Image credit: Samsung
Samsung just redesigned the one part of an over-range microwave that never worked as well as a real range hood: the vent. The new Bespoke over-the-range microwave uses what Samsung calls DualVent technology, and it's built to solve a problem anyone who's seared a steak under one of these things has already experienced.
For anyone who sears steaks or fries up Thai chili paste, a range hood makes an enormous difference in how fast smoke and fumes clear out. That’s why serious home cooks treat the built-in microwave vent as decorative at best.
The problem is that a standard over-range microwave vents through a single intake at the back, which means it mostly catches whatever rises straight up from the rear burners. Fire up a pan on the front burners, the ones people use most, and the smoke drifts past the vent instead of into it. Samsung's fix is to add a second intake at the front of the unit, positioned closer to where most of our cooking usually happens. Samsung says the combination hits an 82% fume capture rate, on par with the company's standalone range hoods in its own testing.
LG already has a solution to the front-burner problem with a technology it calls ExtendaVent, which physically extends the vent hood forward over the cooktop to widen its catch area. It works by brute force: more hood surface area means more smoke gets caught before it escapes into the kitchen. Samsung's approach is the more elegant solution. It repositions where the suction happens rather than extending the hardware outward. And the front vent has a curved lip to redirect smoke to the back so it doesn't escape before being sucked in.
Image credit: Samsung
My own kitchen in a New York apartment, sadly, doesn't have a vented hood. If DualVent performs the way Samsung claims, it would change how and what we cook. Right now, a hard sear means closing the kitchen door and living with the eye-watering, cough-inducing fumes or risk setting off every one of our smoke detectors.
The Bespoke DualVent microwave holds 2.1 cubic feet, syncs wirelessly with compatible Samsung ranges and cooktops so both turn on and off together, and connects to the SmartThings app. It comes in a fingerprint-resistant stainless steel finish and is available for a pricey $674 on Samsung's site.
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