How do I vent cooking smells from a cooktop?
Question: "How do I vent cooking smells from a cooktop?"
Cooktops are not considered full-fledged stoves. The poor, lowly cooktop is lacking the attached oven, but most importantly, it usually does not have a vent hood built over it. What's the solution? A downdraft cooktop is the cure.
Answer: If you have your stove in a kitchen island, then you most likely have a cooktop. A cooktop is just a flat stove - nothing else. However, the way to vent offending cooking smells, smoke, and steam out of the house is to send them through a circuitous route:
- Smoke leaves pan - goes up.
- Downdraft element sucks in down.
- Smoke continues down until it hits a bend in the tube.
- Smoke makes a turn and travels horizontal...out a vent in the side of the house.
Downdraft cooktops are better than having no venting system, but hardly better than having a hood exhaust system. If you can afford it, and don't mind the aesthetic implications, a hood exhaust suspended over your kitchen island will do a far better job of removing odors.
Source: http://homerenovations.about.com