Ducted vs. Ductless Range Hoods: Pros, Cons, and Installation Tips for Luxury Kitchens

If you’ve ever cooked a big meal and ended up with your whole kitchen smelling like fried onions for days, you know how important good ventilation is. 

You may be setting up a new kitchen or upgrading your old one, and now you're stuck on a common question: Should you go with a ducted or ductless range hood?

One type sends smoke and odors outside through a vent, the other cleans the air and sends it back into the room. Both have their perks, and both come with trade-offs.

In this guide, we’ll explain the differences between ducted and ductless range hoods, their pros and cons, how they affect home value, and what to consider before making a choice.

Ducted vs. Ductless Range Hoods: The Clear Difference

How Ducted Range Hood Works

A ducted range hood pulls air over the cooking top and expels it outside. The blower pulls the air in, passes it through the grease filters to remove the grease and food particles, then through the rigid duct pipe to the vent outside. 

This rigid duct is usually smooth-walled, 6-8 inches in diameter. Unlike a dryer hose, this ensures it can push air through without noise and prevents buildup on the ridges. 

The CFM of your duct range hood determines the rigid duct. 

Performance and Operation

Most ducted range hoods, especially for kitchens, can be between 600 and 1200 CFM. CFM stands for cubic feet per minute, which refers to how much air can be moved into the range hood per minute. 

600 CFM is a regular size, but depending on how much cooking you do, how frequently you cook, and how heavy the cooking methods are, you can get ducted range hoods with higher CFM, like 1000 to 1200 CFM. 

The higher the CFM, the better it removes smoke, odors, and humidity from the kitchen. It also ensures a quieter airflow when removing air. You don't hear noises or sounds. It's a seamless, quiet process. It is the CFM that determines the size of the rigid duct.

If you choose a rigid duct that is too small for the CFM of the range hood, it will lead to pressure, grease and dirt buildup, and noises, and it will get damaged faster than it should. 

Here’s a quick guide to matching the right size of rigid duct to a ducted range hood’s CFM:

Design styles

Ducted range hoods come in different styles. The two major styles are the wall-mounted chimney style and the island hood style, based on the placement of the cooktop. 

• Wall-mounted chimney styles are best for cooktops that lean against the wall. The wall-mounted chimneys are just above it and are fixed to the wall. Usually, the duct runs through the wall and sometimes even to the ceiling, allowing the vents to be on the outside wall or at the back of the house. 

• Island hood styles work for cooktops on a separate island, meaning you can see the cooker from all sides and angles. They are suspended from the ceiling and suck air from the cooktop up to the ceiling. They run through the walls and go directly up to the roof. 

How Ductless Range Hood Works

Ductless range hoods do the same work as ducted range hoods, except they don't expel air outside; they recirculate it.

A ductless range hood works by pulling air into the blower through the intake vent, filtering it to remove grease, food particles, smoke, and odours with the grease and charcoal filters, and then pushing it through the blower again as fresh air through the higher vent.

Performance

Ductless range hoods usually have a CFM between 300 and 600 because they don't have to exhaust air like ducted range hoods. Since the air is recirculated back into the room, its CFM is lower. It doesn't need as much pressure to suck in air and then recirculate it.

Ductless range hoods are suitable for docked-edge range hoods in buildings without an external vent or for which using an external vent would be impossible. It's great for light or medium cooking and keeps the air in the kitchen fresh.

Placement Flexibility

One major advantage of ductless range hoods is their placement flexibility. As usual, there are the wall-mounted and island hood placement styles and the under-cabinet style.

The wall-mounted style is practically the same as the ducted range hood. It's placed on the wall, hanging above the cooktop. The island hook is for cooktops that are placed on an island.

However, the under-cabinet design is much more unique. It is placed in line with the cabinets just above the cooktop. With this design, the ductless range hood can be hidden because it doesn't stick out and stays flush under the cabinets.

How To Choose Between Ducted vs Ductless Range Hoods

Many factors must be considered when choosing the right system, such as a ducted or ductless range hood. 

The one you finally decide on, the design and style, depends on a host of factors:

1. Kitchen Layout

The arrangement of the kitchen is very important. This also includes the position of the cooktop. Any cooktop lying against the wall would automatically be a wall-mounted hood, while an isolated cooktop would be an island hood.

Also, if the kitchen has an exterior wall or ceiling, it would be better to go for a ducted range hood than a cooktop isolated in the center of the kitchen and without connection to the walls or any external vent.

2. Cooking Style 

The cooking style also affects the type of range hood system you'd get. For the chefs in the house who cook frequently, especially using high-heat methods, a ducted range hood is a good choice. 

However, a ductless heat method is better for people who cook only occasionally, don't cook many meals, or cook with low or moderate heat. The goal here is ventilation, so getting a ducted range hood seems like a worthy method if you don't cook a lot, but it's unnecessary.

3. Budget and Value for Money

The next thing to consider is your budget and return on investment. You can always sell your ducted range hood if you ever need to move or remodel the space. It's mostly for luxury homes, commercial spaces, or huge spaces requiring much ventilation. 

You get to save money up front for ductless range hoods because the installation is cheaper. It doesn't require as much power, lighting, wiring, or time and effort to install.

4. Aesthetics and design

Ducted range hoods are focal points in the kitchen, especially when done correctly. The ducted range hood at the top, either floating from the ceiling or wall-mounted, and the cooktop serve as focal points that give the kitchen its structure. 

Ductless range hoods, on the other hand, are minimalist, blending very well with the kitchen equipment, especially if they are under-cabinet designs. They blend well and don't stand out in any way. They don't serve as focal points; they blend in with the kitchen's already growing structure and core.

5. Noise and HVAC impact

Between the two, ducted range hoods are quieter than ductless range hoods. That is because they have a blower that pulls air in, most of the time further along the duct pipe close to the vent. This is the external blower, and the air is pushed through a smooth-walled rigid duct, preventing noise and resistance. 

Ductless range hoods are not exactly noisy, nor are they altogether quiet. The blower makes some noise because it recirculates the air, and the entire process happens in the hood.

Our Top 5 Picks for Range Hoods

InnovDepot is one of the top dealer distributors for home luxury goods in the online retail space. We have range hoods of various sizes, up to 48 inches.

Here are some of the top range hoods in our collection: 

The Bottom Line

If you cook frequently using high-heat methods, you should opt for the ducted hood for its peak performance. 

It is also a great option to remodel your kitchen again and resell it.