Core drilling concrete wall

I'm looking to fit a cooker hood in my kitchen & will need to core drill the wall. The wall itself is a fairly loose concrete aggregate, but from working on the same wall upstairs I know there's at least one precast pillar embedded in it, which I'm assuming is steel reinforced.

Clearly I don't want to plough a core drill into steel reinforcement, so I'm wondering what's the best way to locate it before I start? Would a cable detector do the job or wouldn't it go deep enough? Would making a few pilot holes in the area of the intended hole be a good idea, or might it cause problems for the core drill?

Also, the 125mm ducting kit I'm using specifies a 140mm hole, but the nearest bit I can get is 150mm - is this likely to be ok? (the external face plate is 160x160mm so should cover it).

Cheers

 

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