I LOVE to cook, and my husband LOVES my cooking!  We have a very happy marriage!  While renovating, we had to decide what stove we would get.  When we bought our farmhouse, we had an electric stove-something I haven’t had in MANY years.  It was quite an adjustment.  When we started the reno, we talked about what type of stove to get. Without a question, it was going to be a gas stove (in the country that is propane).  We had a gas stove before which was great, with a built in downdraft fan.

We hummed and hawwed about it, because the fan didn’t actually work that well. When I grilled in the house, the fan didn’t take any smoke out, in fact, it seemed to push it upstairs further.  It was quite disappointing.

So the next option was to get an overhead fan.  We decided the stove would be in the island so it would take away from our clean sight lines.

The next option. A pop up fan.  We saw it on an episode on TV and we intrigued by it.

I did my research and found the one I liked.

Here are my considerations for the pop up fan:

  1. Clean sight lines
  2. Very powerful exhaust and no smoke in the house
  3. I have a full 5 burners on the stove, more space to cook
  4. Doesn’t take the flame away from the cooking source.  The regular downdraft, pulls the flame and heat downwards, and reduces some of the heat. The fan sits at the height of a tall frypan, and the flame is unaffected, only the steam and smoke are pulled away. PERFECT!
  5. Keeps the counter clean. With the pop up, the countertop stays clean in the middle of the island.  It is 6′ wide, and 11′ long, so it is a lot to have to clean, it’s great not to have to clean in the middle.
  6. If we couldn’t open the ceiling, we could use the recirclating filter, if we were in a pinch.

The cons:

  1. Haven’t really found any as it relates to the cooking
  2. It is still a downdraft
  3. The research didn’t reveal how big the unit fan was under the counter (if you have pots and pan drawer, you will lose one drawer entirely.

The ceiling in the basement had to be cut, as well as the cement blocks to allow for the exhaust to the outside.  If you don’t want to cut the ceiling or the exterior wall, you can consider a recirulating filter-then no venting is needed, even with this particular type of unit.  That would be an ideal solution for a reno in a condo, as you could not vent out very easily.

I am loving the features, the looks and the powerful exhaust.  What would you do? What choice would you make?