AirHood is marketed as the world’s first portable cooking range ventilation hood. I recently tested one of these devices as if it was being used in a dorm room, RV, or other non-traditional cooking space that doesn’t have a dedicated vent hood to see how well it can help to manage indoor air quality in these spaces.
Obviously adding a vent hood over a cooktop in a dorm room, apartment, or other rental properly is completely impractical. Similarly installing one in an RV may be very challenging. Other than giving up cooking, AirHood presents another option for controlling particulates and VOCs produced during cooking.
Managing Indoor Air Quality
Poor indoor air quality isn’t limited to the average American family living in the average single-family home. It can occur in apartments, dorm rooms, RVs, people sharing a rental property to save money, and anyplace else where people live.
PM2.5 particulates (tiny particles that are 2.5 micrometers, or less, in diameter) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced from cooking can be a significant indoor air quality issue in these locations. For example, small cooktops are typically not allowed in dorm rooms. However, that has never stopped college students from saving a buck and using one to reduce the money they spend on meals. Small cooktops or stoves also are used in RVs, apartments, and other spaces where a range hood to vent cooking fumes to the outside isn’t available. What all these locations have in common is there isn’t a way to eliminate PM2.5 particulates and VOCs from the air that are a byproduct of cooking.
Exposure to VOCs can cause significant health effects, even after short periods of exposure. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, people with breathing problems, asthma, and allergies are particularly at risk. Finally, according to Healthy Home, the health effects from direct exposure to VOCs can include eye, nose, and throat irritation, headaches and nausea, and liver, kidney, and central nervous system damage.
According to the California Air Resources Board, these PM2.5 particulates can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Short-term exposures (up to 24 hours duration) have been associated with premature mortality, increased hospital admissions for heart or lung causes, acute and chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks, emergency room visits, respiratory symptoms, and restricted activity days. Research points to older adults with chronic heart or lung disease, children, and asthmatics as the groups most likely to experience adverse health effects with exposure to PM10 and PM2.5. Also, children and infants are susceptible to harm from inhaling pollutants because they inhale more air per pound of body weight than do adults.
AirHood
More than 4,000 backers purchased AirHoods through the company’s campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Now, the AirHood is available directly through the company’s website with a two-month warranty.
AirHood has dual filters that can reduce cooking fumes that include VOCs as well as grease and smoke, cooking odors, and oil film formation.
The first filter is an oil filter that captures grease particles that travel in the steam generated during cooking. This helps reduce lingering cooking odors and helps prevent the buildup of a yellow, sticky, oil film from developing on surfaces around the area where cooking is taking place. The oil filter can be removed for cleaning and is dishwasher safe.
The second filter is an activated charcoal filter. This filter can capture VOCs in the filter’s lattice of carbon molecules. The filter is designed to last for about 100 hours of use and four spare filters are included with the product.
The AirHood offers both wired and wireless models in three different colors. The first model is powered by plugging it into a standard wall outlet. The second model includes an internal rechargeable battery with up to 480 minutes of battery life. The battery requires three hours for recharging. Either model is available in Cadmium Orange, Space Black, and Ivory White.
Hands On
The AirHood isn’t as effective as the hood over a standard residential stove that vents smoke/fumes from cooking to outside a home. However, I feel that the real target markets for the product are dorm rooms, RVs, or other non-traditional cooking spaces that don’t have a dedicated vent hood.
For my review, the AirHood was placed in front of an open window with an induction cooktop in front of the AirHood so cooking fumes would be sucked up by the AirHood and exhausted in the direction of the open window. I then placed an indoor air quality monitor a few feet away to measure the PM2.5 particulate level and VOCs in the room.
The AirHood wasn’t a miracle cure, but it was able to reduce the level of pollutants in the room by approximately 20%.
Conclusions
If you are cooking in a kitchen with a vent hood over your stove, then you should continue to use it. On the other hand, if you are in an RV, dorm room, or other non-traditional location that doesn’t have a vent hood, then the AirHood can help to manage indoor air quality. It is also important to remember that the AirHood is not just about improving air quality. It also helps keep a kitchen cleaner by capturing grease particles carried by steam from food during cooking and reducing cooking odors.
