--- title: "Range hoods" description: "Whirlpool range hoods: whirlpool documents ventilation lightly and honestly: 43 pages across its vent hoods and the retractable downdraft vent, of which…" url: "https://whirlpoolmiami.support/appliances/range-hood/" date_modified: "2026-09-06" Appliance type: "Range hoods" --- # Whirlpool range hoods ### The appliance with almost nothing to say Two code pages in the whole ventilation branch, against 176 for the wall oven. That is not a gap in the documentation, it is an accurate description of the machine: a hood is a motor, a fan wheel, a lamp circuit, a damper and a filter. When it stops working, the answer is found by looking rather than by reading a display. ### Ducted, recirculating, or a microwave A ducted hood pushes air out of the building. A recirculating one filters it and returns it to the room. Both are legitimate installations, and only one of them removes heat and steam — which means a fair share of complaints about a hood that does not work turn out to be a recirculating installation working exactly as it was built to, with a charcoal filter that has been in place since the kitchen was. In a lot of Whirlpool kitchens across Miami-Dade and Broward the ventilation is an over-the-range microwave instead, which does both jobs and fails in both ways: the vent fan and its switch have their own published codes on that machine. If your ventilation is the microwave, the microwave page on this site is the one you want. Exact cost is confirmed after the on-site diagnostic, which is credited toward the repair. Wall-mount and under-cabinet hoods, retractable downdraft vents, and the OTR microwave Range hood repair Wall-mount and under-cabinet hoods, plus Whirlpool's retractable downdraft vent Two published code pages in the entire ventilation branch: C displayed and F displayed Ducted or recirculating decides what a working hood is even supposed to do The appliance with almost nothing to say Two code pages in the whole ventilation branch, against 176 for the wall oven. That is not a gap in the documentation, it is an accurate description of the machine: a hood is a motor, a fan wheel, a lamp circuit, a damper and a filter. When it stops working, the answer is found by looking rather than by reading a display. Ducted, recirculating, or a microwave A ducted hood pushes air out of the building. A recirculating one filters it and returns it to the room. Both are legitimate installations, and only one of them removes heat and steam — which means a fair share of complaints about a hood that does not work turn out to be a recirculating installation working exactly as it was built to, with a charcoal filter that has been in place since the kitchen was. In a lot of Whirlpool kitchens across Miami-Dade and Broward the ventilation is an over-the-range microwave instead, which does both jobs and fails in both ways: the vent fan and its switch have their own published codes on that machine. If your ventilation is the microwave, the microwave page on this site is the one you want. Exact cost is confirmed after the on-site diagnostic, which is credited toward the repair. ### It runs but the kitchen still fills with steam. Three questions in this order. Is it ducted or recirculating, because a recirculating hood was never going to remove steam from the room — it pulls grease out of the air through a charcoal filter and puts the air back. Are the filters loaded, because a metal baffle or mesh filter packed with grease chokes the airflow completely. And is the duct clear where it leaves the building, because the exterior damper seizes in this climate and everything behind it packs solid. Only after those three is it worth looking at the blower. ### The lights work and the fan does not. Useful, because it proves power is arriving at the hood and the problem is downstream of the switch. That leaves the blower motor, the capacitor that starts it on the models that have one, or the control board that drives it. A motor that hums and will not turn is usually a capacitor or a seized bearing and both are parts. A motor that is completely silent is the control or the motor itself. On a retractable downdraft there is a fourth possibility: the lift mechanism, which has its own motor and its own limit switches. ### How often do the filters actually need doing? Metal filters every month or two in a kitchen that cooks properly, and they go through the dishwasher on their own — Whirlpool devotes eight pages to cleaning and care for a reason. Charcoal filters on a recirculating installation are replaced rather than washed, roughly every six months. Nothing else on this appliance rewards attention as cheaply, and a loaded filter is what makes a perfectly good hood feel broken. --- **[Read full article: Range hoods](https://whirlpoolmiami.support/appliances/range-hood/)**