Possibly one of the least exciting items in your kitchen, a rangehood is a necessary but often overlooked purchase.
But it's one that's important to get right – choose poorly and you could be stuck with a noisy eyesore that doesn't do much to remove the heat, steam and smoke from your kitchen.
And given that rangehoods can range in price from $120 to more than $5000, you'll want to make sure you're spending your money wisely so you don't end up with a rangehood that sucks (but not in a good way).
We'll explain how to choose the right type and style of rangehood to ensure extraction satisfaction, and reveal the sucky models to cross off your shortlist.
On this page:
- What to consider when buying a rangehood
- Which type of rangehood should you choose?
- The lowest scoring ducted rangehoods
- The lowest scoring recirculating rangehoods
- Downdraft rangehoods: How do they compare?
- Downdraft rangehood test scores
What to consider when buying a rangehood
"While you want your rangehood to suit the style of your kitchen, your choice should be based on more than aesthetics," says CHOICE rangehood expert Rebecca Ciaramidaro.
"Does it effectively remove steam, smoke and smells from your kitchen without too much noise? There's no point buying a rangehood that's so noisy you'd rather not use it at all.
"It's also important to choose the right size: to work effectively the rangehood should be larger than your cooktop, especially for times when you're using multiple cooking zones at once."
Which type of rangehood should you choose?
You'd think buying an appliance that has only one job would be pretty straightforward, but before you start shopping you'll need to get your head around the different types.
First up, there are two different ways that rangehoods can function:
- Ducted rangehoods suck steam, smoke and cooking smells up into a pipe that blows the fumes outside.
- Recirculating rangehoods suck the fumes through filters and then pump the air back into the kitchen.
Canopy rangehood.
Which one performs better?
"If your kitchen allows for a ducted rangehood, we tend to find that this type performs better than recirculating rangehoods," says Rebecca.
However, installing a ducted rangehood is more complex as you'll need to cut a hole in the wall or ceiling for the pipe (if there isn't one already).
Undermount rangehood.
Once you've decided which type is best for your kitchen, then it's time to choose the configuration. These are the three types:
- Canopy: a freestanding rangehood that can be installed over an island cooking area or against a wall.
- Undermount: these are integrated into a kitchen cupboard above the cooktop.
- Downdraft: these units are installed at the back of the cooktop and pop up when needed.
Retractable rangehood.
If you're going with an undermount rangehood, they come in two types:
- Fixed: as the name suggests, these stay in the same place so can't be tucked away when you're finished with them.
- Retractable or slide-out: these rangehoods switch on when you slide a section out from the unit and turn off again when pushed back in.
The lowest scoring ducted rangehoods
Wall canopy models:
Ducted wall canopy rangehoods tend to be more effective than other types, so our experts have higher expectations of them: in order to be recommended, they need to achieve a CHOICE Expert Rating of at least 80% and a noise score of at least 55%.
While a score of 70% might seem fairly decent, it's still a long way off from the top-rated models in our review, which have a CHOICE Expert Rating of 85%.
We don't want you to end up with a dud buy, so here are the products that scored lowest in our lab tests. Consider becoming a CHOICE member to see the best performers.
The Robinhood ducted canopy rangehood.
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 66%
- Noise score: 45%
- Price: $589
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 70%
- Noise score: 68%
- Price: $999
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 70%
- Noise score: 58%
- Price: $649
Undermount and retracting models:
Undermount, downdraft and retractable rangehoods don't perform as well as canopy styles (but they may be your preferred, or only, options). So for our experts to recommend them they need a CHOICE Expert Rating of 70% and above and a noise score of at least 55%.
These models didn't come anywhere near close to impressing our experts.
The Sirius Onboard ducted undermount rangehood.
Sirius 520mm Onboard [undermount]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 51%
- Noise score: 60%
- Price: $1699
Bosch DLN54AA70A (Series 2 Integrated) [undermount]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 53%
- Noise score: 53%
- Price: $689
Miele DA2450-1 [undermount]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 55%
- Noise score: 70%
- Price: $1099
Fisher & Paykel HS60LXW4 [retracting]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 55%
- Noise score: 50%
- Price: $279
Bosch DHL895DAU / 01 [undermount]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 55%
- Noise score: 63%
- Price: $1499
The lowest scoring recirculating rangehoods
Ducted rangehoods perform better in our testing than recirculating types, so our experts suggest you go ducted if you can. But for some kitchens it's not an option.
If you're looking for recirculating rangehoods, these are the ones to avoid.
Wall canopy models:
As with ducted models, wall canopy rangehoods perform better than other types so the cut-off for them to receive our experts' seal of approval is higher: a CHOICE Expert Rating of 80% and above and noise score of 55% or higher.
These sucky models left our experts underwhelmed.
The Smeg SHW181X60 recirculating wall canopy rangehood.
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 64%
- Noise score: 55%
- Price: $1490
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 65%
- Noise score: 40%
- Price: $326
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 69%
- Noise score: 55%
- Price: $349
Undermount and retracting models:
These styles of recirculating rangehoods are less effective than wall canopy styles, so as with ducted rangehoods, the bar for them being recommended by our experts is lower: a CHOICE Expert Rating of 70% and higher, and a noise score of at least 55%.
Give these four models a miss.
The Blanco BRU53X-3 recirculating undermount rangehood.
Blanco BRU53X-3 [undermount]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 47%
- Noise score: 63%
- Price: $719
Fisher & Paykel HS60LXW4 [retracting]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 48%
- Noise score: 58%
- Price: $279
Bosch DHL555BAU [undermount]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 48%
- Noise score: 70%
- Price: $899
Blanco BRS602X [retracting]
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 49%
- Noise score: 50%
- Price: $489
Downdraft rangehoods: How do they compare?
Downdraft units are hidden beneath the bench and pop up at the back of the cooktop when needed. Rather than sucking cooking fumes up, they draw them downwards, either through a duct or recirculating filters.
A downdraft model will give your kitchen a sleek, minimalist look. Image credit: Miele.
Downdraft units are far more niche than other rangehood types. They're typically only installed in new kitchens, and they're also not cheap: the two downdraft rangehoods we recently tested cost $3650 and $5499.
Are they worth the money? Not really. Testing by CHOICE's US counterpart Consumer Reports shows that they're the least effective type of rangehood.
And our own tests back that up: a Bosch downdraft rangehood was the second-lowest scorer in our review, and a Miele model didn't perform a great deal better.
Downdraft rangehood test scores
Here's how they fared in our tests:
The Bosch Series 8 downdraft rangehood. Image credit: Bosch.
Bosch Series 8 Downdraft Ventilation
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 53%
- Price: $3650
Miele DAD 4941 Black Levantar Down Draft Extractor
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 59%
- Price: $5499
The most expensive rangehood that's recommended by our experts costs just over $2000, so by taking out a CHOICE membership and buying a recommended model, you can save yourself well over $1000 and get far better performance.
And you'll have access to reviews for 200+ other product categories, plus exclusive member-only content to help you buy better.
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
