When the light bulbs in your extractor hood, also referred to as a cooker hood, go, it can be extremely frustrating. Not only does it affect your visibility whilst cooking (potentially creating a safety hazard in itself), many often find it difficult to change cooker hood light bulbs.
In reality, it shouldn’t be any more challenging than changing a light bulb in your house.
In addition to all of the reasons that normal household bulbs can have for failing, extractor hood bulbs are also far more susceptible to moisture getting inside and causing damage.
Cooker hood bulbs also aren’t supposed to be used for long periods of time and can become extremely hot through extended use (which you’ll know if you’ve ever touched them). When they get too hot, the filament can snap or the wiring to fail, both leading to the bulb becoming useless.
If you notice the light bulbs in your extractor hood have become faulty, follow these steps to swap them out with new ones.
Make sure you purchase the correct type of bulb, the most common ones are a candle type bulb on older hoods and 12v Halogen on newer hoods.
If it is a halogen bulb then you need to select the correct voltage and wattage which can be very difficult to read off the tiny bulb.
Before you start any work it is really important that you turn off the power to the unit at the mains. This will ensure that there’s no electricity flowing through the appliance and eliminate the potential for an electric shock.
Secondly, if you have used your appliance recently, wait for it to fully cool down.
To replace the cooker hood lights: