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A pan lid resting on a small pan under a range hood, the burner off.

Keeping people, the kitchen and the air safe

Grease, fire and air
guides.

What to do when a pan catches fire under the hood, when sparks or a burning smell come from it, when the hood starts pulling away from its mount, and how the hood keeps cooking fumes out of the air you breathe.

(844) 398-3217

Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • Three guides
  • Read before you book
  • Says where to stop

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Grease, fire and air,
guide by guide.

A range hood hangs directly over open heat, carries a motor and wiring at head height, and collects grease every time someone cooks. That combination produces three kinds of danger this section deals with: oil igniting in a pan beneath the canopy, a heavy hood that starts to come away from its wall or ceiling, and the quieter matter of what cooking puts into the air a household breathes.

All 18 guides
A stainless wall-mount chimney range hood on a white tiled kitchen wall, seen from across an empty kitchen with nobody near it, a single frying pan on the burners below with a low orange flame and gray smoke rising toward the range hood canopy, the cooking surface soft and cropped at the bottom edge.
5-minute read

A Grease Fire Under the Range Hood: Lid On, Burner Off, Never Water

How oil warns before it catches, the NFPA and USFA order of steps, the moment to get out and call 911, and what to look for in the filters and canopy afterwards.

A stainless wall-mount chimney range hood on a pale tiled kitchen wall, tilted slightly forward with a dark gap showing between its top edge and the tile and a little plaster dust on the dark burners below, the kitchen empty with nobody near the range hood, the cooking surface cropped at the bottom of the frame.
5-minute read

A Range Hood Pulling Away From the Wall or Ceiling: Clear the Space Below

The gap, the sway and the dust that give it away, why the breaker goes off and nobody props it up, and what studs and ceiling framing have to carry.

A stainless under-cabinet range hood below white shaker wall cabinets in a bright home kitchen, steam and a thin wisp of cooking smoke rising from a pot on the burners and being drawn up into the range hood, the cooking surface soft and cropped at the bottom, a window with daylight to one side.
5-minute read

Cooking Fumes and Indoor Air: What a Vent Hood Actually Removes

Smoke, grease mist, steam and combustion gases, why a ducted hood ventilates and a recirculating one only filters, and the habits that let the canopy catch the plume.

Keeping people, the kitchen and the air safe.

The guides here are written for two moments. One is the first minute after the flames or the lurch, when the reader needs the order of steps, not the theory. The other is the calm evening afterwards, when it is worth understanding why it happened, what the hood looks like when it is damaged, and what to change so it does not happen again.

The rule under all of them is the same. People come first, then the heat source or the electricity, then the appliance. For a grease fire that means a lid and the burner knob, never water, and leaving the house when the flames will not go out. For a hood that has shifted it means an empty space beneath it and the breaker switched off. Nobody in the household reaches up inside the chimney cover or unscrews the blower housing; that is where a technician's work begins.

Every instruction on fire and air is taken from the agencies that publish them: NFPA and the U.S. Fire Administration for kitchen fires and carbon monoxide alarms, EPA for nitrogen dioxide and ventilation, the Home Ventilating Institute for how hoods capture smoke, and the makers' own installation manuals for what holds a hood up. Each source is printed beneath the passage it supports.

Not sure where to start?

The short answerA Grease Fire Under the Range Hood: Lid On, Burner Off, Never Water

For a grease fire under a range hood, NFPA and USFA give the same order: cover the pan with a lid or a flat baking sheet, switch that burner off, leave the cover on until the pan is cold, and never throw water.

The short answerA Range Hood Pulling Away From the Wall or Ceiling: Clear the Space Below

A range hood pulling away from the wall or ceiling is carrying its weight on fewer fixings than it was hung with.

The short answerCooking Fumes and Indoor Air: What a Vent Hood Actually Removes

The link between a range hood and indoor air quality is simple: a hood that is ducted outdoors removes cooking smoke, steam and, over gas burners, nitrogen dioxide at the source, which EPA names as the most effective step.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in these guides did not settle it, the visit picks up from there, stop by stop.

What repairs cost
  1. 01Airflow, speed by speed
  2. 02A figure before any work
  3. 03Common parts in the van
  4. 04Pulling steam before we go

The problems
these answer.

Each has a page of its own, with the causes in the order worth checking.

All 17 problems
A stainless wall-mount chimney range hood on a tiled kitchen wall fills the upper half of the frame, dark gray smoke curling up into the range hood from a covered frying pan on the burner below, the pan's lid in place and the burner knob turned off. Stop cooking under it

Grease Fire Under or Inside a Range Hood

6 causes, cheapest first

 An under-cabinet range hood below white kitchen cabinets fills the upper half of the frame, a thin wisp of pale gray haze drifting from the seam between the range hood and the cabinet, its lights off and the burners below cold. Stop cooking under it

Hot Electrical or Burning Smell at the Range Hood

6 causes, cheapest first

 Close view of the front edge of a stainless under-cabinet range hood below white cabinets, a single amber drop of grease hanging from the range hood's lower lip above a cold, empty cooking surface, the baffle filters above it glossy with grease. Problem

Grease or Oily Water Dripping From the Range Hood

6 causes, cheapest first

 A stainless wall-mount chimney range hood on a pale tiled wall fills the upper half of the frame, a visible dark gap opening between the top of the canopy and the wall and the chimney cover slightly out of line, the range hood tilted a little forward, the kitchen below empty with nobody under it. Stop cooking under it

Range Hood Pulling Away From the Wall or Ceiling

6 causes, cheapest first
A family cooking together under a stainless range hood in a bright kitchen.
For the heart of your home.

Questions about
grease, fire and air.

A pan just caught fire under the hood. What do I do?
Get a lid, or a baking sheet, over the pan and turn off the heat beneath it; keep it covered until everything is cold. Never throw water. If it does not go out, get everyone outside, close the door and call 911.
The hood has a gap at the top and seems to move. Is it urgent?
Yes. Nobody cooks or stands beneath it, its breaker goes off, and nobody pushes or props it. The fix is a take-down and a rehang into solid framing.
Does a recirculating hood clean the air?
It traps grease and some odor, but it returns steam and combustion gases to the room. HVI states it provides no actual ventilation; a hood ducted outdoors is what removes them.
Should the hood be used after a fire was drawn into it?
Not until it has been inspected. Heat can warp filters, melt light covers and reach the blower wiring and the duct, none of which an owner should open.

The other
sections.

Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns.

All guides
Steam curling out past the edge of a range hood instead of rising into it.
What the hood is telling you

Common problems

A finger pressing a button on the control strip of a range hood, the indicator lights dark.
Checks you can make from the floor

Troubleshooting

Stainless baffle filters from a range hood soaking in a sink of hot soapy water.
Habits that keep it pulling for years

Maintenance and prevention

A wall-mount chimney range hood and an island range hood in one open kitchen.
Which hood, and fix or replace

Choosing and comparing

A round metal duct rising from the top of a range hood into the ceiling, the chimney cover set aside.
Size, duct, damper and make-up air

Installation and setup

Not sure which section?

Start from your question

The four questions most visits start with, each with the guide that answers it.

18 guidesWhere to start Where to start

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your range hood working again.

Three short steps online, or one call. Tell us what you are seeing and pick a window that works.

Schedule a repair Call (844) 398-3217
(844) 398-3217 Schedule a repair