How To Select The Right Fume Hood For Your Laboratory

Researchers and scientists deal with harmful chemicals, hazardous materials, and poisonous gases daily. For any organisation and institution hosting laboratories, the safety of the lab users and of the lab is the top priority.

Fume hoods are the common and reliable engineering control deployed for safe labs. But, selecting a fume hood can be a confusing task. Fume hoods come in various configuration and sizes complicating the choice.

But, don’t you worry. In this guide, we’ll walk-you through the five important aspects you need to check for when selecting your next fume hood.

First, let’s get some basics in place.

Ventilation devices are used to capture and remove the contaminants (gas, vapour, or dust) away from the users and out of the laboratory. Fume hood (fume cupboard or fume closet) is a local ventilation device found in all laboratories.

Fume hoods control contamination by drawing air through the face of the fume hood and away from the users and labs. Through ventilation fume hoods minimise the risk of contamination.

We know fume hoods work by drawing the air and contaminants out of the user zone. Modern fume hoods, like Kewaunee’s Supreme Air Venturi, comes with many controls and parts for enhanced safety. For now, we’ll focus on three important components – sash, baffles, and fume hood body.

SASH is a moveable panel on front portion of the fume hoods – often referred to as the fume hood door or window. Sash provides a protective barrier between the lab user and the experiment. The common sash configurations are – vertical, horizontal, and combination sash (vertical + horizontal).

BAFFLE is the slotted openings along the back of the hood. Baffles work in tandem with the sash to control the air flow in the fume hood and keep the airflow uniform. By eliminating the dead spots and reverse airflow (into the labs), baffles play an important role in safety and fume hood efficiency. In older fume hoods, baffles were moveable partitions, but modern fume hood like Supreme Air Venturi comes with fixed baffles.

BODY comprises the fume hood exterior and the interior. The fume hood body contains the contaminants. Well-designed exterior will have a contoured entry (aerodynamic design) to assist airflow into the hood and improve hood performance. The material of construction (MOC) is an important consideration for fume hood, specifically the interior liner material. Since chemicals and gases can corrode the interiors and exterior, MOCs resistant to work being conducted in the fume hood is critical when selecting your fume hood.