Mary - I use the Slim in 6 tapes, although not as often as they say, and find them very effective. There's a whole message board with real people who use it. You'll hear the good, the bad and the ugly! Basically, the truth and not just what they want you to hear in an infomercial. Overall it's a very good program; as in most, you get out of it what you put into it! Here's a link to it. Here is a link that might be useful: Beachbody Slim in 6

We replaced our near 18 y.o. Mitsubishi in 2010 with a new Mr. Slim. Haven't got the model # handy but it's the one that runs from about 4400 btu up to 22,000 btu as required. (it's a cooling only model) . It works really well and is very quiet inside. The outside unit is virtually silent making no noise whatsoever so putting it on or near a patio is no problem whatsoever. You can't hear the fan and you can't hear the compressor at all. How they do it I don't know. However there are two things I don't like about it and you may want to consider depending on where you place the indoor unit. To clean the filters the front opens upwards like a hatchback and you may need a ladder to get them out and replace. They slide in on a curved rail.. Our old Mitsubishi I could just reach up and they slid straight down . Now it's a chore because our unit is located above the stairwell going upstairs and a ladder is a necessity and a bugger to position in front of the stairway It's also needed the blower fan in the indoor unit cleaned each summer because so much dust and dirt accumulated on the vanes that it couldn't get up to top speed.. For some reason the filters just don't filter even though they're installed correctly. Air just seems to get around them from the sides or something.. It costs about $150 to have the tech come and clean that out. If I'd known about this at the start I probably would have bought another brand. It cost about $1000 more than the other brands but had a better warranty and that sort of sold me plus the fact that the previous one had lasted so long.. but those filters are a downfall.

For all intents and purposes, your range is definitely an "island" or "peninsula" range. The half-wall will help a bit, but the majority of the effluent will still be in the open. Regarding the wall, it should be at least 9" thick -- that's the bare minimum you should have behind any open range or cooktop. If those are stairs directly behind the range, then I would be very careful about skimping on ventilation -- people going up/coming down will have anything not caught by your hood in their faces -- think billowing steam from boiling water, smoke from any browning/frying, splattering grease, etc. I'm with you on no downdraft -- they're better than nothing at all, but not much better! (Experience speaking!) They only work for items right up next to the fan -and- shorter than the top of the fan by several inches! They're also loud! (See that item in the video above -- tiny and short! Did you also notice in the video that even at the highest speed not all the steam was captured - quite a bit escaped above the fan? If that were a typical pot -- say 8 quarts or 12 quarts, even more would escape!) Regarding the need for venting...there are two primary things that affect what you need for venting: the type of cooking you do and the type of cooking appliance. Cooking is the most important with appliance second. If you do any grilling, you will need a very effective and much larger/stronger hood. If you fry, stir fry, brown meat, etc., you will need a good hood If you just steam or boil water, you will need a good hood, but the fan may not have to be as strong. Gas, especially high BTUs, will need better venting b/c of fumes and higher heat "Regular" electric still has heat, but not the gas fumes Induction does not introduce added heat from the burners, but there is still heat from the food -- much less heat overall, though BTW...others are correct, it's more expensive to vent in an open space like your situation than when against the wall. The hood is more expensive b/c it has to be finished on all 4 sides Venting can often be more difficult -- having to go up, turn a corner, and go out an exterior wall (be careful about venting through the roof) You need a bigger and stronger hood b/c you have more and stronger air currents that will make capturing the FOGSS (fumes, odors, grease, steam, smoke) more difficult....plus anything missed will quickly spread throughout the home. The lack of cabinets flanking the hood and a back wall to help corral the FOGSS is also an issue. So, how to minimize the impact since you are dead set on having the range in that location. First suggestion: Would you be wiling to leave part of the wall up? Say the width of the range + 9" to 12"? That would give you a wall to help your hood work better and to cut down on the FOGSS spreading. The hood size won't be as big an issue as well. Keep in mind that you spend far less time standing in front of your range cooking than you think -- only about 10% of your time. The rest of the time is spent prepping at counters & sink next to or across from the range (about 70%). (The other 20% is spent cleaning up -- at the cleanup sink, wiping down table & counter, loading/unloading the DW, etc.) Sizing of Hood: Width...The hood should be at least 6" wider than your cooking surface. So, for a 30" range, the hood should be at least 36" wide. This provides an extra 3" on each side. FOGGS do not just rise, they also expand as they rise. Since you don't have cabinets and a wall stopping the expansion, your hood definitely needs to be wider. (I might even consider 12" wider since it's going to be so open.) If your hood were against a wall with cabs flanking the hood, then 6" wider would be sufficient. Depth (front to back)...The hood should be 27" deep for the same reason as the width above. If your hood were against the wall, then it would only need to be 24" deep. Height...you want the hood to be able to corral the FOGSS for expelling to the outside, so the taller the hood body is, the better. Fan...I would go for at least 600cfms. Note: You might need makeup air (MUA). Some municipalities are starting to require MUA. I know you don't want something so big, but if you really want the range in the open, then one of the consequences is the need for better/bigger venting.

I find the search function as well as using google for searches is very variable. Sometimes I can find a thread or reference but too many times it is a frustration. I do appreciate all these threads where the real people are recommending products they have actually used. I have one to share- I don't think it was suggested on the forums but I had seen it on Shark Tank- and it really solved a problem for us. We needed to hang curtain rod over sliding patio door in walk out basement. Since it has a dropped ceiling, there is not good clearance between the molding of the door and the ceiling- this took less than 5 minutes for my (unhandy) DH to do. KWIK HANG Curtain Brackets