Grease dripping out of a range hood means the system has stopped capturing it. A hood is supposed to trap grease in the filters, where you wash it out, and vent only the vapour. When the filters saturate, everything past them starts collecting oil — the blower housing, the duct, and eventually the exterior cap — and once the duct is coated, condensate runs back down and drips out of the hood. It is unpleasant, and it is a fire load in the ceiling.
Read this first
- Accumulated grease in a hood and its duct is a serious kitchen fire hazard, and a dripping hood is telling you there is a lot of it. Treat this as a safety job.
- Switch off the breaker before opening the housing — most hoods are hardwired.
- Never run a hood with the grease filters removed. The filters are what stop grease reaching the blower and the duct.
- Never use flammable solvents to degrease a hood, and never clean a hood that is still hot.
- Do not work on a ladder over a cooktop with burners on.
Step by step
Work out where the grease is coming from
Look carefully. Grease running down the outside of the hood is escaping past the filters at the edges, usually because the filters are the wrong size, badly seated, or the hood is undersized for the cooktop. Grease dripping from the middle of the hood, from the filter face, or out of the duct connection is coming back down the duct, which is a bigger problem. Grease pooling in a tray at the back is exactly where it should be, and just needs emptying.
Degrease the filters properly
Pull every filter out and hold each up to a light — mesh filters should let light through and baffle filters should have clean, open channels. Soak them in very hot water with a strong degreaser or dishwasher detergent for twenty minutes, scrub, rinse and dry. Most metal filters go in the dishwasher on their own. Then check they refit in the right orientation: baffle filters have a top and bottom, and one fitted upside down channels grease onto the cooktop instead of into the trap.
Empty and clean the grease cup or tray
Many hoods, particularly baffle-filter and professional-style models, have a small removable cup or a channel at the back that collects the grease the baffles separate out. If yours has one and nobody has ever emptied it, it has overflowed and that is your drip. Pull it, wash it, and put it back. Add it to the monthly routine alongside the filters — it takes thirty seconds.
Degrease the blower and housing
With the breaker off, take the blower wheel and housing apart as far as your model allows and degrease every surface — the wheel vanes, the housing walls, the intake and the outlet collar. Grease here has already got past the filters, and it both unbalances the wheel and provides the film that everything else sticks to. A shop vacuum picks up what you loosen. This is the job people skip and it is where the problem actually lives.
Look for condensate in a cold duct run
If your duct runs through an unheated attic, a cold roof space, or a long exterior wall, grease-laden vapour condenses on the cold metal and runs back down toward the hood. That is the classic cause of a hood that drips even with clean filters. The fix is to insulate the duct with proper duct wrap, keep the run as short and as warm as possible, and make sure any horizontal section slopes very slightly toward the outside rather than back toward the hood.
Check the duct slope, joints and damper
Where you can reach it, confirm the duct is properly assembled, the joints are sealed with foil tape rather than cloth tape, and no section sags into a low point where liquid collects. Check the damper flaps at the hood and at the exterior cap open freely and close cleanly. A damper welded shut with grease not only kills your airflow, it turns the duct into a closed vessel that condenses everything back onto the hood.
Check the hood height and its coverage of the cooktop
A hood mounted too high, or narrower than the cooktop, simply does not capture the plume — the vapour spreads across the ceiling and condenses on the hood's outer surfaces and the cabinets. Manufacturers typically specify 24 to 30 inches above an electric cooktop and 27 to 36 inches above gas, and a hood at least as wide as the cooktop. If yours falls outside that, no amount of cleaning will stop the grease escaping.
Set a cleaning routine and keep to it
Wash the grease filters monthly if you cook with any regularity, empty the grease cup at the same time, and degrease the blower and housing once or twice a year. Replace charcoal filters on recirculating hoods every three to six months. Above all, run the hood — on before you start cooking and for ten minutes after — because a hood that gets switched on halfway through frying is capturing a fraction of what it should.
What this repair costs
Doing it yourself
$0–$100
Hiring a technician
$200–$600
Prices are general estimates for typical US jobs, not quotes. What you actually pay depends on your appliance's brand and age, the part required, your region, and each shop's labour rate. The DIY figure assumes you supply the labour and buy the part yourself.
Parts you may end up buying
| Part | Install | Typical price | Typical lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grease Filter | easy | $15–$65 | Wash monthly; replace every 2–5 years |
| Charcoal Filter | easy | $15–$55 | 6–12 months |
| Blower Wheel | moderate | $20–$80 | 10–15 years |
| Blower Motor | moderate | $60–$260 | 10–15 years |
| Speed Switch | easy | $12–$90 | 8–15 years |
| Light Socket and Lamp | easy | $8–$40 | 3–10 years |
| Damper Flap | easy | $10–$40 | 8–15 years |
Still not fixed
When to call a pro
Call a professional hood and duct cleaning service if the duct run is inside a wall or ceiling cavity you cannot inspect, or if you find grease has escaped the duct into the structure — that is a fire risk that needs proper equipment and access, not a cloth on a stick. Bring in an installer if the hood is the wrong size or height for the cooktop, or if the duct needs rerouting, resizing or insulating. If the hood has ever had a grease fire in it, have the whole system inspected before using it again.
More range hood guides
- Range Hood Fan Weak or Not Venting — Restore Airflow45–120 minutes
- Range Hood Light Not Working — Bulbs, Sockets and Switches15–45 minutes
- Range Hood Won't Turn On — Power, Switch and Control Checks30–75 minutes
- Range Hood Loud or Rattling — Quiet It Down45–120 minutes
- Range Hood Fan Won't Turn Off or Starts On Its Own30–75 minutes
- Downdraft Vent Won't Rise or Lower — Free the Lift45–120 minutes