| 43180.1 | |
| I am looking to remodel a higher end home, and really would like a cooktop facing out into the family room. What I am not particularly interested in is having a huge hood blocking coming down in the middle of the space, blocking my view of everyone and everything. I am taller at 6’2″ and I love to cook. The reason I want to have my cooktop facing out is to be involved with my guests and family, but I am afraid a regular hood will minimize that engagement. I would like to get a 4 top gas burner with either grill or griddle… or both. Wolf makes one I am interested in with all of the above. I see alot about ‘downdraft’ hoods which really intrigues me, but I have yet to really see anything about how well they perform. Big name manufacturers make them like Viking and Wolf, but I want something that is going to work. I know that there are always tradeoffs, and I am willing to make some, but filling my house with smoke from a grill or inadvertantly forgotten crepe is not one of them. I love the idea and the look or lack there of. But I don’t want to install something that will not at least do a decent job of evacuation. I know that the grease is a big culpret as well, so how well do these actually do… guess as in percentage of what a big overhead hood would do in the same situation? If you know of a place to get information on this subject, I would be glad to hear of it!! Thanks |
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Replies
The Taunton Press "Kitchens" for Pros/by Pros has an article about hoods and downdraft.
They didn't have much good to say about them as I recall, marginal & not for serious cooking.
Joe H
Might want to post your question over on "Cook's Talk" in the kitchen equipment forum. Got everything from professional chefs on down, so you should get an informed answer(s).
I ahve installed Thermador and Jenair downdrafters. The installation and planning is a bear, but the clients/owners seem happy with them. of course since it was their choice, there could be a pride factor in not admitting if they were unhappy with them.
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I would advise against.
Particularly for the grill option.
They require more air volume to work (meaning more wasted energy), and still do not work as well.
I've had decent experience with them if, like Piffin stated that can be measured by the satisfaction of the client.
The key is layout, try to keep the exhaust clean and mean without alot of dips and bend or length and you will be ok.
Good luck,
Eric
I just finished a kitchen with a Thermador 5 burner gas cooktop and a matching periscope vent. It sits behind the cooktop and is barely visible (looks like a full-width piece of trim about 1-1/2 inches deep) until you push the on button, then it rises about 12 inches and starts sucking air. Maybe it's not 12 inches, but it's high enough to clear a spaghetti pot. With no pots on the stove to interfere with the draft, it sucks the flames out, especially on low flame settings. The HO is happy...but like Piff said, she selected it. And it was a trick to install...be sure to read all the planning and installation instructions.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Go to the Food Network on cable, tune in the great show that features the ponytailed Mario, the guy that specializes in Italian cooking. Take a good look at his setup, in which he does a whole lot of interacting with his guests across the island, and the camera. The range, a really serious gas one, has a conventional hood above, and is placed to the side, away from the sight lines from the cook to camera and guests.
Considering rearranging your kitchen scheme so that Wolf range you want, has a good chimney-style hood over it, but that the range is to the side, rather than in the way of the principal view those you want to yak with while you are chopping, dicing, and preparing.
If you are about to unload up to $5K on a range, don't compromise the setup by skimping on a hood of sufficient capacity to handle the heat, steam, and sizzle. Get deeply into the specs of both the range and hoods, get help from design pros if necessary, and match a hood of sufficient CFM capacity to the cooker.
And, by all means, get the architect and contractor on the case as well, so that when it is time to frame out the structure of the new kitchen (or gut and frame for the remodel), the all-important ducting is considered and accounted for in framing and cabinetry. Venting for these high-BTU pro ranges or cooktops requires some good-sized ducting, and a nice-sized vent outlet terminal on an outside wall of the house.
If you are a serious cook and want to cook on a serious cooktop, then a downdratf should not be a consideration.
They don't work with grills, they don't work with wok rings, they don't work with any high-BTU type of cooking.
Most are marginal even with steam coming out of a pot.
Pop-ups do work better...but they're still a compromise.
You could get an oversized hood (wider and deeper than required) with mega CFM fans (remote for noise) and mount it above your eyeline. However, you;re asking the thing to pull a lot of air from all four sides, since it's an island cooktop.
An alternative?
Turn everything 90-degrees. Have your standard cooktop and standard hood in front of you, and your guests at an island end cap either 90-degrees to your left, or 90-degrees to your right.
Or, since you are 6'2", you could possibly raise the cooktop an inch or two higher than standard...and raise the hood a few more inches above standard. See if you can get it (hood) above your sightline.
Kitchen design/demonstration stores (high end places) have varying styles of equipment on-site, and they should be able to do a house visit and give you ideas on how to make this work.
Someone here on Breaktime once posted a pic of a wooden range hood suspended from the ceiling. But unfortunately I can't find it.
Anybody remember that, or have a pic of a similar unit?
But I wonder if something like that would work for you. It could be 7' or more to the bottom edge, so it wouldn't interfeere with your sight lines. You might also be able to mount the fan remotely, which would cut down on noise.
A government study has shown that blondes do have more fun. They just don't remember with whom.
Anybody remember that, or have a pic of a similar unit?
