Background:I have a galley kitchen, 8 foot by 10 foot. Door to garage on one end (north wall), door to dining room on the other (South wall). The east wall is an exterior wall, and has the plumbing on that wall, so we will keep the sink and dishwasher on the east wall. The refrigerator goes over there too (for other reasons, namely, I don't want the door to the garage to smack it anymore).

That leaves me with the west wall, which faces the living room. This kitchen is like a tomb, so we want to remove the upper part of the wall, the 2/3 of it that is not over an open stairway to downstairs. This will create an open 'peninsula' type counter, no upper cabinets or wall, that we will allow some seating on the opposite side. Sounds lovely!

With this set up, the only way I can envision having the cooktop, is a slide in right in the middle of the counter in the open area, that will not have an upper wall to affix a typical vent hood. (If I put the stove on the other end, where we won't take out the wall, I will get hit with a door when someone comes home if I am cooking)

I am sure you know where this is going. . .

We have been looking at island type vents, the type that drop right down from the ceiling, and my goodness they are so expensive.

Today, while checking out another appliance store, we discovered the Jennaire gas range with the downdraft ventilation. The lady at the store said they sold a lot of them to go in islands because of the venting issue.

I was so pleased, a solution!! Then I come on here and find they are not thought very highly of. I knew there was a reason I had never heard of them.

I really really want this downdraft system to be adequate. Those vents that don't affix to a wall are so very very expensive, and I don't really WANT a vent hood between me and the living room view while I cook. I also don't have a a huge budget, and I just hate to put so much money into a vent hood that could go for something I would enjoy.

Does anyone think their downdraft ventilation system is "fine". I don't expect them to be great, but I am looking for at least adequate. Right now we have one of those over the stove microwave vents, that just recirculates air back into the room, after supposedly blowing it through a filter. Gotta be better than that, right? Right?

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