find that Best Buy canopy cooker hoods start from around £275, though larger, fancier models can be much pricier.

If you're looking for a cooker hood big enough to be fitted above a 110cm-wide hob or range cooker, you'll find plenty of chimney-style hoods to choose from. 

If your cooker is on an island, or you want a minimalist look, you're likely to end up paying more than £500 for a large island hood or a downdraft cooker hood.

Find the best model for your budget using our in-depth cooker hood reviews.

Do cooker hoods have to be vented to the outside?

No. You can either set up your cooker hood to extract air through a duct to a vent in your wall, or use it in recirculation mode. This is where air passes through carbon filters before being recirculated back into your kitchen.

We test all cooker hoods in extraction mode, as it is a more effective way of removing steam and smells.

See also: Do you really need a cooker hood?

What size cooker hood should I buy?

The ideal cooker hood width will correspond to the size of your hob and you'll probably want to match these up.

The most common cooker hood width is 60cm, which is suitable for standard-sized hobs. Also common are 90cm wide cooker hoods. You'll find that brands will often release the same cooker hood style in 60cm wide and 90cm wide versions.

Other cooker hood sizes we've tested, but which are much less common, are 50-59cm wide cooker hoods, 80-89cm wide cooker hoods and 100cm-plus cooker hoods.

You should choose a cooker hood that is at least as wide as your hob. This will help its extraction performance as air rises and is funnelled into the cooker hood's air ducts. If smoke billows past its sides, it'll have to suck even harder to try and clean the air. 

Alternatively, if you buy a cooker hood that is wider than your hob, say a 90cm-wide cooker hood for a standard-sized 60cm wide hob, you can expect slightly better performance. Cooker hoods that exceed your hob in width will be able to catch more rising steam and clear the air more easily.

However a mismatched cooker hood-hob combo often isn't practical. Space and cost can be major considerations. If this is the case, you're best off starting with a size that matches the size of your hob and buying a cooker hood with a performance that's proven to impress. 

Not sure you have the space for a cooker hood? See our guide to the best venting hobs – hobs with built-in extraction capabilities.

Can I buy a quiet cooker hood?

The best cooker hoods we've tested aren't much noisier than the humming of a refrigerator; the worst can sound four times as loud. 

If you like to chat or listen to the radio while you cook, or if you often eat in an open-plan kitchen, we'd recommend you choose a cooker hood that scores four or more stars in our noise tests.

Check out our cooker hood reviews to discover which ones are quietest.

What filters do I need for my cooker hood?

All cooker hoods have grease filters – these capture grease as it rises from your hob, preventing it from settling on kitchen surfaces and leaving hard-to-remove residues.

These days, grease filters are usually made of aluminium or stainless steel, although you do still come across some made of a fleece material or paper. To keep the grease filters clean, you'll need to wash or change them regularly.

Metal filters are washable – they're easy to remove, as they clip in and out of the underside of the hood. They are usually suitable for dishwashers.

Fleece or paper filters will need replacing every few months, depending on how much frying you do. Some hoods come with a handy saturation indicator that lets you know when the filter should be changed or washed.

Removing a greasy fleece filter can be a messy job, so if you don’t like getting your hands dirty, choose a hood with metal grease filters. You’ll be able to get replacement filters from your hood manufacturer – make sure you’re specific about the size and type that you need.

If you use your cooker hood in recirculation mode, you'll need to use a carbon or charcoal filter, which helps purify air by absorbing odours. These should be replaced once every four to six months on average.

For tips on cleaning your cooker hoods filters, see how to clean your cooker hood.