It will be completely useless so forget venting at all if it is allowed in your jurisdiction.

If you put just a grill and a blower, you could be creating a fire hazard. Real vents have filters that remove most of the grease from the air. Ours collects a significant amount between cleanings. Without a filter that can be taken out and cleaned, grease can build up in the ducts instead.

Current kitchen: 36" GE Monogram gas cooktop (2005 - DCS version). Dacor downdraft with 10" ducting, 800 cfm remote blower. USELESS!

New kitchen will have a Modernaire hood with 1400 cfm remote blower. I will never cheap out the ventilation again (not that the current solution was cheap - just didn't work...would never do a downdraft again).

M

From what I can tell, the only reason a popup downdraft won't work with a range is that there isn't usually space for one (and most non-slidein ranges have some sort of trim in the back to block flow). If you can incorporate enough space between your wall and range, you might be able to squeeze one in.

A downdraft is quite a bit better than nothing. Not that I like my current one--but it's functional.

Thanks for the comments.

Cloud Swift, I agree that a filter is needed - I should have been more clear - I was looking for a grill including filters - as I say, basically trying to build a fully functional downdraft vent in a geometry that would fit in this space.

I've read a lot of comments regarding downdraft vents in general, and they do typically span the range above - from "useless" to "much better than nothing." I'm aware they are considerably less effective than an overhead vent, but I'm going to go with the folks who say they are considerably better than nothing.

Thanks again for the comments, and if anyone has seen or done such an arrangement, I'm still anxious to hear about it.

If budget allow, you might consider contacting a mechanical contractor that does restaurant HVAC work and find out if they can engineer something together for you. Don't expect them to design this solution for free/diy. I am talking about seeing if they could do this as a design/build project for you. Provide the design, provide the parts ,and do the install.

If that is not in your budget, then I would try to use a standard rangetop downdraft that is market available.

Your passthrough will need to have a header. Your best bet is to install an island vent hood at the header height. It will be out of your vision range, and even though it's not an optimum install height, it will still function much better than a downdraft.

I did a McGyver'ed venting system in the ceiling of my kitchen. I bought my grill (and a Fantech inline fan) from Iaqsource. I then bought a standard size venting filter from HD and cut it to size to fit my non-standard vent. I clean it once a month and while it is not a perfect solution, it is far better than no venting. Since it's dirty when I clean it, it must be doing something.

The city inspector had no problem and with it and thought it was a good idea given my restrictions (cooktop in front of window). They even offered up names of guys that might be able to help me out when I was running the idea past them prior to installation.

The only thing I would do differently is that my grill housing has an elbow immediately in the ceiling and I have since learned that some people think this contributes to noise. My fan is silent but at top speed I can hear the air move thru the vent. Evidently you should try to have at least a two foot run of pipe before a turn.

I think Julie has a good idea about consulting a contractor and you should also do some research on the appliance forum about venting in general - effectiveness, cfm's, noise reduction, downdrafts, etc. Good Luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: IAQsource

We've considered a homemade downdraft as well. We have a downdraft range in front of a window with a great view, so we don't want to move the range. Having tried induction cooking-I love it, and want an induction range. Unfortunately, an induction downdraft range is not made. My husband suggested using the wall space behind the range,under the window- to make a duct to the outside...if it was being custom made, we could have it fit to a readily available filter under the grate. Anyone have any thoughts? I don't want to go downdraft, cook-top, separate ovens....I like a range, and downdraft works well for us.

This is an old thread, but I am in the same situation as @bwsk and would LOVE to know what became of that situation.

Also, @Tim_789, if you're still out there, did you find a solution?

Thanks!!