Not wood, but here's mine that works extremely well. No issue with sight line.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
I have yet to find someone who bought a house with a downdraft hood and liked it. The people who have one installed for a remodel job think they will like them, but most admit to dissapointment. The grill/steak cooking with downdraft gets used one time, then the novelty wears off as they clean out the souring layer of grease. Steak grilling indoors is risky. Look at the co2 systems comercial kitchens have over their grilles.
I would go with a higher and wider hood over your island, and let the natural convection properties of rising heat work for you.You can even design an arched hood to allow more visual line of sight through the arch.You will suck out a lot less air.Use solid metal duct, not the corrugated, and plenty of diameter all the way to an outside mounted exhaust. Also, be sure to supply makeup air to prevent backdrafting a gas appliance like a furnace or water heater. Hope this is helpful. Paul
Another vote against a downdraft hood. Smoke and steam want to go UP, and will strongly resist any attempts to make them do otherwise. Fighting physics will be more expensive, less effective, and probably noisier.
Dave
I'm certainly not a pro but when I did my last kitchen I reasearched the venting of it nearly to my own paralysis. Mostly because I abhore unnecessary/unwanted noise.
Paul and DT hit on the main problem - heat naturally wants to go up. In order to counteract that, a downdraft - or even a pop up, must pull more volumn of air. You can do that either with a big, powerful, but slow motor with a large fan, or a small FAST motor with a small fan. Due to packaging requirements (sizing) guess what the down drafts/pop up's use? Small, fast motor, small fan. Real loud. Adding to the problem is the actual intake size. Downdrafts/pop up's just don't have the sq inches of inlet necessary for quiet operation - again a packaging issue. If I may suggest, you're not going to be happy if you go with a downdraft to preserve your eye contact with your guests, only to discover that you cannot hear them with the vent on.
If at all possible go with a hood. If budget and space allows, go with a remote mounted motor that is as large as practical. Finally, if possible, use a variable speed control. I found that when my DW cooks the slowest speed was fine to remove heat/steam and one actually needed to concentrate to hear it running. High speed was necessary when I cooked, however, to clear the smoke.
Dan
OK - at BT you can always find opponents and proponents...
I first read this message the other morning while I was cooking breakfast on our downdraft stove. Got pulled away from here by my wife yelling from the other room "your bacon is burning again!!!" OK, so I'm not much of a cook... but as far as I'm concerned the downdraft works fine, and I have never heard the DW, who does most of the cookin' say anything negative about it other than it is a bit noisy.
Had one in our previous house too, that one had a grill built in. Granted, they were both electric units, but they seemed OK to me. The electric grill sucked though... The mess wasn't worth the nominal advantages. Matt
OK - at BT you can always find opponents and proponents...
Or, in this case, two people with the same point: the point was made that, in order to overcome physics, the fan on a downdraft unit has to be noisier......and you say "I have never heard the DW, who does most of the cookin' say anything negative about it other than it is a bit noisy."
Isn't that the same thing????
ALL,
Since were on the the topic, anyone out there seen any cooktop ducting systems they really liked? Even if custom or hybrid.
Jon
I like to cook Cajun food in big pots and it doesn't cut it with a downdraft. The pots are too tall. In addition, the downdraft has to pull so much air right next to the cooking pots that it actually cools down the pots and makes it harder to bring them up to a reasonable heat level.
But it sure smells good in the house... until the next day.
I'm talking about big pots here... Jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp sauce piquante...
Billy
Jambalaya,
Billy,
Better hope Newmann doesn't read your post and track you down. Remember who he works for........
Jon
Better hope Newmann doesn't read your post and track you down. Remember who he works for........
Jon,
Sorry I am lost. Haven't been around too long. Who is Newmann and who does he work for? Fine Cooking??
Billy
"Who is Newmann and who does he work for"
Billy
The Post Office.
Guess you don't watch Seinfeld.
(the infamous "soup na zi" episode, where he got the last of the jumbalaya)
Jon
Edited 5/13/2004 10:48 am ET by WorkshopJon
You got me! I'm busted. I watched a number of Seinfeld episodes but I'm not too big on watching TV -- I've heard of that episode but I never saw it.
Billy
I'm going to echo most of the other comments, and say they're not worth it. We have an island cooktop with a donwdraft vent. We never use it. It's noisy, and doesn't collect much smoke or steam at all. What it does collect is heat from the burners (gas stove). You can actually see the flame being drawn toward the vent, which of course means away from what you're cooking. We also have a grill insert that used to turn the vent on automatically. I say "used to" because we bypassed the switch that turns the fan on.
Fortunately we don't generally make a lot of smoke when we're cooking, and for the odd time we do we deal with it. If the kitchen ever gets remodeled while we're in the house, we'll go with a hood.
In Korea lots of the restaurants have grills in the center of the tables. Some reaturants have these cool hoods attached to flexible metal ducts and tensioners that let you push the hood up to the ceiling when you don't need the hood and then pull down the hood when you're cooking. Pretty cool, but I'm not sure how it would work in a residential setting. Or if it would meet code...
Billy