What People Call About
Four things, essentially.
What Fails on a Range Hood
Short list, and grease is behind more of it than anything mechanical.
The light and its socket
Bulb, socket, or the switch feeding it. The cheapest fault on the list.
The filter, which is not a repair
Metal mesh filters are washable and most people have never washed one. A saturated filter chokes airflow completely and reads exactly like a failed fan. Worth pulling yours out and running it through a dishwasher before you call anybody.
What grease does to all of it
A range hood is the one appliance in the kitchen whose whole job is to collect what everything else throws off. Every fault above is grease-accelerated, which is why a hood that gets its filter cleaned twice a year outlasts one that never does, by a margin that surprises people.
What We Fix on a Range Hood
Repair or Replace a Range Hood?
Almost always repair. A switch, a motor or a light is a modest job on a unit that is otherwise structurally fine, and range hoods have very little in them to go wrong beyond those three things.
The exception is a hood that's badly corroded or where the housing itself is shot. At that point you're putting good parts into a bad box, and you'll hear that.
The other exception is an unusual hood whose parts have been discontinued. Some units use components that can no longer be sourced, and there's no way around that.
The same question on every other appliance→
What It Costs
The $100 service call covers the trip and a complete diagnosis, and comes off the repair when you go ahead. Beyond that, one all-in figure before any work starts.
If yours turns out to be the filter, you'll be told that, and it costs you a service call and nothing else.
Exclusions to the 90-day warranty are listed in full on the FAQs.
How the Visit Goes
Pull the Filter Out Before You Call Anyone
If you take one thing from this page, take this: pull the metal filter out of your range hood and look at it.
Most people have never done it. The filters are held in by a clip or a spring catch, they come out in about five seconds, and they're designed to be washed. On a hood that's been in daily use for years without one being cleaned, the mesh can be effectively sealed with grease.
A sealed filter produces exactly the symptom people call about: the fan runs, you can hear it, and nothing gets pulled off the stove. It feels like a dead hood. It isn't.
So before you book anything, take the filter out, run it through the dishwasher or wash it in hot water with degreaser, let it dry, and put it back. If that fixes it, you've saved yourself a service call. If it doesn't fix it, you've eliminated the most common cause before Aaron arrives, which makes the visit shorter and the diagnosis cleaner. Either way you're better off.
Two Building-Code Points That Affect a Repair
Tell us what it is doing and we will tell you if it is a jobTrussville is the one town whose utility publishes descaling advice of its own
What Customers Say
Every review Aaron has, live from Google, in the customer's own words and under their own name.
Questions We Get Asked
My hood runs but doesn't pull anything. Is the motor dead?
Often not. The filter check above is the thing to try first, and it costs you nothing.
Can you fix just the light?
Yes, and it's worth mentioning when you call so it happens in the same visit.
Is it worth repairing an old hood?
Usually. There's very little in a range hood, and the parts that fail are inexpensive. The two situations where the answer goes the other way are covered above, under Repair or Replace a Range Hood.
How often should I clean the filter?
Twice a year on a hood in normal use. It takes five minutes and it's the single biggest thing you can do for it.
Can you replace the whole unit?
Worth a phone call. Repair is the service here; a full swap is something to ask about rather than assume either way.
What does the warranty cover?
Ninety days on parts and labor for the repair we did. Replacement controls are the exception. Full exclusions on the FAQs.
What usually stops the fan working?
In the order Aaron finds them: the switch, because it sits directly above a stove and spends years in heat and grease; the motor itself; and the wiring to either. A hood that is silent is a different fault from a hood that hums, and which one yours is does a lot of the diagnosis before anybody arrives.
Does a range hood have to vent outside?
A ducted one does. The residential code is explicit that kitchen exhaust must discharge outdoors, and it is explicit again that it must not terminate in an attic or a crawl space. A ductless hood is a different product and is allowed to recirculate, provided it is listed and installed to its instructions.
Mine vents into the attic. Is that a problem?
Yes, and no replacement part will fix it. Every edition of the code in force across this area prohibits it, and the practical consequence is the one you are already living with: the grease, moisture and smell go into the roof space rather than outside. If that is what yours is doing you will be told, rather than sold a motor that was never the problem.
Do I need to change the charcoal filter?
Only if yours is a ductless hood, and then yes. A charcoal filter is replaced rather than washed, and the manufacturers put the interval at six to twelve months depending on how much you cook. The metal mesh filter is the opposite: that one washes and most people have never done it.
The brands this comes up on most
Each of these has its own page with the faults, the parts reality and the model-plate location for that badge.
Where We Work, and How to Reach Us
Range hood repair across the same area as everything else on this site: Gardendale and the towns north of the city, Birmingham itself, and the Over the Mountain communities.
Call or text (205) 883-9703. Tell us which speeds work, whether the light works, and when the filter was last cleaned.
Calls and texts Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Saturday calls are usually answered; Sunday goes to voicemail.
Every town we cover