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?

"SBalderrama" > wrote in message
oups.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?
>
>
I think you're going to have to figure a way to suck the air up and forget
the downdraft hardware. My wife and I are redoing our kitchen and have
decided
against downdraft.
Thanks for your post.

Kent

On Apr 6, 9:24 pm, "Kent" > wrote:
> "SBalderrama" > wrote in message
>
> oups.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?
>
> I think you're going to have to figure a way to suck the air up and forget
> the downdraft hardware. My wife and I are redoing our kitchen and have
> decided
> against downdraft.
> Thanks for your post.
>
> Kent

We bought a house, too that had a Jennair which I lived with way too
long. We got rid of the Jennair downdraft situation at our house and
now have a vent overhead. I don't feel that the overhead vent is
totally satisfactory either, but surely is better than the Jennair
downdraft, where any steam coming out of a pot over a certain height
didn't get sucked into the downdraft. Mine was electric.

I don't know how Jennair got such a good reputation with downdraft.
Dee

"SBalderrama" > wrote in message
oups.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?

> Perhaps you are already using a strong fan external
> to the Jenn-Air to give you the suction that draws the flame away?

No, the Jenn Air exhaust vent is quite sufficient for drawing the
flame away on its own. Lately I've taken to using another to blow any
air that escapes up away from the fire alarm at least.

"SBalderrama" > wrote:
>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?

Normally the length of the duct run and the number of elbows is very
important. It would seem you would have to have an absolute minimum of one
additional elbow (if the hood is vented to the rear) or two additional
elbows (if vented up and then back down). Then there's the additional
ductwork length. The minimum duct size you are going to come across is 6
inch round or 3-1/4 by 10 inch rectangular. Range hoods with higher capacity
will need bigger ducts. You'd have to find room for these ducts.

All this is in addition to what's already present. The total length and
number of elbows might be too much to get reasonable performance. If there
is any way of going up with new ductwork, that would be far better.

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