Question: "How do I vent cooking smells from a cooktop when I can't vent upward?"

Answer: Cooktops are not considered full-fledged stoves. The poor, lowly cooktop is lacking the attached oven, but most importantly, it usually does not have a vent hood built over it. What's the solution? A downdraft cooktop is the cure.

If you have your stove in a kitchen island, then you most likely have a cooktop. A cooktop is just a flat stove - nothing else.

However, the way to vent offending cooking smells, smoke, and steam out of the house is to send them through a circuitous route:

• Smoke leaves pan - goes up.
• Downdraft element sucks in down.
• Smoke continues down until it hits a bend in the tube.
• Smoke makes a turn and travels horizontal...out a vent in the side of the house.

Downdraft cooktops are better than having no venting system, but hardly better than having a hood exhaust system. If you can afford it, and don't mind the aesthetic implications, a hood exhaust suspended over your kitchen island will do a far better job of removing odors.