I have a 36"Wolf induction cooktop and the Wolf downdraft behind it, on a 11ft long center island. If you are already used to cooking on an induction cooktop,you know that any drops of water or any slight touch, will change the element heat up/down. It's important to have the delicate controls off to the side somewhere, so one doesn't inadvertently change the settings and burn the food. The burners, 4 of them, work great. I love how fast they cook. The 5th burner, the largest one, worked for about 1 year, then quit. One cannot just replace the faulty burner. One has to replace the whole cooktop, so I didn't do that. It's a transistor thing, the repairman said. The downdraft went up/down, with a concealed switch. It looks great, but only comes up about 12-14" tall. One day, it wouldn't retract, so it's stuck in the upright position behind the cooktop, and it doesn't turn on./off. Again, I have to replace the whole thing, according to the repairman. I have had this cooktop and downdraft 10 years. Look at all the choices on the mkt. today. I had no choice, really, as induction was new to the American mkt. I also recently bought a SubZero ice dispensing side by side, refrig/freezer. It's OK, but holds less than the KA I replaced it with. The best DW I have found, is the Bosch, with 3 racks. I can fold all the racks down to fit almost anything. A lot of DW do not have fold down tines. You do have to use salt to keep glassware sparkling. TRM

I currently have a 6 top gas Wolf range, so can't answer on the Wolf cooktop. But the Wolf simmer and low capacity is superb on ours. I think the high BTU on the Wolf CT being in the back is to help ensure your vent hood covers the cooking effluent. All this said, have you looked at a Dacor Cooktop? They have various levels of pro makes, and of BTUs, still have the easy to remove two burner double grate I believe, and have a TM stainless finish that is worth every penny in low maintenance. I had one for over a decade and it still looked and cooked wonderfully before the re-model. Just an idea.

I'll share my experience with a 800 series Bosch 5 burner cooktop. Although mine is a 30 inch but, hopefully some info will help. My salesman told me that Thermador was the same as Bosch in the engineering (same company) except of course those star shaped hobs. I have two 5500 BTU burners (simmer) and that is what they are mostly good for or reheating something in a small pot. Two 10000 BTU which are fine for most everything and one 16000 biggie centered in the middle that requires a large pan even on low or the flames are licking up the side. But it is wonderful for bringing large pots to a boil or anything else you might wish to do in a large pan or pot. Being that mine is on a 30 inch platform the control knobs are kind of close to the two front burners. Perhaps that won't be an issue with the 36". I find that the stainless finish cleans up best with those clorox (or store brand) kitchen wipes, great for baked on mess and grease. The grates are continuous and wash up in the dishwasher wonderfully. I didn't go with a super huge exhaust like some will recommend over in appliances. My three speed Zephyr 290 CFM is more than I need even for frying probably because it is vented to the outside (only way to go). I rarely use the highest speed. One thing I do regret is not making the capture space (distance between cabinets flanking cooktop) wider, but didn't find the info until it was too late). There was a pro on these boards (wish I could remember who to give credit where it is do) that said a 30' cooktop requires minimum 36" space and a 36" would require 42" and so on. Hope I got that correct. That is not a direct quote, but you could probably search these boards and find it. I realized how much nicer that hearth area would be AFTER my install. So back to the Bosch. I've had it for going on two years now and love it. I use it everyday for meals and lots in the summers for blanching veggies to be frozen. I've used it a few times for large gatherings and the burners can get a little crowded but handle placement is key. The price difference was the clincher for me as the Thermador was way more money. The only thing I don't have are those fancy star shaped hobs.

I've mentioned this before, but hot cooking can generate meter per second rising and expanding cooking plumes. Generally, these will have larger sectional area than the pop-up slot area facing the plume. Yet, somehow, the slot velocity is expected to be high enough that the vector combination of vent air and plume effluent at the plume and over the entire plume area will be directed toward the slot. However, the slot acting as a mini hood has, like all hoods, to follow the behavior documented in the 2003 ASHRAE Handbook: HVAC Applications. There, Figure 6 page 30.4 shows that the air velocity has dropped to 10% of its slot opening value at 1.6 times the narrow dimension of the slot. Yet most of the plume is multiple slot dimensions away. One imagines that the slot velocity would have to be 30 m/s of so to be fully effective. (Let's assume induction cooking so we don't have to deal with flame extinction.) A 3-inch by 48-inch slot (1 sq. ft. area) would have to move air at 6000 CFM to accomplish this. Given the pressure loss of the slot, I can imagine the large and noisy blower this would require. In case this makes one wonder how regular hoods can work, please note that regular kitchen hoods do not pull effluent away from their direction of flow, but depend on the flow to bring the plumes to the hoods for capture.