In a stunning melding of visual art and appliance technology the latest crop of range hoods from Smeg turns our preconceptions of kitchen ventilation entirely on their head! Elegant, highly polished cylindrical light fittings suspended gracefully from the ceiling completely belie the presence of the quietly powerful extraction motor hidden within!
In a collection of three designs – Vanilla, Zoom and Vertigo – each appliance features a stainless steel cylinder that sits within an outer decorative cylinder at ceiling height. At the touch of the remote control, the inner cylinder, housing the motor and filters, is silently lowered towards the cooktop.
Each rangehood has four speeds – one being an intensive cycle that runs for 10 minutes when there are excessive levels of fumes or grease laden steam – four 20W halogen globes for daylight quality, shadow-free light and dishwasher-safe aluminium filters. The first design, Vanilla, has a central stainless steel cylinder housed within a beautifully white tempered glass cylinder featuring delicately etched patterning of sand dunes. The second, Zoom, is a single, highly polished stainless steel cylinder while Vertigo features two stainless steel cylinders, one within the other, featuring wave-like laser cuts that throw textural light patterns across the outer perimeter of the room.
Each of the Smeg Ceiling Mount range hoods can be ducted direct to the atmosphere or programmed to re-circulate the air, once cleaned, back into the kitchen. And while aesthetics are undoubtedly a key feature of this new collection, each model has a number of new technological applications. The in-built energy diffuser for example, ensures the minimal amount of obstruction to air flow within the motor – this results in a significant reduction in the noise level as well as up to a 30 per cent increase in energy efficiency.
Convenience factors include a delayed switch-off – whereby the motor runs at a low speed for about 10 minutes after it has been switched off – and the Key 24 mode runs the motor at a very low level (silently) for 24 hours for continuous air renewal. There is a 30-hour stainless steel filter cleaning prompt and a 120-hour charcoal filter replacement prompt. The metal filters are dishwasher safe.
The Smeg Ceiling Mount rangehoods are available nationally from electrical retailers, appliance specialists and some department stores and range from $2990 to $4990
I recently helped a friend out with some design changes to an architecturally designed kitchen in a new home (but that’s another story!) – I’m hoping we can show you at a later date one of these beautiful hoods in their kitchen!
Go to www.smeg.com.au for more details.
