It is inevitable that when you are cooking your home will be filled with the smells of food. In the short term this is not necessarily a problem. However, after a while you may find that your home has rather unpleasing lingering food odors, and if you are frying or grilling, smoke may also become a problem. This is where the downdraft gas cooktop comes in particularly useful.
The standard solution to this particular problem is to install a cooker hood which incorporates a fan and filter, or a venting system. In this instance, the fan in the hood draws the odors, steam and smoke in stopping it from drifting around your home. The problem with this arrangement is that installing a cooker hood is often often impractical in many kitchens. Cooker hoods do take up a lot of space and in some kitchen arrangements are just impossible to fit. Also, for those people for whom aesthetics are important within a kitchen, they can be considered to be unsightly.
The duddraft gas cooktop provides a solution to this particular problem. This appliance has a powerful fan as an integral part of it. This allows for the cooking smells, steam and smoke to be drawn quickly away before it has chance to leave the immediate cooking area. The offending odors are then sent out of your home through a pipe, often out under the floor.
This, of course, goes against nature. The warm air that carries your kitchen odors wants to travel upwards as it is lighter than the cooler air around it. In order for your downdraft gas cooktop to be effective therefore, the fan that sucks down the warm air needs to be very powerful, but at the same time it is not so powerful that it becomes an irritation. It also means that they are somewhat impractical for small kitchens are there is simply not enough airflow. Larger kitchens can take downdraft cooktops much better as the increased space means that there is greater airflow around the cooking space.
In conclusion, the downdraft gas cooktop does offer some significant advantages in some specific circumstances where space is limited or where you simply do not want a cooker hood due to how it may look in your kitchen.