We're installing a Miele electric cooktop in an island. It looks similar to the Miele induction model. We're using a Thermador downdraft in brushed stainless to match the trim on the Miele cooktop. The Thermador had a higher reach than the Dacor. But there are probably even taller brands out there. Our installation will have no space between the downdraft & the cooktop. We tried a mock-up installation & it looked great. I've also seen installations done with an inch or two of space between the downdraft & cooktop. Those look good too. But we wanted the downdraft as close to the cooktop as possible, to capture the most steam, etc. Especially since downdrafts are not as efficient as hoods. Good luck with your project. -- ccc123

Surface mounting makes replacement easier because it doesn't need a highly customized hole. Nominal 30" units run from 28"-32". With flush, you'd need an exact fit. With surface, you only need there to be enough support for the edges. A slightly smaller or larger unit might fit, or the counter can be adapted for it to fit (e.g., a little more plywood underneath, or a slightly enlarged hole). I have a stainless frame (which looked better near the stainless gas with black grate than all black would have). I have no need to hang pots over the edge, but there's nothing about the frame that would prevent it. I'm guessing you're talking about the kind that's just a vertical border, and that might be a problem, however... If your pots are that oversized, you may not like the cooking. There will be a distinct hot spot in the middle where the inductors are. An inch in diameter (half an inch all around) over is expected. An inch in radius (an inch all around) over is perfectly doable. By the time you get two inches past the ring, you're losing a lot of ease of cooking. That said, you can use a silicone mat, both on the stove and on the counter, to equalize the height. Marble is rock. It can take a hot pot. What you don't want do, especially where it's weakest, is thermal shock, which could promote cracking, so a trivet is a good thing to have. If it warms along with your pot, gradually, it'll be fine. As to scratches, etching, spots, etc., that's another story entirely, but all of the above can be helped by the silicone mat.

I have it and I absolutely LOVE it! It turns on when you turn on the cooktop and adjusts the power according to how many burners and/or the power level you're using. For me it's absolutely worth it and I'd do it all over again. It does require a separate module that you need to connect to your cooktop (I don't remember the price tho). If I didn't have this I'm pretty sure 8 out of 10 times I'd forget to turn it on.

Carl wrote, in part: "... we are at the tail end ... " Sorry that you missed the note somewhere that the entire kitchen as a system needs to be defined before buying anything and particularly before defining cabinets and cutting duct paths. The kitchen system has to include both the hood system and the make-up air system. Both of these can (in some cases) be relatively non-complex, but one has to analyze air flow requirements and components that achieve them in order to know what to buy. I can recommend parameters that will achieve sufficient air flow in most cases, particularly including hot oil cooking. These are the same as recommended in myriad topics here over the past decade or so, and should have been reviewed when thoughts of kitchen ventilation first occurred. High school math is needed. In summary, for capture the hood has to overlap the rising and expanding (i.e., conical) cooking plumes that are emitted over the surfaces of pots and pans. A 10-degree angle to vertical may be used.* Side cabinets should aid capture and allow a small reduction in hood width. Cooking odorous stuff in the cooktop center can help. Front-to-back "depth" has similar requirements, except that for wall placements, the wall acts as an extended capture boundary. So ideally, for a 36-inch cooktop, that may have front pan edges at 18 to 20 inches from the wall, a 22-inch or greater hood depth is desirable. The 3-inches each side is desirable. Note that the rising plumes are also susceptible to cross drafts and turbulence from human movement, so bigger than the cone limit is better the higher one sets the hood base. For containment, the air velocity entering the base aperture of the hood has to be high enough to ensure that all effluent is entrained into the flow that goes through the baffles. This varies with the plume velocity, the volume under the baffles, and general configuration of internal reflecting surfaces. I recommend 90 ft/min across the area of the hood base, and this translates to 90 CFM per square foot of hood entry aperture. For blower rating, the fan curve of the blower has to be accounted for vs. pressure losses (air friction) of baffles, hood transitions, ducts, wall or roof caps, and of course, the make-up air (MUA) balance vs. house pressure. As alluded to way up this thread, a factor of 1.5 times the required containment flow rate determined from the paragraph above may suffice if the MUA is sufficient. Duct diameter should keep full power flow velocity (duct CFM/duct sectional area) in the range of 1000 to 2000 ft/min. MUA I will defer for now. If you will edit your word salad into paragraphs I will look to see what questions I missed answering. ______ * The plume is actually a distribution function that varies with moisture and grease content, pan surface temperature, and whether the heat source is induction, gas, electric coil, hot coals, etc. 10-degrees should be sufficient to balance the wider plume "rays" against their more easily entrained lower upward velocities.