In modern times, chimneys are extremely important in Indian households, especially due to the nature of the cuisine.  Cooking Indian food involves deep-frying, sautéing, stir-frying, and grilling. As a result, there is a huge emission of fumes filled with oils, spices, and other volatile organic matter. If not expelled properly, these emissions can stick to the walls and ceilings of the kitchen as well as on the cabinets and kitchen appliances. With the passage of time, this will make the kitchen grimy which is totally undesirable. Also, the emissions from the kitchen can cause indoor air pollution. Thus, in order to keep ourselves healthy and have a sparkling clean kitchen, installation of a suitable kitchen chimney is highly recommended.

A chimney is an essential appliance of the kitchen as it collects and draws out the polluted air from the kitchen, leaving the indoor environment clean and safe. The working mechanism of a kitchen chimney is quite simple. While cooking, smoke, and oil droplets are emitted which are sucked into the chimney. The grease gets trapped by the chimney filters whereas the moisture and smoke travel through the ducts and are externally released into the environment.

There are different types of chimneys available in the market. Based on the placement, chimneys can be broadly categorized as: (i) Wall mounted chimneys, (ii) Island chimneys, (iii) Integrated or built-in chimneys, and (iv) Corner chimneys. Based on the duct present, kitchen chimneys can also be grouped as: (i) Ducted chimneys and (ii) Ductless chimneys. Another way to categorize kitchen chimneys is, on the basis of their filter cleaning process. On the basis of this parameter, kitchen chimneys can be classified into two groups: (i) auto clean kitchen chimneys and (ii) manual or non-auto clean kitchen chimneys.

What is an auto clean kitchen chimney?

An auto clean kitchen chimney is one which comes equipped with a separate oil collector. Oil droplets present in the cooking fumes get accumulated in this specialized oil collector. Because of this, auto clean kitchen chimneys come with a huge advantage over the manual ones as the former requires very minimal maintenance.

Working mechanism of an auto clean kitchen chimney:

An auto clean kitchen chimney consists of an aluminum non-stick turbine blower. Fumes released during cooking pass-through this blower. Due to the centrifugal force, the oil droplets are pushed towards the wall of the blower and are collected in a collector bowl. This oil collector bowl is detachable and has to be washed once in a month as per the usage. No extra effort is to be given in case of cleaning this type of chimney as one needs to only press the ‘auto clean’ control button while cooking.

Features of auto clean kitchen chimneys:

1. A non-stick detachable oil collector is present in an auto clean kitchen chimney to collect the oil droplets.
2. The oil collector can be emptied and cleaned once or twice in a month depending on the monthly usage. This, in turn, increases the lifespan of the chimney because unlike a non-auto clean chimney, oil droplets do not stock up in the filter and thus, the functionality of the chimney does not reduce.
3. Suction power of an auto clean kitchen chimney is higher than its manual counterpart. As the oil particles do not adhere to the filter walls and clog it, the suction capacity automatically increases.
4. Auto clean kitchen chimneys are more expensive but the higher price gets compensated by its extremely low maintenance cost.

Thus, it can easily be concluded that an auto clean chimney is an essential gadget that must be installed in our kitchen to keep it clean and pollution-free. Nowadays many companies like Propello have come up with some of the best kitchen chimneys with dry auto-clean technology. These chimneys are sleek and modern and are equipped with a number of features. The auto-clean facility makes these chimneys easy to operate, easy to clean, and easy to maintain thereby saving time and increasing the effectiveness as well as the lifespan of the chimney. Propello also offers round-the-clock customer support which is extremely beneficial for the customers as they get a splendid after-sales service.