Dominic Vautier
2/2003
Looking for a safe oven hood—make one because it's hard to buy what you need.
Most ovens are about 26 inches deep. If you want to get an oven hood to cover the burners, you may not be able to find one that is 26 inches deep—maybe 16 or 18 inches deep but not 26 inches deep. I don't understand why such an obvious flaw exists today in kitchen safety.
The front burners, if left on will generate a stream of very hot air straight up and start burning the ceiling if there's nothing in the way. If you have kids the risk of this happening is great. If you have gas the risk is even greater still because the gas, if accidentally left on without a pan, generates a very hot and concentrated stream of heat which goes straight up.
And if you put in an over the oven microwave you will find that the microwave is about 16 inches deep, just like most oven hoods. So the same problem exists.
What to do? Build one. I bought a standard hood and totally modified it to attach to my over my over-the-oven microwave. When the microwave broke down, I got another one and salvaged parts from the old microwave for my new oven hood. It will trap gasses from an accidentally left on burner and safely direct them out through the vent.
Here's my hot CO tester
By the way I have several smoke detectors. They are not sensitive to heat, only particulate matter.