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Disclaimer: This is just my personal experiment with one monitor in one kitchen. Not medical advice, not a scientific study, just curiosity and an affordable air quality monitor.

Why I Started Measuring Kitchen Air

After spending a fortune on air quality monitors for travel and outdoor use, I wondered: what’s actually happening to the air in my own kitchen when I cook? Everyone says “use your extractor fan,” but does it actually matter? And how bad is frying bacon really?

So I stuck my Temtop M10 on the kitchen counter for a week and cooked normally. Here’s what I learned.

The Setup

Equipment:

• Temtop M10 air quality monitor (measures PM2.5, PM10, temperature, humidity)
• Gas hob (4 burners)
• Overhead extractor fan (standard residential, not restaurant-grade)
• Normal UK kitchen, about 12m² floor space

Baseline readings (kitchen empty, no cooking):

• PM2.5: 4-7 μg/m³
• PM10: 8-12 μg/m³
• Humidity: 45-52%

Pretty clean to start with, which makes sense—no traffic outside, decent ventilation.

Experiment 1: Frying Bacon (The Smoky One)

What I cooked: Four rashers of bacon, medium heat, cast iron pan

Extractor fan: OFF (wanted to see worst case)

Results:

• Starting PM2.5: 6 μg/m³
• Peak during frying: 87 μg/m³
• 5 minutes after: 62 μg/m³
• 30 minutes after: 18 μg/m³
• Back to baseline: About 2 hours

Observations: Bacon creates a lot of airborne particles. The monitor went from green to red within two minutes of the bacon hitting the pan. The smell lingered, but interestingly the particle count dropped faster than I expected once I opened a window.

With extractor fan ON:

• Peak PM2.5: 34 μg/m³ (60% reduction)
• Back to baseline: 45 minutes

Much better, but still not great. The fan helps but doesn’t eliminate the problem.

Experiment 2: Boiling Pasta (The Humid One)

What I cooked: 500g pasta, large pot, rolling boil for 12 minutes

Extractor fan: OFF initially, then ON

Results:

• PM2.5 change: Barely any (stayed 5-8 μg/m³)
• Humidity change: 45% → 68% (massive jump)
• With fan: Humidity peaked at 58% instead

Observations: Boiling water doesn’t create particles, but it absolutely pumps moisture into the air. The monitor’s humidity reading shot up within minutes. This matters because high humidity can make existing particles feel “heavier” and affect how you breathe.

Interesting bit: turning on the extractor fan after the humidity peaked didn’t help much. You need to run it from the start to prevent the moisture building up.

Experiment 3: Baking Bread (The Surprise)

What I cooked: Sourdough loaf, 230°C for 40 minutes

Extractor fan: OFF (oven is sealed, right?)

Results:

• First 30 minutes: No change (PM2.5 stayed around 6 μg/m³)
• Opening the oven: Brief spike to 22 μg/m³
• Cooling bread: Another small spike to 18 μg/m³
• Back to baseline: 20 minutes

Observations: Baking is surprisingly clean until you open the oven. That blast of hot air carries some particles, but nothing like frying. The crust cooling also released a tiny amount of particles—probably flour dust and steam condensing.

Experiment 4: Stir-Frying Vegetables (The Interesting One)

What I cooked: Mixed veg stir-fry, high heat, wok, sesame oil

Extractor fan: ON from start

Results:

• Peak PM2.5: 28 μg/m³
• Interesting pattern: Spiky—every time I added ingredients, particles jumped
• Back to baseline: 35 minutes

Observations: High-heat cooking with oil creates particles even with vegetables. Each time I added something to the hot wok, there was a visible spike on the monitor. The extractor fan kept it manageable but couldn’t prevent the spikes entirely.

What Actually Works: The Extractor Fan Test

I ran the same bacon-frying test three ways:

1. No fan: Peak 87 μg/m³, 2 hours to baseline
2. Fan on during cooking: Peak 34 μg/m³, 45 minutes to baseline
3. Fan on + window cracked: Peak 26 μg/m³, 25 minutes to baseline

The winner: Fan + window. The combination creates actual airflow that pulls particles out rather than just recirculating them.

The Toast Incident (Unplanned Experiment)

I accidentally burned toast one morning. The monitor went absolutely mental:

• Peak PM2.5: 156 μg/m³ (briefly hit “hazardous” range)
• Smell: Awful
• Time to clear: 3+ hours even with windows open

Burned food creates far more particles than normal cooking. The monitor stayed in the “unhealthy” range for over an hour. This is probably why smoke alarms go off—there’s genuinely a lot of particulate matter from combustion.

Gas vs Electric: A Side Note

My kitchen has gas hobs. I tested at a friend’s place with an electric induction hob and got consistently lower readings for the same cooking tasks—about 30-40% lower particle counts. Gas combustion itself adds particles even before the food starts cooking.

If you’re sensitive to air quality and choosing between gas and electric, this might matter.

Practical Takeaways

What I changed after this experiment:

1. Always run the extractor fan when frying or high-heat cooking—it genuinely makes a 50-70% difference
2. Start the fan before cooking not after—prevention works better than cleanup
3. Crack a window during heavy cooking—the cross-ventilation helps massively
4. Don’t stress about boiling or baking—they’re relatively clean
5. Watch out for burned food—it’s genuinely bad for air quality

What surprised me:

• How quickly particles clear once you stop cooking (faster than I expected)
• How much humidity matters (the monitor’s readings changed just from moisture)
• How much difference the extractor fan actually makes (I was skeptical)
• How bad burned toast is (worse than frying bacon!)

The Bigger Picture

WHO guidelines recommend 24-hour average PM2.5 below 15 μg/m³. Even my worst cooking (bacon without fan) only spiked for 10-15 minutes, so the daily average stayed well below that threshold.

However, if you’re cooking multiple meals per day in a small flat with poor ventilation, those spikes add up. And if you have asthma or other respiratory issues, even brief exposure to 80+ μg/m³ might be uncomfortable.

Worth Measuring?

Honestly? It’s been quite eye-opening. I now understand why my partner always insisted on the extractor fan (she was right, I was wrong). And I’ve changed my cooking habits slightly—more ventilation, less burned food, earlier fan activation.

Would I recommend buying an air quality monitor just for this? Probably not unless you’re genuinely curious or have respiratory sensitivities. But if you already have one, stick it in your kitchen for a week. You might be surprised.

Next experiment: Testing whether my extractor fan actually vents outside or just recirculates. The particle reduction suggests it’s venting, but I want to confirm. Stay tuned.

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Curious about air quality monitoring at home? Check out our portable monitor buying guide for devices that actually work.