Downdraft doesn't even really work well with consumer grade cooking. A downdraft with a pro style cooking appliance is completely unworkable. If the vent is able to suck strong enough, it will pull the flame and affect the heating of the pots on the top. It's also completely useless with any of the front burners.

If you want pro grade, then you need to plan on changing out to real overhead ventilation. Or give up pro grade.

The downdraft is useless whether you have a standard cooktop,pro cooktop or Bluestar.

The questions are....

1) How much grease can you live with?

There are a few people on here that have a Bluestar with no ventilation and a few with MW hood ventilation. Are you a steak/fried chicken family or a vegetarian family. The more oil,lard,fatty foods you cook the more grime will end up on walls,cabinets,and ceilings. If you cook with little to no fat not that big of an issue. Some people are ok with this. Some clean from time to time while others paint from time to time.

2) How much heat can you live with?

Are you a one burner cook or will you have 2/3 burners going full blast and 2/3 at medium. If you are a one burner cook then you should be fine. Using the Bluestar cooktop near its BTU potential would make most kitchens unbearably hot to most people IMO. A few people insist they only need an open kitchen window.

If it was me I would rather have the Bluestar and adjust to the poor ventilation rather than not have the option of adjusting the burners to a full 22k.

BTW Typical depth for a cooktop is 3-3.25".

Bluestar is 5".

If you are forced into a downdraft / popup, look for something tall, like 12" - 18" tall when extended. That may give you a fighting chance.

BTW: you'll need to look at the cabinet depth in order to fit the popup / blower unit into the cabinet. A standard cabinet and countertop may not be deep enough (24").

Thank you all. and weedmeister and deeageaux, thanks for the depth info. Unfortunately, the cabinets on the island are only 24" deep so installing a pop up/blower will be an issue. We have an overhang for seating at the island so I suppose it's possible to build out the cabinetry, but not sure how it would look. The kitchen is 12 years old and I would love to start all new as I feel like I'm putting money into a poorly configured kitchen. Just started a list of costs if I were to re do the entire kitchen...appliances are easy to figure out (we're getting a sub-zero either way), but I'll need to get estimates for cabinets, counters etc.

Deeageaux --- Wondering - since you mentioned the necessary 5" for the depth of Bluestar drop-in cooktop - do you know if that is 5" from the top of the counter or from under the counter? Their specs on their website is terrible!

We put the Bluestar cooktop with a 36" downdraft in our kitchen 3 years ago. It works OK. the fan is 400 cfm with internal fan. If you could find something with a stronger external fan motor that provided more draw it would help.

Overall it is just OK. We have an ocean view from our kitchen so did not want to block the view. I am certain an overhead fan would work much better

Rick

I had a Blue Star 30" freestanding stove, when we sold our house the stove stayed. I was so sad. Since we bought our new house I just can't cook the same. I really miss my Bluestar.

We bought a house with a downdraft and desperately need to change out the cook-top in the house. It just does not work.

I plan on buying another Bluestar but the drop in version since I have an island with a downdraft. I don't have another option either. Thanks for all the feedback with this post. My pop up down draft really works well and it's 18" tall and is adjustable. So who ever installed it was thinking.

i know this is years late. But look at the Cattura Downdraft by Best www.bestrangehoods.com/cattura