I have a VAH 54" over a Capital 48" range. Choice was based more on the style than it was on performance. It was the only 54" hood we found that was of the design my wife wanted. Although performance was not the main criteria for our choice it certainly was a consideration. The hood has performed quite well. It captures all the smoke and grease as it should. Very rarely have I even needed to run it on high. Noise has not been an issue and my kitchen is wide open to the rest of the house. Yesterday was the first time I actually cleaned it. I must say I was a little concerned regarding this because of some of the posts I have read here. Well I no longer have these concerns. It was very easy to disassemble clean and reassemble. I can't for the life of me see what all the fuss is about. The hood is mounted at the recommended 30" height and I am fairly average at about 5'8". Really the whole process was very simple and only took a matter of minutes. No standing on stools or odd twisted position was needed. Bottom line is that I think both types of hoods will do what they are designed to do.

Trailrunner's is Miele. I know that that what impressed me in her description was something about a place where little bits that fall off sink to, and something about where the colder oil goes. I know that's vague, but, as I said, it was impressive. :) She's the only one I know who has a fryer. I don't know about choosing between Wolf and Gaggenau other than both are excellent at the other things they offer. ;) I have the vacuum sealer (a new purchase), steam oven (Gagg), and under counter fridge drawers. I gather you're using your vacuum sealer for sous vide. Mine is mostly for freezing. There might be some point in choosing a sealer that is made by the same company as your circulator to make sure that the seal is correct. You might benefit from posting your plans in the Kitchens forum for the very clever people to help with. My first impression is that it would be great to have a cabinet, with or without doors, with outlets, and heavy duty rollouts for the slicer, sealer, circulator, et al. It would make it so much easier to use, and to compact that way. That is...if the circulator is manual drain. If it's plumbed, you probably want it in the vicinity of the steam oven to keep the plumbing sane. You say "dream kitchen", so I'll ask the tough question: Have you used a French top regularly? Or a plancha? I'm not sure you really need both for home cooking. I was all set to buy the Gaggenau teppan yaki (oh, pitter pat!) but decided I wanted the cabinet space underneath more, and they'd just raised the price, so I gave it a pass. When I started out, I was convinced I wanted a French top, but there were some pros here who were talking about how they were moving away from those and using vacuum bottles to hold sauces and such like. That actually made a lot more sense to me than having uneven heat in the pans and all of that. Plus, the amount of energy and time that it takes to heat up the French top wasn't worth it. That's where I segued into the teppen yaki, then decided I really wanted to cook on induction and changed my plan to half induction, half gas, no specialty units. I have no trouble using a cast iron plate for anything I'd have been using the teppan yaki or a plancha for, and the excellent temperature control of the Gaggenau induction and Wolf gas handles anything I would have done on the French Top. Much less romance, lots of utility. Just offering my experience as a check. If you have the space and want the romance, by all means go for it! I LOVE my fridge drawers. They're the one don't really need it toy I just had to have. I had wanted fridge drawers in my prep area since I first saw some. Mine are Marvel. The best feature is the depth of the bottom drawer, which holds standing opened wine bottles. I also had the sense that they had more usable space than the other 24" units I'd seen. The worst feature is that they're loud when they cycle. Not a bother when the rest of the kitchen is running, but a bit shocking if one is sitting quietly. I also adore the Gaggenau combi-steam. I hate blanching and steaming the old fashioned way. Just tossing them in, and being able to check progress and pop them back and all of it is just wonderful. The regenerate setting is amazing. You put in a plate of cold leftovers all made up, and it comes out with everything warm, and nothing overcooked, shriveled, or petrified. I mostly use it for steaming vegetables and as a secondary oven when I'm making several mains, but my kitchen isn't completely finished, so I haven't gotten into a lot of experimenting, yet.

advisor: I am not sure about your post but I will respond. I talked at length with Al when I got my Caldera. My DS and DIL both graduated from NECI and used Caldera at the culinary school. It is how I found out about the product. They are made perfectly and perform year in and year out flawlessly. They are extremely well made and make all other expensive brands look pale in comparison. People are paying huge bucks for Blue Star and Culinarian and French brands and my made in the USA gas cooktop out performs them in all ways. Of course this is my opinion only based on the performance we have had and the skilled chefs we have using the equipment and of course the perfect food we prepare year in and year out...look at the pics ! You are wrong on all counts concerning no grilling or high heat/pro cooking. You are also wrong about the venting. The lowest speed is so quiet and powerful on the Tradewind that we use it for everything but the stirfry and grilling. For those we use medium. The point of " more than you need" in cfm's is due to the law of physics that causes the air to actually recirculate and come back of you have too much turbulence in the duct, this can happen on high. So you get more than you need and use it on slightly less....the cost of more cfm's is actually very little and this solves all ventilation problems. dee: you are correct about an inline silencer...they are cheap and work perfectly, I have one. But you are wrong about the hugely expensive Blue Star and Culinarian. It is way overprices and not needed. If a person gets the Caldera , which is still available and a good double oven they will do so well. Have work areas in 2 different places and way way less money. JMHO....c

We had a Thermador range with an integrated downdraft for about 14 years, in the peninsula. I liked the arrangement so well that we kept the location of the stove, refrigerator and sink for the remodel. We also kept the Thermador to use in the new kitchen. That was not a good idea. The stove had problems almost immediately when it was reinstalled. The downdraft was doing fine. Now we had a real problem. We had to replace the stove, but finding one that would fit was a problem. That wasn't the biggest problem for us. We thought we were going to have to install a hood. Our kitchen is at the end of a long room and I remember how I hated the overhead suspended cabinets that were in the original kitchen. I just didn't want something hanging from the ceiling and destroying the view. Since we are old, we wanted a range with a self cleaning oven. It was hard to find one with our specifications that would fit into the space designed for the new kitchen. We bought a Dacor range with a Dacor downdraft. These are separate units. I love the range and the downdraft works perfectly, for us. Long story to get to the point. When the new stove and downdraft were installed, the installers left the vent pipe with the opening upside down on a piece of wood under the house. That mean the downdraft did not work correctly. We could not figure out the problem, so my husband crawled into the crawl space and took pictures. I guess they figured old people would never figure this out. We had to hire another company to redo the venting. They took the vent pipe straight out to the side with no turns. It works perfectly. It even vents the steam from my rice cooker that is on the counter next to the stove. My point is that if installed correctly, a downdraft works.