--- title: "Range hood not clearing the air" description: "Bertazzoni range hood not clearing the air — the hood runs, the kitchen still fills with steam, and nothing about the appliance is broken." url: "https://bertazzonimiami.support/symptoms/hood-not-clearing-steam/" date_modified: "2026-08-27" Appliance type: "Range hoods and ventilation" --- # Bertazzoni range hood not clearing the air ### The fastest diagnosis is what you can see Take the grease filters out and hold them up to the light. If you cannot see through them they are restricting the airflow measurably, and most of these go through a dishwasher on a hot cycle. Then hold a sheet of tissue against the filter opening with the blower on high — if it does not hold there, the hood is not moving air and the path is the suspect. ### A blower, a filter and a path When a hood stops clearing the air, the path is the first suspect and it is the part nobody looks at. Filters, duct, damper, cap, and only then the blower. We work in that order because it is the order that finds the answer, and because three of the four cost nothing but time. ### The number on the box and the air in your kitchen Nineteen of the thirty-seven hoods in this line are built around 600 cubic feet a minute. That is a design figure, not a promise about your house. What actually arrives depends on duct diameter, bends, length and cleanliness — which is why two identical hoods in two kitchens can perform completely differently with neither of them broken. Loaded grease filters The commonest cause, free to fix, and the one thing that also shortens the motor's life while it is happening. The duct run Crushed behind a cabinet, disconnected above a ceiling, reduced in diameter by whoever installed it, or terminated into a soffit rather than outside. None of this is visible from the kitchen. A damper stuck shut It has to open when the blower starts and can stick after a few humid years. The hood sounds perfect and moves nothing. The wall or roof cap The far end of the path, where lint, paint and nests all end up. Outside the appliance and outside most people's minds. The blower itself Last, and on an insert or island hood it may be a remote unit in the attic or on the roof rather than in the kitchen at all. Hold the filters to the light If light does not pass, air is not either. The tissue test A sheet held against the opening on high should stay there. Is it ducted or recirculating A recirculating hood cannot do much about steam and never could. Has it ever worked properly Never versus got worse is the single most useful distinction on this page. Mostly not the hood What it usually means Runs at full speed and clears nothing Got gradually worse over a year or two Has never really worked since it was installed The fastest diagnosis is what you can see Take the grease filters out and hold them up to the light. If you cannot see through them they are restricting the airflow measurably, and most of these go through a dishwasher on a hot cycle. Then hold a sheet of tissue against the filter opening with the blower on high — if it does not hold there, the hood is not moving air and the path is the suspect. A blower, a filter and a path When a hood stops clearing the air, the path is the first suspect and it is the part nobody looks at. Filters, duct, damper, cap, and only then the blower. We work in that order because it is the order that finds the answer, and because three of the four cost nothing but time. The number on the box and the air in your kitchen Nineteen of the thirty-seven hoods in this line are built around 600 cubic feet a minute. That is a design figure, not a promise about your house. What actually arrives depends on duct diameter, bends, length and cleanliness — which is why two identical hoods in two kitchens can perform completely differently with neither of them broken. ### It has never been any good. Is that a repair? Often not, and we will say so. A hood that has always disappointed is usually an installation question — a duct run too long or too bent, a diameter reduced somewhere, or a recirculating unit where a ducted one was needed. That is fixable, but with ducting rather than parts, and it is a different conversation and a different price. ### How often do the filters really need washing? Far more often than the manual implies if you cook with oil. A filter that has gone tacky is already restricting measurably, and a hood pulling through one runs hotter and louder and wears out faster. It is the single most effective thing an owner can do and it costs nothing. ### What is a recirculating hood? One that filters through charcoal and returns the air to the room rather than sending it outside. It handles grease and odor and it cannot do much about steam or humidity, which in this climate is what people notice. If yours has no duct going anywhere, that is what you have — and if it used to be better, the charcoal filter is a consumable with a life measured in months. --- **[Read full article: Range hood not clearing the air](https://bertazzonimiami.support/symptoms/hood-not-clearing-steam/)**