Stainless steel canopy

[Bella]

How easy/hard are they to keep clean?

I love the look of them but don't know how they go after a lot of cooking and not sure if they will look yucky after a while.

[Zed]

Hi,

Assume you mean a range hood ? just a soft cloth and cleansing agent will be fine. however you will hate the first, second and third scratches. the rest will not .... I reckon thoroughly scratched stainless hoods / backboards etc look far better

cheers

[rod1949]

Suppose it depends upon the quality of the SS.

A Fish & Chip shop will show how they look after a bit of use.

[Auld Bassoon]

Many commercial kitchens use SS for the hoods, etc., and so long as they are regularly (in a commercial kitchen that means at least daily), then they're fine

[troppolad]

G`day bella
kinda falls into my favourite area this one lol
i`ve been a cabinetmaker and am now a motorbody builder
they look bloody great in show homes where they get no use, but as zed said the scratches will really stand out and bug you
i would say if you wanted to go with a stainless hood, go with a mill finish..... its not a mirror finish, more of a bathroom mirror finish you can still see yourself in it but its like your looking through a fog or mist, the surface hasnt been polished off and is harder wearing
it will still reflect light in your kitchen but will give a muted tone, while still looking very good
much easier to maintain as it doesnt shoe every little speck as badly as a polished stainless
cheers
troppo

[Bella]

Thanks for the tip Troppo! I will check them out!

Cioa,
Bella

[BrisBen]

Hey Bella

My Mum was a nurse back in the days where it was an apprenticeship of sorts, the first year of which was spent cleaning the massive amounts of stainless steel around hospitals. She cannot understand why anyone would want it in their house! I was a dishpig once and tend to agree with her.

My test is simple - have a look at it on display and wipe your hand on it - if it goes darker just from the oils in your hands you don't want it in your kitchen.

There are different finishes depending on the grit it is sanded (brushed) with, heavy grit - deeper brushing, less marking.

I'm not sure if this is totally correct but I'm pretty sure you cannot stick a magnet to real stainless steel because of the high nickel content (similar to coins) so take a fridge magnet in your pocket for a test.

{I would be happy for a metal worker type person to confirm or deny the last statement}

B

[renomart]

As long as you duct your exhaust to the outside, your rangehood will stay clean as cooking fats are not recirculated and deposited back on to your rangehood.

Brushed aluminium will show less scratches.

[Bella]

I think we are going with a concealed rangehood now. Oh well less cleaning is a good thing I suppose.

[macca2]

We have a SS range hood and they are not as hard to clean as a SS cooktop. However if you clean it regularly with a soft cloth and non abrasive SS cleaner it's OK.
The main problem with the top of a range hood is dust, not grease.
Just make sure as with all SS in kitchen that you ALWAYS WIPE WITH THE GRAIN, and never user an abrasive cleaner.

Macca

[Master Splinter]

There are three main types of stainless - austentic, ferritic and martensitic.

The cheap ferritic steels are the ones you'll mostly come across in domestic use (they are magnetic); they have more chromium and less (maybe no) nickel than the austentic stainlesses, but they are not as corrosion resistant (I'm talking hot sulphur gasses and nitric acid corrostion resistant) in demanding applications.

Martensitic stainlesses are normally used for things such as knives.

I've had good (ok, ok acceptable) results using a belt sander to scratch finish stainless to hide nasty scratches. Try on a hidden bit first in case you don't like it! 3M make specific scotchbrite products for stainless finishing.

[maglite]

IMHO it MUST be vented outside of the roofspace.

As has been mentioned the dust is generally more unsightly that the grease...especially near the top.

Cleaning the filters regularily does help but once stainless gets very dirty , not much can be done to bring back its lustre.
We shy away from using cleaners as the are sometimes abrasive and tend to use a straight forward mineral oil.
Soak a cloth and wipe evenly over the surface.
The beity of using a oil is that marks, stains etc only mark the oil and not the hood, they wipe out again pretty easily, but the smell isnt the best for kitchens.

Hope this helps