Ventless Cooktop Decision?

[Clark]

We are remodeling our kitchen and want to replace our old JennAire cooktop / grill combo with something new. The JennAire is unique in that it has a down-draft vent which works well as the cooktop is on an island with no hood above.

Options are a new JennAire which we dont like the looks of nearly as much as (for example) a Viking cooktop. I really like the Viking but its big negatives are that it has no downdraft, and no grill.

IF we can convince ourselves that we could live without the indoor grill (DW always disliked the dirty/greasy aspect of that anyway), I am still wondering about the wisdom of a no-vent situation. I mean -- I do cook bacon in a pan for breakfast now and then ---

Any good advice out there?

 

[Big Matt]

You need a vent of some sort if you fry or blacken anything. I got a GE profile cooktop with the down draft after having a Jennair and like it a lot.

 

[kjgrain]

If the cooktop that you decide on doesn't have a downdraft vent there is the Eclipse Series Stainless Steel Downdraft Ventilation System w/ External Blower that is just the downdraft vent that you can get installed in your counter.

Is it possiable that you might have room for a hood that you could install in your island? I know that they can move alot more air quickly than a downdraft vent can.

As for the grill option. We went with the Dacor Dual Fuel range. Dacor has a grill that can be placed on the gas grates and is kind of similar to a griddle but you don't have nearly the mess and clean up is way easier than if your grill is built in the cooktop.

When appliance shopping for our new house I was dead set on having a grill in my cooktop but none of the the appliance people would recommend them. I put up a good fight but eventually I decided against the grill option on my cooktop.

 

[Malibu Sky]

My brother just remodeled a house and installed a Wolf Range with a grill. We were there the first time they used it, even with a really strong upper vent, the kitchen, and the rest of the house, was filled with smoke. Then looking at the grill after cooking 10 steaks, it was an absolute mess. It took her housekeeper a long time to clean it up (luckily for my sister-in-law.) Unlike an outdoor BBQ, you really need to clean an an indoor grill or it looks terrible. I don't believe she has used it again. I have looked into the JennAire, an others with the grill, but was told by quite a few salespeople that it really wasn't a good idea.

Growing up, we had an indoor grill but it was a real, vented BBQ not part of a cook top. I keep asking but no one knows what i am talking about. Luckily, we are in CA where we can BBQ most of the year outside although the indoor option is very appealing.

If anyone else has any other suggestions or better results with an indoor grill, I would love to hear about it because I would love to put one in our kitchen. By the way, with a downdraft, you still need a venting system, you may want to check how much it will cost with a plumber to put it in, I was told that was also costly.

 

[Clark]

Well, we already have the vent to the outside because of our current JennAir.

I guess we are going ahead with a new JennAir because it is the only option. We use the grill a lot, mostly grilling chicken breasts, but occcasionally hot dogs, burgers, steaks. The vent has always drawn the smoke out ok.

But -- we dont really clean it up every time -- we scrape the grate and put the grill cover over it. It gets pretty messed up under there after a while and then we go in and do a real cleaning. Like I said, that is the one thing that DW really dislikes. But I guess we will live with it to have the indoor grilling capability.

 

[PA-]

We are remodeling our kitchen and want to replace our old JennAire cooktop / grill combo with something new. The JennAire is unique in that it has a down-draft vent which works well as the cooktop is on an island with no hood above.

Options are a new JennAire which we dont like the looks of nearly as much as (for example) a Viking cooktop. I really like the Viking but its big negatives are that it has no downdraft, and no grill.

IF we can convince ourselves that we could live without the indoor grill (DW always disliked the dirty/greasy aspect of that anyway), I am still wondering about the wisdom of a no-vent situation. I mean -- I do cook bacon in a pan for breakfast now and then ---

Any good advice out there?

Think outside the box, Clark. Just because your current cooktop is in the island does NOT mean that your next cooktop has to be in the island. If you have the money to re-do your kitchen, as opposed to just changing out the cooktop, you can put your Viking or whatever somewhere other than the island.

OR, you can put a ventahood over the island, and use any cooktop you want.

Philip

 

[sfwilshire]

Thanks for bringing this up. Our Jennaire is overdue for replacement and I've been afraid to start looking. Adding an overhead vent in the current stove location is not an option. Redoing the whole kitchen is an option we've considered, but just don't have the money or energy for right now.

We don't use the grill anymore because of the mess, though we enjoyed it a lot in the beginning. Even in the winter now we just grill on the porch.

Sheila

 

[LynnW]

We also have a downdraft range that needs replacing. We checked the cost of putting in a vent over the island and found it would be more than paying the extra for a downdraft range. We do not use the grill anymore because of the mess. Our outdoor barbeque is on the deck close enough to the door to use all winter except for a few really cold days and then we use the George Forman.

Lynn

 

[Clark]

Thanks for bringing this up. Our Jennaire is overdue for replacement and I've been afraid to start looking.
We don't use the grill anymore because of the mess, though we enjoyed it a lot in the beginning. Even in the winter now we just grill on the porch.

Sheila

Well if you dont use/need the grill, then there are some really nice cooktop replacements with nice looking easy to clean one-piece ceramic tops in black or white (if you like electric, as we do).

We just couldnt bring ourselves to give up the grill. It's just so handy when you want to grill a bunch of chicken breasts and the snow is flying outside. 'Course if we had more timeshare weeks we wouldnt be here then :=)