The range hood or exhaust hood is the apparatus that sits above your stove that typically includes a fan and lights for cooking. Depending on where you live, a kitchen fan is likely the minimum that is required by law so your builder should have installed one to meet building code standards.
Given its importance to your kitchen, cleaning the hood range filter from time to time as needed is an important but often overlooked part of home maintenance given how greasy and dirty they can get. And you can do it yourself in minutes.
Soak your range hood filter in boiling water with a small amount of dish detergent and 1/4 cup of baking soda for at least 10 minutes and scrub them with a scrubbing brush until they are clean. You can also put the filter in the dishwasher if needed through a regular cycle.
How to clean a range hood filter manually
Take a peek under your range hood over top of your stove and use a flashlight or turn the light on if necessary to take a closer look. If you haven’t cleaned it before it’ll probably need a good scrubbing. The more greasy foods you cook and the more oil you use the dirtier your filters are likely to be.
Clean your range hood filters manually
Here’s an overview of how to clean your range hood filters manually:
- Remove the filters from the range hood.
- Fill your sink with enough boiling water to cover the filters.
- Add enough dish detergent to soap up the water.
- Add 1/4 cup of baking soda and stir the water.
- Put your filters in the water and scrub them with a scrubbing brush or other cleaning device that will remove the debris.
- Reinstall the filters if they are clean.
- Put the filters in the dishwasher if they require more cleaning.
- Let them dry and then reinstall them.
Here’s how you clean your range hood filters in more detail.
Take a look at the filters to see how dirty they are
In the above pic of the installed range hood filters you can see debris in the filters along with grease stains around the filter which need to be cleaned. The brownish color along the bottom right sides of the filters is grease. The 2 plastic covers at the back are where the lights sit and they are dirty too. They can be removed and will be cleaned by hand.
Remove the filters
The two filters can easily be removed by pushing the plastic tab to the right and then pulling the filters downwards. They are easily reinstalled in the opposite manner and clip into place.
After removing the filters you can see how dirty and clogged they are. The filters have very little clean space between them and it’s difficult to see light through them. Over time the filters have become clogged with grease and food residue from cooking and boiling food.
Another close up of the other other filter which is also very clogged and dirty and well past its cleaning time.
Soak the range hood filters
Soak the range hood filters in boiling water, baking soda and dish detergent. The hotter the water the better. I boiled water in my kettle and added it to the sink and then squirted enough detergent to soap up and then poured 1/4 cup of baking soda in. Mix the water up and then add the filters to the sink.
Soak the filters for 10 minutes or longer and then scrub the filters with a scrubbing brush to remove as much debris as possible. You can see from the pic above how dirty and murky the water got within seconds of me putting the filters in the sink.
If you’re happy with the results, let the filters air dry and reinstall them. If they’re still dirty, you may consider popping into your dishwasher for a complete cycle to finish the job.
I wasn’t happy with the results even after soaking and scrubbing so I added them to the dishwasher for a full cycle.
Here’s what they looked like after the dishwashing. HINT: They looked much better.
Additional filter cleaning
While the filters weren’t 100% cleaned after the dishwasher, they are over 7 years old and the smaller one is now almost brand new looking save for a few stains here and there.
Can you clean range hood filters in the dishwasher?
Yes, you can but check with the filter manufacturer to be safe. The filters I have can certainly be popped into the dishwasher and I did that to finish cleaning them after I’d removed the loose debris manually. They are made from metal and hard plastic so my filters work just fine after a good dishwashing.
If your filters are very dirty it’s best if you manually clean them first otherwise you run the risk of gumming up your dishwasher and transferring a great deal of the grease and debris into your dishwasher filter. Then you’ll just have to clean that out too.