Importing and paying all of the duties isn’t so simple. Neither is obtaining approval from your local Inspector and your insurance company to install something electrical like that that is not UL listed. There are a lot of hoops to jump through.And then not have the fan work right because of the different 50 vs 60 hz. For no reason.

You do a separate pop up behind a standard induction cooktop if you want a useless downdraft. Integrated is the worst possible functional choice just short of no ventilation st all. You will get much better ventilation with an overhead hood.

UL isn't the only recognized listing agency. The euro Gagneau version has CE and several other ratings that will suffice in most cases though you'd have to verify with your local inspector.

It should work just fine on US power. The thing is spec'd for 220-240V at 50 or 60Hz (it has fans).

It's going to take a 40A circuit by the way so plan for that (most non-induction cooktops use a 30A circuit).

Thanks both! Yeah the cooktop (and entire counter) is in front of huge operable windows so we can't really do overhead and at 24" counter depth the retractable units that sit behind a cooktop are a tight fit. I realize (and have read) that the built in downdraft doesn't work as well but being able to open a window right there should help?

I did find another Euro 220V unit that's for sale in the US - https://www.build.com/elica-ent432/s1568982?uid=3748404 so this seems to back up what Ron is saying.

Again not cheap but the only US manufactured 110V unit is a Jenn Air for...$6500!

Even the JennAir is 240V (it requires a four wire hookup unlike the Gagmenow).

Between relying on a downdraft vent system (which don't work well) and using a window as a cooktop "back splash", in your shoes I would do anything possible to put the cooktop in a different location. How about an island or a different part of the counter, to allow a proper overhead exhaust system?

Will opening a window help? How do you know the air will blow out and not blow in to completely defeat the weak downdraft ventilation?

We once bought a house with a Jenn Air downdraft cooktop. No matter what we were cooking, the smoke alarm located in a different part of the house went off. No, the problem wasn't the smoke alarm, it was how inept the vent fan was. Fortunately we left that place before too long but the lack of adequate venting caused us to alter our cooking patterns.

Ron, I get the feeling you're not a fan of Gaggenau?;) To be clear we weren't looking to go so fancy, just not seeing a lot of options if we wanted induction + downdraft.

Elmer, unfortunately we're past that point:/ It's a long, narrow gut kitchen rehab and there's no island or other counter. Do you think the pop-up units are better? Some come up to almost 14" inches above the level of the cooktop.

No, my only complaint with much of the Gaggenau we get in the US is it's very overpriced for what it is.

How about GE Profile PHP9030DJBB 30 Inch Induction Smoothtop Cooktop ($1433) plus GE Profile UVB30DKBB 30 Inch Ducted Downdraft ($866)? According to the vent owners manual, the vent adds only 2.01 inches to the depth of the 20-7/8" deep cooktop.

robwhittier, I don't think any of them work worth a darn. Heat rises. There are cooking vessels (like stockpots and steamers) higher than 14 inches and then what do you do? I have some friends whose kitchen designers pushed them to get down or side draft (the kind that go up and retract down) vents and not a one is happy with what they have. One did a retrofit to put in a ceiling-hung vent hood over an island.

If your kitchen is long and narrow, how about the opposite side? Or make the window smaller to accommodate an overhead hood?

I've got a n GE gas cooktop (with a grill module that can replace two of the burners) w/downdraft (I have no idea why my wife picked that one, there was room for a hood). I wouldn't say it's worthless, but it's not as nice as a hood. My neighbor has one of the popup downdrafts on his island behnid the induction. It works pretty well.

Again, the specs for this appliance say it will work on 220-240 VAC at either 50 or 60Hz.

Of course it will work here.

Did you think I said in my summary that past threads had reported otherwise?

If so, let me make this clear: as best I can recall, the posters in the past threads all reported that their imported induction cooktops worked here and they had no trouble cooking with their pots and pans. Is that clear enough?

