Re: replace downdraft ventilation with what?"SBalderrama" <steve@balderramaphoto,com > wrote in message
news:1175742996.287974.295220@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups,com ...
>I recently bought a house that has a Jenn Air gas cooktop with
> downdraft ventilation. I hate the way the ventilator sucks the flames
> and heat away from the pans, while still managing to allow alot of the
> smoke to set off my fire alarms. Especially with a wok, where the
> downdraft is near useless.
>
> I don't really want to reroute the ventilation piping. Is there any
> kind of overhead hood I can suspend above the cooktop but route the
> output down through where the downdraft goes now? I don't care if I
> have some pipe hanging down from the hood to the cooktop, it's more
> important to be able to cook properly.
>
> any ideas of products or homebrew solutions for this kind of thing?
>
This thread has been most informative and helpful to our thoughts on kitchen
redesign. Although we've always used an electric stove (do not now have gas
or LP) with a microwave/vent above it, we were seriously considering a
dual-fired Jenn Air downdraft as a replacement. However, we didn't want to
give up the microwave located over the stove. We've pretty well decided on
the Architect® Series II KHMS2050SSS, which has a 300cfm exhaust rating,
over a KESS907SSS. Our current Amana microwave over the stove was
problematic when boiling in large pans on front burners.
Back to the question at hand: Perhaps a switch-activated "Y" valve in the
current ventilation piping would permit you to connect to exhaust an
overhead hood of your choice to achieve the desired effect when the
downdraft is undesirable. It would seem that the big thing would be to have
an adequate exhaust fan (remotely located from the kitchen to minimize
noise) would be desired. Perhaps you are already using a strong fan external
to the Jenn-Air to give you the suction that draws the flame away?