i have ordered the dcs downdraft....600 cfm, comes up ~ 11" i believe, a good price, and doesn't need remote blower(which would possibly interfere with our deck which is where it vents to...right underneath...) i am replacing our jennair downdraft cooktop, so am hoping for improved ventilation and an easier to clean system!!!(don't need to cram my arm down the skinny little opening of our jennair expressions cooktop!) however, not installed yet, so don't know how it performs.........

I have had the Thermador cook top a little over a year and I think I've had about 25% down time. When it works, this cook top is great but the combination of untrained service people and really bad service policies at Thermador work to make this unit unusable unless you hardly cook at all. The unit has 36 little Hobbs under the glass, a mother board and 4 other boards to make it all work. The 36 Hobbs are very stable and haven't caused any problems. So there's only 5 parts that can go down. Sounds simple, no? Think again. Thermador has not done anything to train their techs on this stove top. So when the computer on the unit puts out an error code a tech may not even recognize what the computer is trying to say. I've had to look over the shoulder of some of these dummies to point out the error code the unit puts out. When you finally figure out which of the 4 support boards needs replacing you find that the replacement parts are not available and have to be back ordered. This is a matter of weeks, not days. Lastly, the telephone support from Thermador is no picnic either. It's basically a call center staffed with people having only the ability to take messages and pass them to a non-responsive 2nd level. Presently, my unit has been down since early December 2015. It's now January 6. Thermador has decided to replace my unit. As mentioned in previous posts, getting your cook top replaced is a nightmare in itself. I had to do that in my 1st month of ownership. There's a mysterious 'AR department' that is accountable to no one that outsources the replacement activity to a 3rd party. That process can take months. In California there's a lemon law that applies to appliances as well as cars. I think that is my next step.

We had an early 1980s downdraft electric cooktop, and once it caught fire, we decided it was time to replace it. :) There weren’t a lot of options that were the modern equivalent. We ended up installing an overhead vent hood and an induction cooktop. I loooove the induction cooktop because it’s SO easy to clean AND because it’s so responsive. I don’t think I’d ever prefer to cook with gas now.

Best Cattura downdraft vent. It's possibly to space standard base cabinets out from the wall to allow you to have a wider counter. I'm using a 28.5" counter.