The one wrinkle some of them ran into was with on-board timers that ran fast. Maybe this needs explanation? Many electric clocks measure time by counting AC cycles with so many cycles equaling one second. If you have a European electric clock, it assumes 50 cycles = 1 second. Run that clock on North American mains and it runs fast because the AC electricity here runs at 60 cycles per second. On-board timers in cooktops can be simple electric clocks. That led to posts here where some users commented on the mental arithmetic needed when they wanted to, say, set their imported induction cooktop's burner to cook oatmeal for five minutes and then shut off.

Now, to be sure, some electronics are designed to generate clock time from internal electronics rather than simply counting AC cycles from the mains frequency. Those timers will be independent of the mains frequency.

Could not tell if that is the case for the OP's intended import, the Gaggenau CV282110. Just took a quick look at the installation and user manuals and couldn't fnd anything about the subject. That probably means the the appliance's timers work independently of mains frequencies but it could mean that the company simply saw no need to mention the subject when they aren't actually marketing that appliance for use anywhere that uses 60Hz mains frequency.

ETA: Don't worry about those occasional old reports of inaccurate timers. They should not be a concern with the Gaggenau for the reasons that Ron Natalie explains below. Also, as Ron explains and I had forgetten, the Gaggenau is marketed to regions outside North America with 60 Hz line frequencies .

For the THIRD FREAKING TIME, the Gaggenau CV28110 unit he is looking for is spec'd for 50 *or* 60 Hertz. The unit is targetted not only at Europe and Australia (50HZ) but also the Gulf states which are 60 Hertz. He will have no problem with either the fan motors nor the clock nor anything else. I don't see why when you admit you're ignorant of the particular model under discussion, you insist and contradicting people who are providing the knowledgeable and correct answer. The power specs and listing information are right there in the unit specs. I don't know why you can't find them. It took me all of 30 seconds.

And you're living in the past. Most appliance clocks haven't used line frequency as their time base since they started putting microprocessors in the thing. The control logic all runs of DC. They use the processor clock divided down to determine the time.

I was not and am not trying to contradict you on specs. Also it is most helpful to know that the Gulf States use 60 Hz line frequency. I had completely forgotten that -- been so long since I was over there. I stand corrected about any need to consider those odd timer reports in the older posts. I've edited my two previous posts to add the following:

ETA: Don't worry about those occasional old reports of inaccurate timers on some imported induction cooktops. They should not be a concern with the Gaggenau for the reasons that Ron Natalie explains below. Also, as Ron explains and I had forgotten, the Gaggenau is marketed to regions outside North America with 60 Hz line frequencies."

And, FWIW, I did not suggest that there might be problems with fan motors on imported cooktops. Green Designs suggested that. I did not say and do not recall reading any past reports here of importers who did "not have the fan work right" on their imported induction cooktop.

This is where you use an overhead island range hood if you insist on that poor location. But an operable window? Really? That would be against building code in SO many places as it’s very unsafe.

You really should relocate your cooktop. Especially if you will ever use it to actually cook. Replacing all of your operable standard glass windows with new tempered glass inoperable ones will be a lot more costly than a redesign. And that’s the minimum change to begin to consider that safe. Then use the island range hood.

It it will be cheaper by far to move the cooktop.

I'm just curious as an observer, what makes a window unsafe behind a stove? Reaching over it to open it? Or putting your toddlers through it from the outside and forgetting there's spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove? Usually I can figure it out but this one is a stumper.

And Ron N., you're right of course but you might consider taking it down a notch. It's quite easy for people to 'talk past each other' on the web and getting agitated about it is not good for your general health. :-]

Mostly it is because people don't read the forums before they write their uninformed drivel. My BP is fine.

The reason slot down-draft vents and even pop-up down-draft vents are poor choices for cooktop ventilation is that they have no hope at tolerable sound levels of sufficiently diverting hot cooking plumes toward their entry apertures. On gas, the rising effluent can reach 1.2 m/s, and on induction, at least half that. It is impractical to have a down-draft vent that can divert such plumes effectively at the back burners or hobs, and plumes from the front burners or hobs are completely out of reach. First because the velocity of air flow from a aperture drops rapidly with distance, and second because the vent flow has to change the plume momentum vector to horizontal or even perform a U-turn. Only very low velocity plumes such as from simmering bacon have low enough velocity to be at least partially captured.

