Hob Clearance Calculator for Kitchen Planning

While no one wants to cause harm in their own home, most kitchen mishaps aren’t caused by anyone actualy using the room. Instead, they’re caused months later, when a grease fire happens because someone installed something without reading instructions. A few centimetres doesn’t seem like much, but it makes all the difference.

The distance between the cabinetry and extractor hood and hob should be correct horizontally and vertically for safety reasons. This also allow the smoke to rise out of kitchen instead of settling above your dinner. The trickiest part involves the height from the base of the hood to the cooking surface.

Correct Distance for Your Hood and Hob

It’s a delicate equation: get the hood too near the hob and it will overheat (or set alight). Too far away and it fails to capture the steam and grease in time, and you end up with sticky cupboards and fogged-up windows.

How much space there should be depend on the cooker and hob manufacturer (and their safety regulations), but also the type of hob you have. Electric and gas hobs produce more heat then induction ones, which often allow for a lower hood installation. Because an induction hob does not become hot like this, you can install the hood at a slightly lower level. Don’t use induction figures on a gas hob.

Another measurement frequently neglected is width. Many people assume that size of their hood should match their standard 60cm cabinets. Wrong. Your extractor must be no narrower than space where you are actualy cooking.

That means wide-hob users must has a wide-hood because it can draws in all the air being released upwards from your pans. Small hoods permit hot air to flow out sideways, and this works against an extraction system. This feature checks whether there’s sufficient overlap between the width of your hob and the width of your hood’s capture area. If there isn’t, then even a mighty motor won’t help.

Clearance from the side can be critical too. You will normaly find that manufacturers recommend at least twenty or so centimeters based off the vertical structure nearest to the hob’s edge. This provides room to avoid touching the hot surface as you lean across to pick up a pan handle. It also allows heat to escape freely instead of being held near a flammable surface.

Small kitchens tempt you into making the gap narrower, but don’t! The manufacturer’s instructions are the last word here. If they state a figure of twenty centimeters then give them the room.

Another wrinkle is upper cabinet depth. Typical wall cabinets may extend beyond the recommended safe clearance above a hob. This means that if your hood doesn’t fully cover the cabinet, you need to check the vertical distance from the hob surface to the cabinet itself. Depending on the manual, some have different clearances based off whether they are called “protected” or not. “unprotected” (meaning that the hood will protect the cabinet from the direct heat).

Over time heat can soak into the wood of deep cabinets above a stove, creating a fire hazard. The calculator screens for this by checking how deep your cabinets is compared to typical safety limits.

It’s also important to know how deep the work surface will be. For built-in hobs, this is an issue if they do not fit within the hole cut into the work surface. Larger model hobs may not fit inside a thin work top. This isn’t about whether they clear another object, but rather how well they fits structurally. It would of either sit too far forward and look odd or hang off the edge which could cause problems later.

The kitchen is a compromise. Physics and fire code say things need to be separated. Workflow says you’d like them all close together.

The trick is to try and improve function and safety not maximising space. Read the manual, measure twice. An additional couple of centimetres of breathing room here can save you from a renovation nightmare later.