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Hood maker wins coveted international German Design Award

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Last month a mix of slick design and unique use of centrifugal force has seen a small German manufacturer receive yet another top international design award to beat all-comers in the competitive world of kitchen product design.

German kitchen hood maker Berbel received the coveted 2020 German Design Award in the Excellent Product Design (Kitchen) category for the latest matt black edition from its Formline headroom range (pictured). The award was presented during Ambiente 2020, a leading international consumer goods fair held in Frankfurt from February 7-11, and adds to the company’s remarkable tally of some 15 international design awards gained since 2010.

“It’s not only our Berbel principle [a patented use of centrifugal force to produce clean air] that differentiates our products from others, but also the emotionally ‘timeless’ design,” says Berbel’s CEO, Karl von Bodelschwingh.

Berbel kitchen hoods remove 97% of cooking smells

Like all 19 kitchen hood lines produced by Berbel, the Formline extractor hood does not use inefficient, rapidly clogged-up fat filters. Instead, it uses the company’s patented centrifugal force technology that sucks in air before spinning off up to 97% of all fat, residues and vapours into a removable, easy-to-clean steel tray.

The air is then either extracted outdoors or recirculated after being drawn through renewable carbon filters to remove up some 97% of all cooking smells.

Berbel extractors range in shape, colour and size to fit every type of kitchen, starting with the space-saving Downline – a combination of a hob with an extractor sitting below the cooking surface (see last year’s new entry-level ‘Compact’ version pictured).

Another space-saver is the Moveline, a table lift hood that remains stored beneath a kitchen top and raised up above the hob when needed.

Kitchen hoods to suit every home

Larger hoods in the Berbel range include the headroom hood, Formline (mentioned above), designed to give hob users an uninterrupted view of their cooking. There are also height-adjustable extraction hoods that drop down from the ceiling at the touch of a button to suit kitchen ‘islands’, such as Skyframe (pictured), along with wall-mounted hoods, and those built into overlying cupboards.

Last year Berbel’s larger, standard Downline model picked up the international Plus X Award, one of the world’s leading innovation and design awards, a feat repeated this year with the black edition of Berbel’s popular Ergoline 2 headroom extractor.

Berbel extractor hoods have been available in the UK for several years, but this year marks a more concerted effort to promote the company’s award-winning products across the UK through the design consultancy, Casalife.

How Berbel hoods work

Cooking vapours – contaminated water, fats, oils and air (including cooking smells) – are sucked through a narrow gap into the extractor hood. Suction then speeds up flow of the vapours through two built-in bends in the air flow passage, an action that creates sufficient centrifugal force to hurl up to 97% of all fats and oils out of the air. These are collected into an easy-to-clean and removable metal tray. The air flows on through carbon filters (renewable once every two to three years) to remove almost all smells and reemerges fresh, clean and virtually odourless. Some Berbel extractors allow users to alternate between air recycling and air extraction modes – at the flick of a switch, they can simply expend the contaminated air outside, offering a facility particularly handy during hot weather.

Berbel beginnings 

Berbel Ablufttechnik GmbH was founded in 2001, received its first centrifugal separation patent in 2002 and made its market debut in 2003. Based in Rheine, Westphalia, in Germany, and now part of the Swiss ventilation technology specialist, WESCO Group, Berbel is a growing company with 120 employees. Its main market continues to be Germany, where it manufactures all its products, but since 2010 it has also been selling into the UK and other European countries (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria and Italy) via local networks of kitchen sellers. 

Casalife 

Casalife is a long-established, UK-based kitchen design consultancy and importer of German kitchens. Husband and wife team Karl Sattler and Jacqueline Cater have worked in the high-end kitchen industry for over 30 years. Both are German-speaking professionals, with direct access to the latest innovations in German kitchen design from some of the world’s best international manufacturers. Their passion for food and German kitchens has taken them to many countries where they have lived and worked, inspiring them to create leading-edge kitchen concepts and designs. They focus particularly on both their clients’ present and future needs in order to supply them with the best possible kitchen designs and outcomes.   

For more details on Berbel’s range of extractors, please contact: Jacqueline Cater at Casalife, mobile 07843 968991, office 01727 309609 email: info@casalife.co.uk/info@casalife.net; website: casalife.uk 

Berbel’s Downline Compact kitchen hob with built-in extractor

 

Berbel’s Skyline frame kitchen extractor hood

 

Berbel’s Formline (new black edition) kitchen extractor hood