Proper capture and containment depends on a hood that overlaps the rising and expanding effluent plumes, and which has a high enough air flow to ensure that the plumes get past the filter and not reflect out of the hood.

As for open windows at the cooktop, either exterior air flows in and the house interior is coated with greasy wet residue, or (if unusually the house pressure is positive) the air flows out the window, but not before partially impacting the glass and frame leaving greasy wet residue. (Remember, the velocity of the air moving out the window is likely to be much lower than the plume velocity, so a lot of effluent will rise to the ceiling even with positive pressure and an open window.)

Ventilation requirements for commercial cooking were worked out decades ago, and the only difference with residential cooking is the quantity of grease generated per unit time. The processes of commercial and residential cooking are otherwise similar. Hood designs that have commercial hood characteristics will best serve the goal of keeping grease, moisture, and odor out of the house.

Thanks for that explanation kaseki. Makes a lot of sense.

I have used an 18" pop-up downdraft in a mountain cabin. It worked surprisingly well. Much better than I would have expected from the generally bad reviews that these products get on Houzz.

It obviously didn't work anywhere close to as well as my 1000 CFM overhead hood, and there in fact were some residual cooking smells, but for light use in a vacation place it was quite acceptable.

If you are serious about cooking, and many people on Houzz are, then you won't be happy with a downdraft vent in your primary residence. But if you mostly do light cooking once or twice a week, then you might just be fine with it and not even really notice the difference.

The disconnect happens, when people buy thousands of dollars worth of high-power appliances, talk about needing all of their burners, claim they regularly cook elaborate meals, but they don't really want to invest in a proper venting solution. That's what gets everybody else confused.

But some people never really use their kitchen for much more than occasionally boiling an egg or two. They don't need a fully functioning hood simply because they don't really produce cooking smells. And with induction, you also don't have combustion by-products that would need to be vented.

To the OP: are you replacing a gas downdraft with an induction unit? If you are redoing your kitchen, could you bump out the cooktop cabinet to 27" (with new countertops) in order to make room for the downdraft? And can the blower be remote/inline mounted?

I have not read this thread thoroughly, but if there's still a question about importing a European Gaggenau cooktop, yes, I did it, nearly 10 years ago, because they didn't sell the one I wanted here. The local Gaggenau service "weird questions" expert gave me the "but the timer might be off" response but said it was fine and that they'd service it if needed. It was a happy surprise when it arrived as 50 or 60 hz. As has been pointed out, the Gulf states. (I have no knowledge about whether the digital control would be affected anyway.)

The bigger issue than will it work is whether your insurance (and any others with a say) will be happy without a UL certification. Mine said that the Euro certification was fine as long as it was installed by a licensed electrician rather than just a regular appliance installer or homeowner. Even so, I got help for my electrician translating the English wiring diagram. (I bought mine from an English design/build firm because other, cheaper stores in other countries I found online had sales area restrictions.)

Import was easy, but it was small. The shop sent it by FedEx. FedEx handled customs and duty and billed me for the latter, with a tiny service fee. The box came torn and battered, but the pieces were all there and there was no damage other than a couple of little dents on the stainless frame. I chose to consider them Adventure Marks rather than imperfections. Even if your cooktop is too big or heavy for FedEx, people ship stuff by common carrier all the time. The real issue is being there to send it, or having someone reliable to do so. Some stores will. Some friends will. My plan B was to have someone who was going to be in Norway pick one up at a kitchen shop there and give it to the shipper. That's a big ask, however, especially if there are hiccups in the process.

I've never had any issues. It works better than advertised, including with pans that aren't completely flat. Some companies started selling 24" models after I imported mine. I don't know if they read GW or not. :)

I agree about the overhead hood but have nothing to add to the argument. Mine is overpowered and I love having the extra suckage even though I have to open windows to get enough makeup air when it's on full blast.