# Hood / Vent Requirements for Gas Stove



## WaldenL (Jan 9, 2009)

We're remodeling our kitchen, and one of the layouts puts the gas stove (cooktop & oven) below an existing window. That makes it very difficult (read: impossible) to install a traditional hood above the stove. 

First question, is there a requirement to have a range hood? This is an average 4 burner stove, nothing industrial. 

Second question, is there even a requirement to have a vent in the kitchen? If I don't need a hood, I could likely still have a vent, just not over the stove.

Finally, if the hood is needed, would it still be needed if we had a gas cooktop, but electric ovens elsewhere. IOW, is it the combination of cooktop & ovens that requires a hood (if one is required at all).

And yes, we're still considering if we'd even _want_ a stove w/out a hood, but if we can't do it, then whether we'd want it isn't relevant.


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## TomServo (Sep 6, 2009)

WaldenL said:


> We're remodeling our kitchen, and one of the layouts puts the gas stove (cooktop & oven) below an existing window. That makes it very difficult (read: impossible) to install a traditional hood above the stove.
> 
> First question, is there a requirement to have a range hood? This is an average 4 burner stove, nothing industrial.
> 
> ...


You might consider a downdraft vent. They aren't great with gas, but it would tend to solve the layout issue.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if the window is as big a problem as you're thinking. There are plenty of vent hoods designed to be installed above islands. This situation would seem to be a step above an island in terms of having the structure of the wall to tie into. Perhaps I'm "misunderestimating"  the window in question, though.

I can't speak to whether the hood is needed. I spent 8 months house shopping over 2008-2009 and I'd say the houses I saw were about 2/3rds with and 1/3rd without.

I think you're going to want one, though. Having just moved out of a place that had a hood that vented right into the room, I can say with some authority that a good externally-vented hood is a nice thing to have if you do any amount of cooking.


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