Kitchen stove exhaust fan filter

Above almost all stoves there is a hood to capture the wonderful aromas of cooking, and fan them out or thru a filter. Regardless if the fan actually ventilates the aromas outside thru some sort of pipe, or just thru a filter, there is a filter there, albeit different in the two cases. What they have in common is that they are designed to capture and condensate the fat in the exhaust before reentering the kitchen, or entering the exhaust pipe leading them out. All good, but fat as we know can catch fire. Excessive amounts of captured fat in these type of filters is the cause of not so few serious fires every year. It will not self-ignite, but if there is a flame nearby, then this could be a real Molotov cocktail – especially if the fan is running feeding it with fresh air. Solution for both better function and safety: take out the filter and clean it regularly, i.e. each quarter, as per the manufacturer’s instruction. Many can be cleaned in the dishwasher – perfect!